Reviews (2)

Transgender (Studies) Reader
The book arrived promptly. It was needed for a course reserve so the prompt service and delivery were greatly appreciated.

The Essential Text for Trans Issues and Theories.
The depth and breadth of the articles included in this compendium are astounding to say the least. In one large volume the authors have included samples of writings representing the theoretical to the practical and the lived experience in a time line from the 19th century through the present. The Reader gives a sense of our shared history from a wide variety of view points which affirms all of our lives. As a transgendered person and college student, I recommend the The Transgender Reader to anyone looking for clues to our hidden culture and the world we struggle in everyday. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Gay Studies    2. Gender Studies    3. General    4. History: World    5. Social Science    6. Sociology    7. Transsexualism    8. Transsexuals    9. Transvestism    10. History / General   

Reviews (49)

Very good introduction of transsexuals for nearly everyone
Transgendered persons, especially transsexuals, seem to be little understood by most people. There is still widespread ignorance, lack of understanding and prejudice against transsexuals. Some recent movies portraying transsexuals with understanding, empathy and tolerance, such as "Transamerica" and "Normal" should help many people better understand, tolerate and accept transsexuals.
Awsome book overall
My only complaint about this book is that all of the references and background deals with adult transexual people. It would be nice if it were updated with references for children and adolesents. Overall I would highly recommend it. It is comprehensive and well written and provides an excellent knowledge base for the reader.

Best taken with a grain of salt
This book gives a relatively good overall view of transsexualism for people who know nothing about it, but with some serious flaws. The author's descriptions of the experience are based entirely on accounts from therapy clients and her approach is objective, too much so in many regards. She presents outdated information without any genuine effort to refute it, such as the old freudian psycho-model of "gender identity disorder." She also mentions the horrid "treatments" visited on transsexuals, such as "aversion therapy" and "shock treatments" with no mention of their obvious cruel inhumanity. Her statement that we can't "change the brain," is downright sickening, and she presents it as though science should actually strive toward that Stepford Wives solution to transsexualism.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Gender Studies    2. Human Sexuality    3. Psychology    4. Sex change    5. Sociology - General    6. Transsexualism    7. Transsexuals    8. United States    9. Psychology & Psychiatry / Human Sexuality   

Features

• Bargain Price

Reviews (64)

BOOK NOT HERE YET
Tough to review this book SINCE I HAVEN'T RECEIVED IT YET!!

She's not there, an altered view
Complete genesis for this author from family man to SRS and eventual acceptance by friends, employer and family.This was an easy and enjoyable read which makes an interesting case study.(She's not there, Zombies)

Beautiful, Sad, Funny, and True
Jennifer Finney Boylan puts a human face on a condition that many of us only know from TV or other stories. Her memior is truly one of the most engaging, thoughtful, and honest stories I have ever read. As someone who had never given much thought to the transgendered society, I walked away from this book with a new understanding and respect for the bravery in which transgendered people must ultimately possess in order to become who they are supposed to be.
Read more

Subjects:  1. 1958-    2. 20th century    3. Biography    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. Boylan, Jennifer Finney,    8. English teachers    9. Gender Studies    10. Human Sexuality    11. Novelists, American    12. Personal Memoirs    13. Transsexuals    14. United States    15. Biography & Autobiography / General    16. Boylan, Jennifer Finney    17. Reading Group Guide    18. Bargain   

Reviews (7)

A great comfort to trans people and/or loved ones of people who are transgendered.
I believe being born transgendered is not a lifestyle choice, but probably coded in DNA somewhere.This book factually and carefully outlines the facts of life for transgendered people and their loved ones.These short stories will take the reader through a multitude of emotions, but end at one great and comforting thought...the issues can be dealt with and the transgendered themselves, as well as family and friends can come through this with grace.I ordered my copy through PFLAG T-Net and the author herself, sent me a personal note.I am a Christian, but a welcoming Christian who believes that all humans were made in His image. Because we are lucky enough to have come after Jesus Christ AND live at a time of modern medicine, the condition of being transgendered can be treated medically.While I am not transgendered myself, I have a loved one who I think is.I plan on keeping this book in my library and give it to that person when and if the time is right.A must have for anyone who is, cares about a trans person or who is curious about trangenderism.

