Gender Identity: The Ultimate Teen Guide (It Happened to Me) (Hardcover)

by Cynthia L. Winfield (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The book examines what is meant by sex and gender-from typical gender roles and stereotypes, through those who transcend the usual categories of male and female. In addition to historical and factual information, teen voices and popular media's depictions of gender issues are included. Gender Identity: The Ultimate Teen Guide is written for all teens with an interest in gender-what it is, how it is expressed-especially those teens questioning their own (or a friend or family member's) gender identity. Straight (heterosexual) and LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning) youth, and the adults who live and work with them will want to read it, as well as educators, counselors, school board members, and parents.

Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 232 pages
• Publisher: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.; illustrated edition edition (December 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810849070
• ISBN-13: 978-0810849075
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,579,027 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Simplistic Look at Gender, for Teens, September 23, 2008

By	James Loewen (Vancouver, BC Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Author Cynthia L. Winfield begins her book, Gender Identity with a retelling of the story of David Reimer, a boy (one of a pair of twins) whose penis was completely destroyed in a botched circumcision. Reimer's grief stricken parents sought a solution to this horrific situation by attempting to raise him as a girl. As the world now knows this gender experiment failed miserably. Reimer's story was first used to suggest that gender is malleable until a certain age; but after David expressed how miserable his imposed female identity was, gender theorists have used his story to support the opposite theory, that gender is innate.

I give Winfield full credit for naming the "doctor" Jean-Marie Huot who burned David's seven month old penis to a crisp, and she goes into a fair amount of detail retelling Reimer's story, but she gets an important detail very wrong. Winfield dutifully reports, "When the twins were seven months old, they both developed a condition called phimosis, which caused the foreskins on their penises to close, making urination difficult and painful." The fact is phimosis is the natural condition of every infant penis, almost every male left genitally intact grows out of this condition as he ages and the foreskin retracts and becomes mobile as it naturally should. It does not make urination difficult or painful. Phimosis that persists into adulthood can be treated by far less invasive measures than circumcision, but it has often been used as a pathetic excuse for circumcision of children, to gullible people who do not know about natural genital development.

My criticism goes farther because Winfield doesn't stop there. In a sidebar titled, "Circumcision: Who Decides?" she proceeds to blandly discuss infant circumcision without ever asking the question, is it ethical to cut off part of a child's natural sex organ? In the context of David Reimer's horrific story this omission is palpably vapid.

Recognizing this book is attempting to be a feel-good book about gender for teenagers, I think the author is underestimating the abilities of her intended audience. Some serious areas are glossed over and for teens, who are in all likelihood in a questioning state, this oversimplification could be very harmful. Everything here is la-de-dah, no serious introspection. Parental reaction to homosexuality in their children is never discussed, for teen agers questioning their gender and sexuality this is imperative. I have personally know several young questioning males rushed through MTF transition and surgery, sometimes with their parent's financial and emotional support, because having a recognized medical condition, (transsexuality) and treatment (hormones and surgery) was preferable for the parents than having a gay child. Some young people may benefit from gender transition and some of those may benefit from genital conversion surgery, but not all.

Adults who have expressed regret about social and surgical transition, (ranging from mild to suicide) are never mentioned in these feel-good type books. For a young person contemplating permanent gender altering body modifications consideration of possible regret should be acknowledged.

Winfield closes her book saying, "This book is meant to provide an introductory overview of gender issues for any inquiring mind. To learn more, venture beyond the covers of this book." I couldn't agree more. To any young person questioning their gender I would say, Yes by all means question it and question it hard. Don't forget to also question the society you grow up in and what that society does to condone or condemn your expression of gender.