1. Beyond Baby X 2. A Genealogy of Feminist Parenting Praxis 3. Gender-Open Aspirations 4. Interrupting Gender Attribution in Practice 5. Negotiating Gender with Theybies 6. Beyond Theybies 7. Conclusions and Recommendations Appendices References Index.
Biography
Milo Chesnut completed a PhD in Education exploring gender-open parenting at the University of Strathclyde, UK. They are a nonbinary trans researcher and educator who is part of the theyby parent community.
“Theyby Parenting: From Gender-Neutral to Gender-Open is an innovative and important contribution to trans and non-binary studies, and to scholarship in the areas of gender, sexuality, family, feminism, social movements, education and identity. The book is accessible, empirically rich and theoretically engaged. It will be of interest to anyone concerned with gender self-determination and diversity.”
Surya Monro, Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at Loughborough University, UK
"Written and researched by a compassionate, clear-eyed and expert insider, Milo Chesnut’s book offers a powerful and timely portrait of a movement that insists on the possibility and importance of gender-diverse children and people in the world, one baby at a time, while documenting the struggles faced by its members. Crucially, when trans life is today under attack by an unlikely anti-gender coalition of social conservative forces from the right and “gender-critical” feminists from the left, Chesnut situates theyby parenting firmly within the rich history of feminist and non-sexist parenting, refusing a divide between the interests of the cisgender women and transgender people that many babies become, as all are beset by gender pressures. Speaking back to reductionist descriptions of theyby and other gender diversity-affirming parenting as ‘boutique’ or overly privileged, Chesnut compellingly differentiates theyby parenting from the intensive parenting increasingly common in middle- and upper-class families by showing how theyby parents leverage their capital (where applicable) to benefit the wider community, loosening the gender binary for all children. At the same time, Chesnut finds and beautifully theorizes the challenges theyby parents face, including but not limited to the ongoing labour required to push back against an all-powerful binary gender system in the family, at school and in society. However, the book yields many possible pathways toward collective futures where gender falls less heavily on people of all ages."
Lee Airton, Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies in Education at Queen’s University, Canada