Too short to provide real insight
Although some of the real life stories contained in this book are interesting, there is not enough detail to really help families work through these issues. It more of a "there are others in the world going through this" type of book, rather than providing any special insights.

The number one first book for families of transgendered
This compilation of40 accounts by the parents, spouses, children, and friends of transgendered individuals (and a few TG themselves) describes reactions from family members as they take the road less traveled toward acceptance of their gender variant relative or friend.Each story is brief - usually only a few pages - but expresses the thoughts and experiences of the individual author.The book is edited by the Chair of the PFLAG Transgender Network, Mary Boenke, MSSA, MA, and mother of an adult FTM transgendered son. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Family & Relationships / Alternative Family    2. Family / Parenting / Childbirth    3. General    4. Social Science / Gay Studies    5. Social Science / Gender Studies    6. Alternative Family    7. Alternative Sexual Behavior    8. Family & Relationships    9. Gay & Lesbian    10. Gay Studies    11. Gender Studies    12. Gender identity    13. Hermaphroditism    14. Sex change    15. Social Science    16. Transsexuals   

Editorial Review

Once you begin reading Read more

Reviews (150)

The most fascinating non-fiction book I've read in years.
Told with compassion and complete objectivity, Colapinto does a fantastic job of revealing the grief experienced by David and his family, a solid understanding of why decisions were made as they were, and why those decisions should never be made in the same way again.

The Agony and the Ecstasy of Psycho-Social Politics
Well researched and well written page turner.Dr. John Money's theories run counter to his own research for his doctoral thesis.But they brought him a lot of research money and acclaim.They brought his victims a lot of heartaches.What the arrogant pride of one research has done to so many children and their families ought to be criminal.Not to mention the gratuitous sexual posturing to which he subjected his young patients.
A compelling account...
"As Nature Made Him" is a good introduction to intersex issues. I was only vaguely familiar with the term when I picked up the book. After reading this and Jeffrey Eugenides's "Middlesex" I feel much better informed. "Nature" tells an engrossing story about twin boys born in Winnipeg in 1965, a time when transgender issues were seldom mentioned. One of the boys, Brian, is steered to gender reassignment surgery after a botched circumcision. His parents fall under the spell of Dr. John Money, of Johns Hopkins in Baltimore,who at the time held largely unchallenged beliefs that gender was purely an environmental construct.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Canada    4. Case studies    5. Gender Studies    6. General    7. Identity    8. Science    9. Science/Mathematics    10. Sex change    11. Specific Groups - Special Needs    12. Transsexuals    13. Psychology & Psychiatry / General    14. Reading Group Guide   

Reviews (2)

A Must for transfolk and their allies
Transgender Rights
The Transgender Movement as social movement
This volume of essays conceives transgender as a global social movement for rights, including discussions of law, politics and economics.It is academic in tone, but much of it is accessible to a lay audience.While its essays are wide-ranging, covering such diverse topics as multiculturalism, disability laws and Argentinian concepts of citizenship, there is, to my mind, a theme to these essays: the social contradictions that arise from the attempts of supposedly liberal Western societies to assimilate transgender identity.The title of Jan Morris's gender transition autobiography, "Conundrum," comes to mind.Paisley Currah's discussion of the transgender movement refers to it as one "that seeks the dissolution of the very category under which it is organized." Judith Butler's article about the psychiatric diagnosis of "gender identity disorder" notes that "the price of using the diagnosis to get what one wants is that one cannot use language to say what one really thinks is true." Dean Spade's critique of political economy and thegender compliance it demands discusses how the movement for gender identity non-discrimination constitutes a strategy of normalization that opposes, rather than furthers, the right of gender self-determination central to liberation.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Civil Rights    2. Gender & the Law    3. Gender Studies    4. Legal status, laws, etc    5. Sex and law    6. Social Science    7. Sociology    8. Transsexuals    9. Human rights    10. Social Science / Gender Studies   

