Category: Reviews

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #104, Winter 2004.

Review by Katrina C. Rose

Most of us are aware of the concept of ?the big lie?: make sure it, whatever ?it? may be, is repeated enough, and it becomes accepted as true whether or not it has any basis in reality. Another type of big lie is the assertion of something so preposterous, yet so simplistic, that the perfectly accurate yet equally simplistic response/refutation sounds even more preposterous than the initial lie?necessitating extensively-researched answers presented in laborious, boring academic formats that most people can?t follow and, as such, are ignored.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #104, Winter 2004.

Review by Marisa Richmond, Ph.D.

Transsexuality has become an increasingly popular topic of study by many therapists. Many support groups are contacted, often by graduate students seeking to expand their knowledge in a field that is not well-understood by outsiders. More and more, members of the transgender community are speaking for themselves through books and journals, produced both for the transgender community and various professional communities. One new entry in this field is by J. Michael Bailey, an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Northwestern Univer-sity. Bailey?s contribution to the field is, however, marked by numerous snide remarks about transsexuals and shows an incredible disdain for the community he purports to support while simultaneously using very poor methodology in making his claims.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #104, Winter 2004.

J. Michael Bailey is Chair of the Department of Psychology and Professor at Chicago?s prestigious Northwestern University.

A Ph.D. graduate of Louisiana?s Baylor University, he is trained in clinical psychology and known as a sexologist. The bulk of his research has concerned the behavioral and vocal mannerisms of gay men. This year, Bailey made a play for the big time?if one considers the talk show and lecture circuit the big time?via a book published under the imprint of the prestigious National Academies of Science. The title is The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #105, Spring 2004.

Dress Codes Review by Spencer Bergstedt
Dress Codes: Of Three Girlhoods?My Mother?s, My Father?s, and Mine. (2002). Noelle Howey, Picador USA/St. Martin?s Press, 332 pages, $24.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #105, Spring 2004.

Eunuch Monks of Krat

Review by Sam More

The Insatiable Adventures of the Eunuch Monks of Krat. (2002). Tucker Lieberman, XLibris, $14.95.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #103, Fall 2003.
Review by Christine Beatty

Sex sells. That tenet is a mainstay of modern marketing. For decades everything from toothpaste to new cars have been marketed using the suggestion of sex. And sexologist J. Michael Bailey?s new book, The Man Who Would be Queen: The Science of Gender Bending and Transsexualism, is a glaring example. Combine lurid sexual description with some fact, with controversial research done a decade or more prior, with long-debunked stereotypes and with the author?s smug assurance, and you have Bailey?s book. And while it should be easy to dismiss it as sensationalized exploitation, in reality it is dangerous to the entire transgender community, and especially to transsexual people.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #103, Fall 2003.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #102, Summer 2003.

Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context
by Vern L. Bullough (Ed.)
Harrington Park Press ? 2002

a book review by C. Jacob Hale

This collection of fascinating biographies dispels myths that locate the Stonewall uprising as central to gay and lesbian activism in the United States. Here we learn about nearly fifty of the many people?gay, lesbian, bisexual, heterosexual, transgendered, non-transgendered?who made a tremendous difference in the quality of life for gays and lesbians in the U.S. today. We learn about the ideological, personal, intellectual, and pragmatic reasons for their choices of strategies and tactics, and we learn about political disagreements among them.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #097, Spring 2002.

Because your editor had a negative reaction to a book treasured by many in the community, we?re featuring a contrasting review by our own Miqqi Alicia. Those interested in another viewpoint should see Transgender Tapestry #92?Ed.