( 20 reviews )
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Posted: Jul 24 2009
The primacy of True Selves: Understanding Transsexualism is an unfortunate artifact of there existing no other good resource books for the non-trans person to understand the trans experience. It was written in the mid-1990s with an understanding of trans people and trans experiences that is strongly based in the clinical data of that time... clinical data which was, unfortunately, corrupted by the fact that transgendered people at that time had to lie extensively to transition, reading from a "script" of a generic, transgendered past that seldom was truthful about their real selves, and lie pervasively after transition, creating a "gender consistent" (read: cissexual female) history. Particularly, transsexual women who were gay had to lie about feeling like heterosexual girls their entire lives, opening us up to accusations of "autogynephilia" - the ridiculous claim that trans women who are attracted to other women were "really" attracted to images of ourselves as women. It is not for nothing that one transsexual woman who transitioned in the early 1980s described the process as "lying to tyrannical fools to save [her] life." It is my hope that sometime soon, there will be published a modern book that talks openly and honestly about the transition and transgender experience, that is written with both clinical and real-world experience taken into account, that can finally put this tome on a dusty shelf where it belongs. Until then... it is what we have.
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Posted: Apr 13 2009
As a Transwoman I found this book as a great aid in coming out to my wife and management at my job. Even though the book is not current and sorely lacks information for spouses, it was a great help having the experiences of other transgender women and men as a validation of how I felt all my life. I highly recommend "True Selves" and I hope a new edition is in the works.
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Posted: Apr 12 2009
I appreciate that this book was written; I bought it for my parents since I'm FTM. Given that though, and having read several other books like 'Becoming a Visible Man' etc, I feel like this book is heavy on the experience of transwomen (MTFs)and includes transmen thoughtfully but not thoroughly. There is a brief definition of drag queens, for example, without mention of drag kings! The definitions and discussion explain heterosexual trans people to be the norm, with queer trans people as the exception, which is not so much the case in reality. The author also is inconsistent with her use of names and pronouns throughout. For trans children and teens, she decides that a young MTF should have male names and pronouns, and vice versa for FTMs. This is not consistent with how the trans community generally chooses to present itself. Eventually, as the discussion moves onto adults, she concedes to call adult trans therapy patients by their preferred names and pronouns. By now, the reader is thoroughly confused. So, if your trans and coming out, don't think that just this book will explain everything...it's kind of a good start I guess.