Reviews (3)

Gender Is The Mine Field That We Pass Through Everyday
The American society polarizes the genders in many different and harmful ways. The polarization has roots in our massive merchandising economy, our religions, our fears, our ignorance and more. Males and females are so polarized in our society that it is truly a tragedy. Actually, males and females are very much the same people who have been exposed to various varying hormone baths starting early in the womb. Some of these hormone baths are natural and some are manmade. In simple terms it is testosterone vs. estrogen. We all have both hormones, but in varying concentrations. After birth we make our own hormones based on our genetic codes and on our exposure to environmental factors.
This book highlights the sociopolitical aspect of TG
This book highlights the sociopolitical aspect of transgender.The author says the ultimate solution of transgender is the change of USA's bipolarism society.In Japan, I think the situation is somewhat different.Thebipolarism and homophobia are not so strong.Rather,the phobia for SRS isvery strong.The reason is Japanese think the body is as important as thesoul and cutting off the part of the body is sinful.So , this book alsogave me a chance to think the cultural differences between the twocountries.

Brilliant vision and insight
Packed with information and insight, Transgender Nation challenges the rigid gender norms that victimize people who transgress them, while exposing the mechanism that creates the hate which gets turned againsttransgender people.Her illumination of the emerging transgenderliberation movement is unparalleled and piercing, and the book remains asvisionary today as it was when it was published.A 'must read' for anyonewith an interest in transgender politics, it places the blame for theviolent brutality inflicted on transsexuals, transgenderists andcrossdressers squarely on the narrowness of our cultural gender ideals. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Alternative Sexual Behavior    2. Gender Studies    3. Gender identity disorders    4. History    5. Sex change    6. Social Science    7. Social Science / Gender Studies    8. Sociology    9. Sociology - General    10. Transsexuals    11. United States    12. Sexual behaviour    13. Sociology, Social Studies    14. Transvestism    15. Transvestites   

Reviews (4)

Modern therapeutic guide for gender therapy
Are you - or a family member - considering or beginning male-to-female or female-to-male transition?You should study this book.
CLEAR, COMPREHENSIVE, BRILLIANT, highly readable and useful
"The information contained in this book is SO IMPORTANT THAT NO CLINICIAN CAN AFFORD TO MISS IT. The book offers a clear, comprehensive, and cogent review of the history of the mental health field's thinking about sexuality and gender, and an extraordinarily thoughtful and extensive exploration of assessment and intervention issues with gender-variant people and their families. Lev's knowledge of the subject is phenomenal, and the breadth and clarity of her writing are brilliant. This book lays out an enormous amount of complex material in a highly readable and useful text. . . . BELONGS IN THE LIBRARY OF EVERY PSYCHOTHERAPIST, COUNSELOR, AND HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL." COMPREHENSIVE AND PASSIONATE. . . TERRIFIC. . . LONG OVEDUE
"FINALLY, a book that does justice to the life-changing power of psychotherapy in the transgender coming-out process. I recommend this book to any psychotherapist called to work with transgender clients. I also recommend it to transgender individuals who might benefit from understanding how psychotherapy can play an invaluable role. COMPREHENSIVE AND PASSIONATE. . . . TERRIFIC. . . . LONG OVERDUE." Read more

Subjects:  1. Gender Studies    2. Gender identity disorders    3. Psychology    4. Psychopathology - General    5. Psychotherapy - General    6. Social Science    7. Sociology    8. Transsexualism   

