Amateur A True Story About What Makes a Man

Description

Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction In this

groundbreaking new book, Thomas Page McBee, a trans man, trains to fight in

a charity match at Madison Square Garden while struggling to untangle the

vexed relationship between masculinity and violence. Through his experience

of boxing – learning to get hit, and to hit back; wrestling with the

camaraderie of the gym; confronting the betrayals and strength of his own

body – McBee examines the weight of male violence, the pervasiveness of

gender stereotypes and the limitations of conventional masculinity. A wide-

ranging exploration of gender in our society, Amateur is ultimately a story

of hope, as McBee traces a way forward: a new masculinity, inside the ring

and out of it. A graceful and uncompromising exploration of living,

fighting and healing, in Amateur we gain insight into the stereotypes and

shifting realities of masculinity today through the eyes of a new man.