Brown/Trans/Les - BookWyrm Underscore

eBook

English language

Published Jan. 26, 2026 by Independently published.

"Talia Bhatt's Trans/Rad/Fem is like a shot of ice-cold aqvavit and a roundhouse slap to the face. Read it." - Sandy Stone, foundational scholar of the field of Transgender Studies

How does one articulate a cohesive 'feminism' in a culture whose most-spoken language lacks a word for 'misogyny'?

In Trans/Rad/Fem, radical transfeminist Talia Bhatt attempted to provide a thorough, materialist framework for understanding the oppression of trans women particularly and all queer people generally as a facet of patriarchal misogyny. A key facet of that oppression is epistemicide, the totalizing erasure of knowledge, language, and history in order to prevent the marginalized from so much as being able to conceptualize, let alone articulate, the terms of their oppression.

Transmisogyny is far from the only force that is animated by epistemic injustice, however. Few cultures illustrate the truth of that assertion better than the land of Bhatt's birth, …

"Talia Bhatt's Trans/Rad/Fem is like a shot of ice-cold aqvavit and a roundhouse slap to the face. Read it." - Sandy Stone, foundational scholar of the field of Transgender Studies

How does one articulate a cohesive 'feminism' in a culture whose most-spoken language lacks a word for 'misogyny'?

In Trans/Rad/Fem, radical transfeminist Talia Bhatt attempted to provide a thorough, materialist framework for understanding the oppression of trans women particularly and all queer people generally as a facet of patriarchal misogyny. A key facet of that oppression is epistemicide, the totalizing erasure of knowledge, language, and history in order to prevent the marginalized from so much as being able to conceptualize, let alone articulate, the terms of their oppression.

Transmisogyny is far from the only force that is animated by epistemic injustice, however. Few cultures illustrate the truth of that assertion better than the land of Bhatt's birth, a nation dogged by internal contradictions and fractious violence along the lines of caste, class, religion, nationality, and more, before even considering the matter of sex.

In this text, Bhatt attempts to reckon with the sheer scale and magnitude of the challenge that her motherland poses, and asks: is it even possible to articulate something akin to "desi feminism" or "Third World Feminism" without flattening, homogenizing, and simplifying the ills of a land ravaged by forces as disparate as colonialism, communal violence, and homegrown theocratic fascism? The answer, she hopes, is "yes".

1 edition

No Never reviewed Brown/Trans/Les by Talia Bhatt (Essays on Transfeminism, #2)

Great followup to T/R/F

4 stars

Enjoyed this book, foremost because I am a total sucker for these pointedly spelled out rants Talia puts out. This one touches more on recent feminist developments and, often, letdowns than the first book, and I enjoyed seeing some vague frustrations I've had myself spelled out far better than I could have done. I feel like I gotta follow this up with diving into some of the topics of the book, because the ranting style I'm such a fan of expectedly doesn't always do that well on nuance. Some of the parts that focused on analyzing media I didn't know lost me a little, but that's fine, and I would (and will) recommend this book, or the individual essays, to anyone with at least some interest into feminist discourse, even if it's just to get angry about things she writes here and hopefully spell out why (seriously, I have been …

Enjoyed this book, foremost because I am a total sucker for these pointedly spelled out rants Talia puts out. This one touches more on recent feminist developments and, often, letdowns than the first book, and I enjoyed seeing some vague frustrations I've had myself spelled out far better than I could have done. I feel like I gotta follow this up with diving into some of the topics of the book, because the ranting style I'm such a fan of expectedly doesn't always do that well on nuance. Some of the parts that focused on analyzing media I didn't know lost me a little, but that's fine, and I would (and will) recommend this book, or the individual essays, to anyone with at least some interest into feminist discourse, even if it's just to get angry about things she writes here and hopefully spell out why (seriously, I have been actively searching for criticism of the points Talia Bhatt makes and all I found so far was very shallow online drama stuff and/or vibes based, so if anyone has thoughts or links I'd appreciate critiques).