Margins
Sissy book cover
Sissy
A Coming-of-Gender Story
2019
First Published
4.06
Average Rating
333
Number of Pages

A heart-wrenching, eye-opening, and giggle-inducing memoir about what it's like to grow up not sure if you're (a) a boy, (b) a girl, (c) something in between, or (d) all of the above. From the moment a doctor in Raleigh, North Carolina, put "male" on Jacob Tobia's birth certificate, everything went wrong. Alongside "male" came many other, far less neutral words: words that carried expectations about who Jacob was and who Jacob should be, words like "masculine" and "aggressive" and "cargo shorts" and "SPORTS!" Naturally sensitive, playful, creative, and glitter-obsessed, as a child Jacob was given the label "sissy." In the two decades that followed, "sissy" joined forces with "gay," "trans," "nonbinary," and "too-queer-to-function" to become a source of pride and, today, a rallying cry for a much-needed gender revolution. Through revisiting their childhood and calling out the stereotypes that each of us have faced, Jacob invites us to rethink what we know about gender and offers a bold blueprint for a healed world—one free from gender-based trauma and bursting with trans-inclusive feminism. From Jacob's Methodist childhood and the hallowed halls of Duke University to the portrait-laden parlors of the White House, Sissy takes you on a gender odyssey you won't soon forget. Writing with the fierce honesty, wildly irreverent humor, and wrenching vulnerability that have made them a media sensation, Jacob shatters the long-held notion that people are easily sortable into "men" and "women." Sissy guarantees that you'll never think about gender—both other people's people's and your own—the same way again.

Avg Rating
4.06
Number of Ratings
7,060
5 STARS
37%
4 STARS
40%
3 STARS
17%
2 STARS
4%
1 STARS
1%
goodreads

Author

Jacob Tobia
Jacob Tobia
Author · 3 books
Jacob Tobia (they/them) is an actor, writer, producer, and author of the national bestselling memoir Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story. From running across the Brooklyn Bridge in high heels to giving Trevor Noah an on-air makeover on The Daily Show, Jacob helps others embrace the full complexity of their gender, even (and especially) when it’s messy as hell. In addition to adapting their book Sissy into a forthcoming TV series for Showtime, Jacob recently made their acting debut as the nonbinary character “Double Trouble” on Netflix’s She-Ra and The Princesses of Power. Originally from Raleigh, North Carolina, Jacob currently lives in Los Angeles.
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