Gender Failure

Summary

In addition to a Free Quiz on Gender Failure by Coyote, Ivan, this comprehensive literature review includes quotes from work.

This study guide was produced using the following edition of the book: Coyote, Ivan E., and Rae Spoon. Women’s Failure. 2014; Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press

Each chapter of Gender Failure’s 36 chapters is written from the first-person perspectives of either Ivan or Rae. Rae has the even chapters, whereas Ivan has the odd chapters. The chapters are divided into seven divisions for the sake of this guide, with many branches in each component. Two chapters in Part 1 are named “Introduction,” the first from Ivan’s perspective and the second from Rae’s. Ivan describes how they initially collaborated with Rae and says that they underwent top surgery. Ivan and Rae both use the pronoun “they.” Rae explains that they have given up on gender because they have been unsuccessful at it since they were young.

Female Failure

Chapters “Girl Failure,” “Girl Failure,” “Rosie,” “God Failure,” “Listing My Sisters,” and “Cowboy” are found in Part 2. Ivan mentions their junior high school buddy Janine and how they overheard her talking about their genitalia in the first “Girl Failure.” Rae also discusses junior high and escaping from female dancing gym class in the second “Girl Failure.” Ivan describes meeting a transgender woman named Rosie, who becomes a close friend in “Rosie.” In “God Failure,” Rae recalls how they rejected the gendered teachings while growing up in the Pentecostal church and realized they might be gay. Ivan discusses remembering trans people who have passed away and their stories in “Listing My Sisters.” Ivan talks about Rosie’s life and passing. Rae discusses how having harsh cowboy uncles as a child affected their lives and music in the song “Cowboy.”

Chapters “The Rest of My Chest,” “Prairie Gender,” “Gender Identity Interview for Adults (FtM) Questionnaire,” “Man Failure, Part 1,” “Thirteen Inches, Uncut,” and “Man Failure, Part 2” are all included in Part 3. Ivan talks about their decision to have breast surgery after 19 years of breast binding in “The Rest of My Chest.” In “Prairie Gender,” Rae talks about her childhood in Calgary’s small-town prairie and the harsh burdens she saw placed on women. Ivan’s “Gender Identity Interview for Adults (FtM) questionnaire” is a list of the inquiries Ivan was required to respond to when he asked for top surgery. In “Man Failure, Part 1,” Rae talks about beginning to identify as more than simply a woman and trying a lesbian club but giving up after getting rejected by the customers. Ivan describes their initial appointment to the plastic surgeon for their double mastectomy in “Thirteen Inches, Uncut.”