Transgender Warriors

In Transgender Warriors, Leslie Feinberg sets out to provide a history of gender identities and expressions that go beyond the strict man/woman binary. Creating this history is important because many transgender, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming people are unaware of their place in a very long history. Feinberg claims that when humans were organized into small hunter-gatherer societies before the advent of settled agriculture, anti-trans biases did not exist and people accepted gender variance as a normal part of life. She gives many historical examples to back up this claim, including evidence of ancient transgender priestesses, societies that used to (or still do) recognize third-gender categories, and deities that are not easily defined as male or female. Once class differences became more pronounced, those in charge demonized transgender individuals to divide people and ensure their own control. Sometimes, people like Joan of Arc pushed back against this gender essentialism, with the support of the working-class populace.

The evidence that Feinberg presents does indeed demonstrate that transgender people (to use the term broadly) have always existed. It also demonstrates that various societies have had unique ways of understanding and codifying gender.