kyatic's Reviews (974)

Amateur is a memoir, written by McBee after becoming the first trans man to box at Madison Square Garden. Covering both his training for the fight (no spoilers as to the outcome!) and why exactly he felt so compelled to fight in the first place, the book explores constructions of masculinity and maleness in the context of structured violence as an acceptably male emotional outlet.

I have to be honest, a lot of the actual boxing stuff went in one ear and out the other, and I definitely found myself putting this down for a few hours when the boxing stuff got too dull for me, but McBee has a very clever eye for observation, and his experiences of moving between worlds of male privilege and transgender oppression is genuinely eye-opening.

McBee has another memoir which is more focused on being trans, whereas this one is more focused on ideas of manhood and masculinity and reconciling one’s desire to be viewed as male in a world which rewards negative traits and calls them masculine. A really different take on the increasingly popular genre of transgender memoirs.