Many months have gone by since the publication of this handsome and groundbreaking anthology, and is is time to declare it a true classic, having passed the test of time, the test truly exacting, the test that makes sense. The articles are still as timely and fresh as the day they were written. On the topic of passing, Mattilda (a/k/a Matt Bernstein Sycamore) is often eloquent, while stretching the topic into unexpected places to such a degree that the often elastic word comes to have little or no connection with the activity it once used to denote. In a way, this book is a more progressive and activist sequel to Brooke Kroeger's standard-bearing study PASSING: WHEN PEOPLE CAN"T BE WHO THEY ARE. "Passing"---the search to be what you're not---has gotten a bad press over the years, and Kroeger's book was one of the first to make us challenge our assumptions regarding this taboo topic.
In a similar vein, Mattilda assembles a cross section of profiles of young contemporary Americans, supplementing extensive interviews with expert comment. In the background of NOBODY PASSES we experience, as though a shadow had crossed the sun, the tragic tales of "passing" as that of Brandon Teena, the drifter whose murder became the basis for the film "Boys Don't Cry." Mattilda's book urges to ask the question, Aren't we all "passing" in one way or another? She musters scholarly and theoretical sources to support her speculations on identity and authenticity, and even dares to ask, why are we doing this? What market are we being offered up to satisfy?
Why is eros shaped the way it is? Why do some pass the test (the other test, not the test of time) and others fail, condemned into a limbo of "quirky" and deprived of the rights accorded other citizens with more money. Gender reassignment is just one way in which the staus quo is seized with a desire to smooth every bump away. Other prejudices must be battled daily. Some of the writers aren't as skilled as others, but that's just a fact of life and it doesn't mean they don't have fascinating things to say. "We're jaded, shaded, judged every day by everyone else's eyes, given pass or fail," writes Jen Cross, "a glance over, an examination." Unlearning oneself may be the only way out, that, and organized mass action. Your identity may not be the same as mine, but you will learn to respect mine, and your own, after you read through the challenging and controversial essays in this book.