Editorial Review

Leslie Feinberg has been a leader in the transgender rights movement as long as such a movement has existed. This book is both deeply personal and widely researched. Feinberg examines perceptions of the body, the status of clothing, and the structures of societies that welcome or are threatened by gender variance. The portrait gallery that closes the book contains photographs and capsule biographies of contemporary transgendered people. ... Read more

Reviews (20)

Transgender Warriors
Although the sections of this book dealing with contemporary issues are reasonably accurate, many historians have pointed out that the history section desperately needed to have been vetted by someone who studies the subject.
The best text book I've ever read
This book was refreshingly factual and frank.I was blown away by what I read about the history of the trans person - especially Joan of Arc!I am a big fan of this book because it has provided me with enough valuable backup material for my thesis.I have searched high and low for supporting quotes such as those found in Feinberg's writing.BUY THIS BOOK - it will end up like mine, with notes written all over every page and lots of folded pages, kept next to the bed for reading regularly.

Liberation Manifesto
This is a manifesto of transgender liberation.It will be remembered and read for many years to come.As a LGBT person, it really touched me.Some societies have honored us and some have murdered us.It is time for us to rise up and say enough.I will re-read this book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Gay Studies    2. Gay/Lesbian Nonfiction    3. Gender Studies    4. Gender identity    5. History    6. Social Science    7. Sociology    8. Transsexualism    9. Transsexuality    10. Transvestism    11. Gay & Lesbian studies    12. Social Science / Gender Studies   

Editorial Review

It is wonderful and weirdly fitting that one of the jacket blurbs for this work of social anthropology is by sex educator and former porn star Annie Sprinkle. Just as there is nothing dry or remote about Annie Sprinkle's delivery, there is nothing dry or remote about Don Kulick's. In fact, this may be the most readable and engaging study of transgenderism to surface in years. For seven months in 1994, Kulick lived in a household of "travestis"--Brazilian male prostitutes who live as women. He constantly tape-recorded their casual conversations, whether on the street soliciting customers or in their small rooms in the ghettos of Salvador, and has been able to trace the motivations behind their behavior and body modifications with plausibility and compassion. So absorbing are the details of the travestis' lives, as recounted by Kulick, that the reader can easily miss the author's equally acute analysis of their often bizarre transformations and of what travestis, with their exaggerated performance of "femininity," suggest about the construction of gender in Brazil. Read more

Reviews (7)

very graphic
I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked up Travesti. All I knew was that I would be in for a treat just by looking at the cover.Kulick who is an anthropologist who studied the lives transvestites in Brazil as he became friends with them he got all of the inside scoop and included it in his book.He talks about the travestis that come from Italy to do business in Brazil where these things are more acceptable.Some of the people he interviews talk about how they started in the business, they talk about the ups and downs of their jobs. I found some of the stories to be very graphic.The lives of these men are sometimes beyond their choice of living. Some of them believe they were born into it.The stories are very realistic and in some cases tragic.I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone whose clsed minded.However if you find it initeresting to read about the harsh realities of the world then this is the book for you.

O bicho pegou!
I found this book to be very well written and, in several instances, it made me long to return to my anthropological studies at NYU.Had I only been a curious reader I probably would have found this book brilliant, but my reading was shaded by the fact that I personally know many travestis in Salvador (Peruco, Xuxuca, Kit Mahoney, Angelica) and therefore found the exclusion of several things to be particularly odd.
An Excellent Anthropological Work -- Worth the Read
Don Kulick provides an excellent example of anthropologists dealing with the tough issues of gender and sexuality research. He demonstrates how connected anthropologists become to those they study; and further challenges us to consider closeness, concern, and friendship with our informants as methodologies that speak not only to our own humanity as anthropologists but also to the humanity of our communities of study.I have used this book to teach introduction to cultural anthropology course and it is a perfect blend of theory, narrative, and insight which keeps students engaged and asking the difficult questions of conducting cultural anthropological research. I applaud Kulick and thank him immensely for his work!GET A COPY :) ! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Brazil    2. Case studies    3. Gay Studies    4. Gay/Lesbian Nonfiction    5. Gender Studies    6. Human Sexuality    7. Male prostitutes    8. Popular Culture - General    9. Salvador    10. Social Science    11. Sociology    12. Transvestism    13. Transvestites    14. Anthropology    15. Social Science / Gender Studies   

