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    Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man
    Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man
    Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man
    Audiobook3 hours

    Amateur: A True Story About What Makes a Man

    Written by Thomas Page McBee

    Narrated by Thomas Page McBee

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    *Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction
    *Shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award
    *Shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize

    One of The Times UK’s Best Memoirs of 2018, BuzzFeed’s Best Nonfiction of 2018, Autostraddle’s Best LGBT Books of 2018, and 52 Insight’s Favorite Nonfiction Books of 2018

    A “no-holds-barred examination of masculinity” (BuzzFeed) and violence from award-winning author Thomas Page McBee.

    In this “refreshing and radical” (The Guardian) narrative, Thomas McBee, a trans man, sets out to uncover what makes a man—and what being a “good” man even means—through his experience training for and fighting in a charity boxing match at Madison Square Garden. A self-described “amateur” at masculinity, McBee embarks on a wide-ranging exploration of gender in society, examining sexism, toxic masculinity, and privilege. As he questions the limitations of gender roles and the roots of masculine aggression, he finds intimacy, hope, and even love in the experience of boxing and in his role as a man in the world. Despite personal history and cultural expectations, “Amateur is a reminder that the individual can still come forward and fight” (The A.V. Club).

    “Sharp and precise, open and honest,” (Women’s Review of Books), McBee’s writing asks questions “relevant to all people, trans or not” (New York Newsday). Through interviews with experts in neuroscience, sociology, and critical race theory, he constructs a deft and thoughtful examination of the role of men in contemporary society. Amateur is a graceful and uncompromising look at gender by a fearless, fiercely honest writer.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateAug 14, 2018
    ISBN9781508267430
    Author

    Thomas Page McBee

    Thomas Page McBee was the first transgender man to ever box in Madison Square Garden. He is the author of Amateur and an award-winning memoir, Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness, and Becoming a Man, which was named a best book of 2014 by NPR Books, BuzzFeed, Kirkus Reviews, and Publishers Weekly. Thomas’s writing has appeared in The Rumpus, Pacific Standard, The New York Times, Playboy, and Glamour.

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    Reviews for Amateur

    4.5/5

    95 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      In his memoir AMATEUR, Thomas Page McBee tackles the masculinity crisis and toxic masculinity, drawing from his own experiences as a trans man. McBee's insights complement the works of both Julia Serano and Brené Brown. If you're like me and the thought of reading about boxing makes your eyes glaze over, don't worry - it's honestly not too bad, and he connects it to broader, truly important points. This was so compelling that I listened to the audiobook straight through. Even though I was left feeling grieved at the end, I also had a lot of points to mull over, things I'd never considered before. AMATEUR is the kind of book that sparks compassion, encourages discussion, and effects change. 

      4 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      “If being “feminine” is the opposite of being a man, then many qualities that Americans associate with women (such as empathy, which shows up in boys as well as girls) are not just frowned upon, but destroyed in boyhood. “You’re only a man by not being a woman,” Way told me. “That’s basing someone’s humanness on someone else’s dehumanization.”

      This short and thoughtful book is both a memoir of a transgender man, and his burgeoning understanding of what it means to be a man in the US. During his journey to learn what masculinity really means, he began going to a boxing gym, and I enjoyed the juxtaposition of his boxing experience with theoretical discussions on masculinity. It really made me think of what masculinity means, how do i view it, and how is that vision skewed by my experience as a woman living as the gender I was assigned at birth.

      I have not read any non-fiction books regarding the lived experiences of transgender people, but this short book was a good way to start that learning journey. Highly recommend

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This book is a heart grabbing road map, to get you from “how the hell do we even begin” to “oh, I can do that.” I am navigating what it looks like to be a mom of trans kids. I often feel so scared of so many issues that you touched on about masculinity and being a “real man.” I can’t wait to share this with both of my book clubs.
    • 4/5
      Round One

      In his training for the fight in a charity match at Madison Square Garden, McBee joined the Church Boxing Gym. It is in downtown Manhattan and in underground down several flights of stairs. There are several rings in the room and it is covered with posters of fighters long forgotten. It is a place that oozes testosterone, echoes to the sound of people working out and sparring and the aroma of stale sweat permeates the place.

      Round Two

      Mangual and the other guys training him admired his energy and enthusiasm and were fully behind him for this match. Thomas Page McBee was learning how to punch, how to get hit, when to defend and when to strike. Every time he entered the ring he learnt a little more about what makes a man, what makes them resort to a physical way of dealing with issues and why some sorts of masculinity were toxic. But McBee had not been completely open with those training him; when they said he had balls facing the other guys in the ring, it turns out that he didn’t.

      Round Three

      Because McBee was trans. After a lifetime of being, but not feeling female and having had surgery and testosterone and hormones that he started at the age of 30, he finally got a new birth certificate at the age of 31 declaring the sex he always knew he was. But there is more depth to this book than just his personal journey across the gender divide. He uses it to ask wider questions as to why men are as they are, how women’s perception of him changed and how culture and stereotypes should not always define who we are or who we aim to be.