Published in 2019
240 pages
Alex Iantaffi, PhD, MS, SEP, CST, LMFT is a certified sex therapist, family therapist, Somatic Experiencing practitioner, clinical supervisor, writer and independent scholar. They are adjunct faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Stout and the chair elect for the Trans and Queer interest network of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. They were the Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Sexual and Relationship Therapy for eleven years and have researched, presented and published extensively on gender, disability, sexuality, relationships, and HIV. Alex is passionate about healing justice and community-based and engaged scholarship. They are a trans masculine, nonbinary, bi queer, disabled, Italian immigrant who has been living on Dakota and Anishinaabe territories, currently known as Minneapolis, MN (US) since 2008. Alex has co-authored the books How to Understand Your Gender: a practical guide for exploring who you are and‚ Life Isn’t Binary, with Meg-John Barker. They host the podcast Gender Stories.
Meg-John Barker is a writer, writing mentor, creative consultant, speaker, and independent scholar. They have written a number of anti self-help books on the topics of relationships, sex, and gender, as well as the graphic non-fiction books, Queer: A Graphic History and Gender: A Graphic Guide, and the book The Psychology of Sex. They are the writer of the relationships book and blog Rewriting the Rules. Barker has written and/or edited some of the first academic collections on open non-monogamy, bisexuality, non-binary gender and BDSM. They were editor of the journal Psychology & Sexuality from 2010 to 2017, and lead author of The Bisexuality Report and the BACP document on Gender, Sexual, and Relationship Diversity.
Barker holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of Nottingham, and worked for two decades as an academic psychologist at the Open University in the United Kingdon, and as a psychotherapist specialising in sex, gender, and relationships.
What is this book about?
Challenging society’s rigid and binary ways of thinking, this original work shows the limitations that binary thinking has regarding our relationships, wellbeing sense of identity and more. Explaining how we can think and act in a less rigid manner, this fascinating book shows how life isn’t binary.
Much of society’s thinking operates in a highly rigid and binary manner; something is good or bad, right or wrong, a success or a failure, and so on. Challenging this limited way of thinking, this ground-breaking book looks at how non-binary methods of thought can be applied to all aspects of life, and offer new and greater ways of understanding ourselves and how we relate to others.
Using bisexual and non-binary gender experiences as a starting point, this book addresses the key issues with binary thinking regarding our relationships, bodies, emotions, wellbeing and our sense of identity and sets out a range of practices which may help us to think in more non-binary, both/and, or uncertain ways.
A truly original and insightful piece, this guide encourages reflection on how we view and understand the world we live in and how we all bend, blur or break society’s binary codes.
