Customer Reviews

My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you have ever wondered what a real man, a real woman, or a real something in-between is, this is a must read. "My Gender Workbook" has interactive exercises, advice, and guidance on gender, and provokes the reader to question the whole idea of gender as an absolute. We all have elements of each gender, and Bornstein goes to the point of arguing that there are many genders, not just two, and it is possible to lack gender entirely. As a transgendered person myself, I found the book enlightening and helpful in my own discovery of gender, and who I really am. In fact, this is one of the most useful books I have found on gender identity, and I refer back to it often.

a book for all genders, orientations, and adjectives. i've yet to show this book to someone who wasnt impressed. kate talks theory for those of us that would like a little, adds a dash of cosmology, and then gets into the true, errr, meat of exploring gender with fun exercizes and quizzes. hilarious, irrreverent, and ever-relevant it explores gender while maintaining the upbeat aesthetics of a true gender artist. whether your interest is academic or personal, it's a must read for _anyone_ interested in questions of gender.

This book - if it can be called that - is about the most extensive course in Gender Studies one could take without walking into a classroom and spending five months with a professor. Kate leads you through every step of the process with humor, insight and compassion - never pulling any of hir punches, though. If you're curious about the creation of gender, thinking about changing or reexamining your own gender, this is definitely a book you need to read.

I have always considered myself an open-minded, unassuming person, but after reading the first chapter of this book, I have come to realize that there is a world out there that I never conceived: A world of In-The-Middle. Bornstein shares hir unique gender enlightenment with us through this workbook that could be used for personal exploration or as a college textbook. One thing is for certain: Bornstein will challenge your notions about what "male" and "female" are!

There is stuff here that is good, and all of it is well-meaning. That said, this book is very much a mixed bag.

It suffers from having little sense of who it's audience is. I'd certainly wager that a large majority of people who are reading this book are feminists, queers, or transpeople - or, like myself, *all* of these - and a lot of it is very basic, even frustratingly so, for these people, and this simplicity often shifts back and forth with more advanced stuff. This means that the beginners who do read this may well get lost, and that the people who get the basics will get bored. A lot of it also feels simply cheesy, and even if I wasn't already familiar with the theories and practices presented, I think I would feel condescended to.

It also seems somewhat more MtF oriented than FtM; I can't really give a specific example, but it seemed to have more of a by-and-for trannygirls vibe. I suppose this is part of the problem with having the whole book on genderqueerness written by one white, MtF, middle-class person. Ze certainly tries to give voice to people of different backgrounds, and often succeeds, but having side comments and self-descriptions is different than having real input. This isn't so much an issue of specific instances; rather it's the assumption that one person's experience - any one persons experience, no matter how gender-transgressive they are - is sufficient to write what tries to be a guide to transgressing gender and identity; I think this book would have been much better as a collaboration.

That said, a lot of it is very good. It certainly will help some people understand some more things about themselves, their own (lack of) gender(s), and gender as a whole. The very least it will do is reassure trans/genderqueer/gender-variant people in it that they are not alone, no matter how much it seems so - a worthy goal.

I used this book in a college class, and from an academic standpoint, I found it simplistic and many of the exercises seemed pointless. Even worse, Bornstein advocates a "gender-free or gender-bent" presentation of oneself, not realizing that because society creates gender rules, becoming gender-free is still buying into those rules through one's rejection of them. I think everyone should work through their gender issues on their own and not feel bad if they do happen to be a very feminine woman or masculine man (this book assumes every reader doesn't fit into any stereotype, or if they do act stereotypically male or female, it's not because they want to.) From the standpoint of someone reading this book casually, it's very affirming of our differences, but don't forget to read other gender-theory books as well.

The layout of this book -- as a workbook with exercises you can do as you move through it -- makes this a very interesting way to examine gender issues in your own life. However I found two problems with the book. First, not all of the sections flow smoothly and the stream of consciousness moments can be distracting and patronizing on a few occassions. Secondly, I think the definition used of "gender" is far to broad to really give the book a solid foundation to build on. You'll find yourself agreeing or disagreeing with much of the book -- isn't that the appropriate thing for a book of self-growth?

Kate Bornstein's writing is a pleasure to read! My Gender Workbook is a great way to start looking at nonstandard genders if you're used to thinking in strictly binary terms. While there's room in her viewpoint for girly girls and manly men, there's definitely a bit of bias towards transsexual and genderqueer folks. The quotes from different sources in the sidebar create a variety of perspectives on gender, in case you don't identify too strongly with Kate Bornstein's personal story (which, let's face it, isn't common to most of us).

If you're already breaking the gender binary- that is, if you're the sort of person who'd be interested in this book- then likely it wouldn't provide much more than some much-needed encouragement. However, if you're new to transgressing gender, then this is probably the book for you.

My Gender Workbook is an easy-to-read book but it's taking longer to get through than I expected due to the mental exercises Kate presents. I purchased this book hoping to understand more about gender and I'm finding the more I learn, the more confusing gender becomes to define. I recommend this book to anyone who feels gender should be challenged, or feels gender challenging. I also recommend it to anyone who feels there is no grey area in gender. My Gender Workbook will challenge you to analyze gender and everything the majority of us were raised to believe about it.

I greatly dislike this book. I suppose that's not entirely fair considering that I actually read very little of it, but for the life of me I could not get into it. It was a required text for intro to gay and lesbian studies, but ultimately didn't get used at all. The book was high subjective, and after x number of pages in I was left feeling bored, confused, and strange (all things I don't need help feeling). That has nothing to do with the subject matter, rather the strange and erratic manner in which it was written. The book seems to really boil down to a series of quotes from people in the LGBTQ community, a series of check lists, confronting the "gender police" or "Mr Science", and a strange story written in the form of logs from chat rooms.

I ultimately fail to see the point of this books existence.It is clearly not my kind of book and perhaps I just don't get it and its really incredibly deep, and that if only I was in some form of gender crisis it would make sense If its goal was to guide someone on the discovery of their sexuality and gender, breakdown social preconceptions, and ultimately entertain the reader, then I can't help but feel that there are better books out there.