Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1309187 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 300 pages

Customer Reviews

Anaylsis of the Binary Gender System and Who Benefits
The reviewer who claimed that Califia thinks that transexuals should not exist or change their bodies clearly did not read the book. Not only does she protect transexuals, transgenders and gender misfits in general, she praises transsexual Kate Bornstien lavishly, calling her brave, beautiful and brilliant.

What Califia does is question the binary categorization of gender, given that humanity is expressed on a spectrum of gender expression, not two distinct categories. Why do people feel the need to pathologize those that don't cleanly fit? Is changing our bodies giving in or resisting the binary gender discourse? In her introduction she makes clear that only the individual can decide what gender path to take, and that claims of objectivity in gender research or theory should be viewed skeptically. She ultimately upholds personal choice of gender expression, which is varied, not one-or-the-other, and attacks those who judge, medicalize, and pathologize those of! us who refuse to conform to one box or the other. Her chapter on the gender "scientists" of John Hopkins medical school was brilliant.

Excellent work, as usual, from Pat Califia.

I Couldn't Put this one DOWN!
Literally read the entire thing in one sitting. A good, balanced view of transgender and the gender community at large. My partner is now devouring this book, cover to cover.

Insight is sacrificed to academia & trendy queer politics.
Califia seems to harbor a wish that true transsexuals did not even exist. Her attitude as I read it is that we are all just "queer," each a range of genders, and if everyone would simply get comfortable with the cutting edge of gender play/fluidity/transgression, then no one would feel the need to physically change their sex. This is both absurd and profoundly insulting.

Still, while it fails as an attempt at cultural analysis, the book has some value as an introductory overview of the history of transgender activism and writing. Just brace yourself for the bizarre and irritating misuse of "Nota bene" throughout.