Reviews (1)

Essential Reading for the Human Community
The subtitle for this amazing and long overdue anthology is "True Tales of Sex & Gender Diversity", which pretty well sums up what the book is about. There have been many anthologies published over the years that deal with a range of different issues, but Finding the Real Me is the first volume to tackle the complexities of gender diversity.Read more

Subjects:  1. Alternative Sexual Behavior    2. Biography    3. Gender Psychology    4. Gender Studies    5. Gender identity    6. Human Sexuality    7. Identity    8. Psychology    9. Social Science    10. Sociology    11. Sociology - General    12. Transsexualism    13. Transsexuals    14. Popular psychology    15. Psychology & Psychiatry / Human Sexuality    16. Sex & sexuality    17. Sexual behaviour   

Reviews (15)

A struggle to read
The format of this book makes it real hard to read and detracts greatly from the content. Your eyes have to dart from one side of a page to the other and back again then to the middle.The content is important but on the edge of the spectrum which makes it even more difficult to read at times with the far fetched concepts. I'm not a big fan of this one.

Genderific Food For Thought
A decade ago Al Bornstein underwent genital reconstruction surgery to become Kate Bornstein and soon fell in love with a lesbian who recently had female-to-male surgery.Kate Bornstein's very existence is a defiance of gender labels so it's no wonder it should be the topic of her first book.
Fun and well written
We as a society need to be more sensitive with gender! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1948-    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Bornstein, Kate,    5. Gender Studies    6. Gender identity    7. General    8. Identity    9. Psychology    10. Sex change    11. Sociology    12. Transsexuals    13. Bornstein, Kate    14. Social Science / Gender Studies   

Reviews (15)

A thorough, balanced, helpful look at M2F transgenderism
I am trans, and have read several books on the phenomenon in the past few months. I found My Husband Betty to be thorough, honest (painfully at times), and very helpful. I was able to pass it on to my wife knowing that she would come to respect both the book and the author in her reading. Boyd pulls no punches, and the honesty and compassion she shows in exploring her own complex relationhsip with her husband is inspiring to those of us wrestling with transgenderism. If you need to pick one book to read about crossdressing and trans stuff, make it this one.
Intelligent, Insightful, and Unique
I could not disagree more with Ian Twain's review, which I think paints a demonstrably unfair picture of both the author's writing and her intent.Helen Boyd has written a book that is part journalistic investigation, part scholastic work and part memoir and, at in its entirety, a joy to read.The book's importance is to my mind clear:how many accounts are there from the significant others?It should be obvious that the significant others--the ones frequently on the other side of the gender crossing equation--have their own stories to tell, and that, too often, we hear their stories as told by their more famous partners, if at all.Yet, even if someone were so inclined, dismissing the book as simply one woman's account of her husband's crossdressing does injustice to the book and the author.It is about much more than that.
Interesting but flawed
Helen Boyd's examination of crossdressing is an interesting and detailed look at crossdressing but is a flawed, dishonest review due to her own feminist viewpoint.On the plus side Helen does point out the wrong that is created by the guilt and shame crossdressers feel and the games and lies they deploy in order to hide their terrible secret.On the down side Helen repeatedly throughout the book informs the reader that men are selfish jerks and women and pure angelic creatures who do their utmost to understand crossdressers.Those involved in the crossdressing scene know this is far from the truth.Although Helen does recognize that some women have trouble accepting their crossdressing partners she conveniently never mentions that this is actually the vast majority of women.She makes no attempt to consider or explain why women's intolerance and contempt of crossdressing is so widespread and why only a few make any serious attempt to understand it.Her own feminism precludes her from critiquing the abysmal record of women in accepting the needs of their crossdressing partners to access their feminine side and become happy and balanced individuals and how this can be beneficial to the partnership as a whole. This lack of introspection and the importance of changing women's understanding of masculinity is strange since the book is supposedly written for women. All women will get from the book is a long list of problems women experience with crossdressers due to their own inability to overcome their deep-seated prejudices against effeminate men.There is no examination or advice offered how to overcome their in-built prejudices.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Alternative Family    2. Alternative Sexual Behavior    3. Gender Studies    4. General    5. Love & Romance    6. Love / Sex / Marriage    7. Man-woman relationships    8. Sexuality    9. Social Science    10. Sociology    11. Transsexuals    12. Transvestism    13. Transvestites    14. Social groups & communities   

