Customer Reviews

Mirrors: Portrait of a Lesbian Transsexual

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4 star:		(1)
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As a Lesbian Transsexual myself, this book has come closer than any other in catalyzing my own understanding and appreciation for myself. It has also helped significantly to clear the mental and emotional confusion that to date, has been my life inheritence. Geri's story helps to elucidate and cystallize in down to earth fashion the unique anxieties and prejudices that us Lesbian Transsexuals share in a supposedly modern twentieth century society. I was so impressed by it that I recently gave it to my mother when she visited, in the hope that she too would come some distance in understanding me. I am only sorry that Geri's mother never managed to bridge that gap in understanding her own daughter.

Geri Nettick has absolutely "nailed" the transsexual lesbian experience. She describes her own experiences in a very articulate and moving way.

In addition to telling her story well, Geri presents a very intelligent, informed analysis of the transsexual phenomenon in the context of our culture and a larger world view. She also dissects the lesbian community's discomfort with lesbian transsexuals and presents a resounding rebuttal to the hostile, anti-transsexual "thinking" of certain radical lesbian separatists.

Geri also includes a list of resources for transsexuals which would be enormously useful to anyone going through transition.

As a lesbian transsexual, all I can say is that I wish this book had been around when I was transitioning!

Oh well. At least I don't have to write a book about my transition story because Geri has already done it! The details are different; the story is the same.

first, I hope you will forgive my poor english, but It's not my first tongue. well, since I have said it. I was facinated by this book, I couldn't take my hands of it, even geting late at work for a few days, 'cause of the night reading. for this is a book with so much to say, I mean, it's a book with a historical and socioligical look at the San Francisco area during the hippie emergence to our days; it's a book telling and teaching a lot about love, love of ourself, and love of the others; it's an in depth look at the lesbian comunity; it's a brillant feminist perception of the world; and finaly, it's a wonderfull book about a combat, a combat to survive, to become who we are, to express our deep self, to come to terms with our first suffurings to a more brillant life, it's the book of hope, reminding us that we don't have to give up when we stand firm in the recognition of our true identitie. and last but not least, it's also a book of wisdom, teaching the do's and don't about transition (hmmmm, did I mention I am myself a Lesbian Transsexual). Again, sorry for my poor english

Both my partner and I enjoyed this book highly. Geri Nettick has written a story that could be my own. Definitely read this one!

This is a somewhat hard to find title, but well worth aquiring. It details the personal struggles of the author, who was born male but identifies as not just female, but lesbian as well.

While the book tends to follow the usual formula typical of an autobiography, it does so with such detail and clarity that most readers will find it for the most part very entertaining and educational at the same time. The author's experiences are presented in a fairly chronological way, beginning with her first early childhood experiences as they related to her feelings of being different and moving through her teens and early adulthood into her present day life.

What makes this book very unique compared to other transgender autobiographies is that the author is lesbian as well. She deals quite harshly with the bigotry faced not just in mainstream society, but by the lesbian community as well. While Nettick does get into some of the technical aspects of being transgendered from her first person perspective, she doesn't bore you with too many details, something others transgendered autobiographers could learn from.

The author is also atypical from other transgendered authors, in that she isn't some famous celebrity telling her life story after having been "outted" in order to justify her existance. As such, her experiences are far more relevant to the transgendered community than tales of tennis stars and singers. This makes the book far more relevant not just to the majority of transgendered individuals, but to the public in general, most of whom aren't celebrities. As such, the book doesn't come across as some sort of lame apology to society for being born. Instead, the author tries to help the reader understand who she is as a person, and does so unapologetically and in a way that demands respect and gets it.

What won me over with this book is how Nettick addresses the bigotry and intolerance within her own family and as well as the lesbian community and feminist movement. She tells of how she was marginalized and isolated, and how she eventually won acceptance by her peers. While Nettick's specific situation is very unique, her experiences and how she dealt with them are very relevant to anyone who faces discrimination and bigotry.

This book is clearly a must read for those who work or deal with the transgender community, and should be required reading for health care professionals who have transgendered clients. It is also highly recommended for transgendered persons, as well as for those in the LGBT community who wish to gain a better understanding of what a typical transgendered individual deals with.

A very well-written and enjoyable memoir of MTF transition in the context of the lesbian community, filled with wonderful insights and strong pathos. The author fights the good fight, but is never fully accepted by this group, though she had much to offer, pointing to the prejudice of some whom one would think would (or should) be more accepting. My heart goes out to this woman for her struggles, but I think that she has found happiness by being her own person and being true to herself. One area of critique I had was that she never fully explored the issues she had with her parents and what happened in this regard after her transition as a young adult to her own middle age. Otherwise, this is a keeper.