Life isn't Binary

This book by Meg-John Barker & Alex Iantaffi seeks to dismantle the binary - the binary what? Exactly. The binary many things, perhaps aspiring even to everything. Taking sexuality & gender as a starting point, the authors go on to apply holistic thinking to a range of fields with startling results.

   We proceed in six straightforward chapters:

1. Sexuality - like, bi people exist, hello
2. Gender - like, non-binary people exist, hey
3. Relationships - questioning the dividing line between monogamous or not, or friend & partner, us & them, etc
4. Bodies - questioning the dividing line between different races, health or disability status, fatness, etc
5. Emotions - encouraging us to be more self-perceptive, as dichotomies like sane/mad or rational/emotional have hitherto constrained our feelings
6. Thinking - encouraging us to be more fluid-minded, as harsh opposites like good/bad & right/wrong have dominated historically

   Alongside the discussion in the main text, each chapter is supplemented with a few little features that really add to the reading experience - such as thought experiments, where the authors encourage you to thinkingly imagine your way through something; or quotes from real people (other than the authors) talking about their experiences relating to whatever the chapter's about. These additions do a lot to make the text more engaging & practical.

   Sadly this is another one of those books where the people I think most need to read it are also the people least likely to. Humans are stubborn creatures - we don't like being shown we're wrong, we don't like learning that entails unlearning too. But this book would be an eye-opener to people trapped in binary thinking patterns, so if you're more amenable to non-binary sensibilities I would recommend reading this to furnish yourself with better points to use in discussion with the people who really need to read it.