Reviews (2)

TRANSGENDERED EVALUATION
I found this book to be very informative and interesting. But, it is written in medical clinical terminology too much, which is too deep for the average person. There could have been more exposure on the power of phytoestrogens and the power of positive suggestion; in order for the male to feminize his body and mind that much more. All medical doctors are partial to what they know, and also they are very pedantic. Also, there could be more positive encouragement of feminization with the general male population.

You can't judge a book by its cover
Sheila Kirk's editorial review here at Amazon wholly misrepresents her book Feminizing Hormones for the Transgendered.By failing to identify her intended audience in her product description she oversells what she has to offer.The book is at best a fair basic primer for those who might be considering beginning hormone replacement therapy, or for someone merely curious about it, but it's of little use to anyone who has already begun HRT and is looking for hard data to help understand lab results and an endocrinologist's actions.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Gender identity    2. Sex Hormones    3. Sex change    4. Transsexualism    5. Transsexuality    6. Transsexuals    7. Transvestism    8. Transvestites   

Subjects:  1. Gender Studies    2. Gender identity    3. General    4. Human Sexuality    5. Psychology    6. Transsexualism    7. Psychology & Psychiatry / General   

Reviews (6)

A fantastic, emotional, page-turning read.
READ THIS BOOK!You don't have to be a transsexual, homosexual, male, or female to get a lot out of this book.I'm a married heterosexual female and read this book with an open mind, and am so glad I did so.Kholsa's transition from a female body to a male one that matched his male brain offers insights on the societal and biological constructs of gender and how our bodies are hard-wired to think and behave in certain ways by our hormones, our sociology, and so many other things.The fact that Kholsa has experienced both sides can help you learn more about yourself and the opposite sex than you ever thought possible.
Living in and through his body
Dhillon Khosla, in his book, Both Sides Now, offers readers an intimate chronicling through which he presents his bodily transformations from female to male.His chapters are broken down by the month and range from July 1997 (when Khosla is twenty-eight years old) to November 1999, moving readers through various steps in his transitions as a transsexual man.
One great read
This is much more than a story about a man born in a woman's body who then went through life threatening surgery and alot of sole searching to become the person he is today. It is also a study in determination and perserverance.I saw Dhillon Khosla on the View and immediately bought his book.I could not believe that he was born a woman.When I received his book I read it through in one night (something new for me) because I had to know the whole story.While this book will interest those who feel they too are trapped in the wrong body,it is also the story of an incredible journey full of sandtraps and brick walls.The intimate story is told with intellectual honesty and is an excellent read. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography & Autobiography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Biography And Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Female-to-male transsexuals    7. Gender Studies    8. Khosla, Dhillon    9. Personal Memoirs    10. United States    11. Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs    12. Transsexuals   

Reviews (2)

A Study of the Social Conditions of TG People in N. America
First, this is one of the few volumes I've read where the situation of transgenderists/transsexuals in Canada is explored with a certain depth. The third part of the book (Research) is invaluable.