Thought on ‘Nobody Passes’

So, I’ve been reading Nobody Passes, by Mattilda AKA Matt Bernstein Sycamore. I’m planning a proper review of the book for The F-Word, but it has sparked some interesting ideas for me - which are more divergent from than about the collection, so I really need a separate place to voice them.

First off, I was surprised (although I’m not sure why), how many of the essayists express doubts about claiming parts of their own identity; about their own authenticity.

Stephanie Abraham’s ‘No longer just American’ is absolutely typical - brought up in a household where no-one even said the word “Arab”, she hesitates before identifying as Arab American. Nico Dacumos’ ‘All mixed up with no place to go: inhabiting mixed consciousness on the margins’ (the opening and easily the best essay so far, bearing in mind I’ve not finished it), opens up some similar dialogue.

Perhaps this is all very obvious, but it chimes strongly with my own experience. For example, I feel fraudulent when I say I am Jewish - I was brought up with only minor contact with the religion, by atheists, and can count the number of times I’ve been to the synagogue on my fingers; no one has ever looked at me and assumed I’m Jewish - but denying it? Even worse. When my family story traces distant and not-so-distant persecution and exile? What of claiming my bisexuality, nine years into a relationship? What of the times I don’t claim it?

There was a paragraph in the book which gave me pause for thought about the way I do my (day) job as a reporter, as well. So, in the essay on ‘The end of genderqueer’, the writer notes a small moment in an interview with JT Leroy, in which the journalist asks: “Do you consider yourself male or female?”

The response to this is: “We know now that JT himself is a work of art, but I idn’t ccare about that either, because I was just so happy to see the way media representation of gender has shifted toward allowing self-determination.”

Well, being a journalist by trade, this speaks pretty directly to how I do my job. So, my beat does not cover gender issues, it covers the environment and finance - but is the requirement to ask these questions, and specifically allow interviewees to self-define, rather than making assumptions, just confined to stories which are directly about gender?

Anyway, these are unformed and perhaps obvious thoughts, and they seem a lot more prosaic when I write them down. Perhaps I’ll revisit this post when it comes time to do the proper review.