Customer Reviews

Second Serve

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I first read this book in the early 1980's. It is a book that was ahead of it's time on the subject of gender identification. The book is an autobiography and the author conveys her story in an intensely personal, yet well written manner. I remember being unable to put it down. I am not gender dysphoric, however the struggles and triumphs of the author are easily shared by anyone who is, or has ever been close to someone who is "different." I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in a good story or the issues mentioned.

Renee has written a very powerful book, done things few can imagine but she still comes across as a narcissistic person, no matter what her genitalia. I admire Renee for her courage in doing some of the things she's done, her ability as a surgeon, her ability as a tennis player and much more.

It's a good historical narrative of a time in transgender history that is fading into the past.

This is another intriguing story in the evolving history of transgender narratives. Here, the individual with the gender dysphoria was a noted eye surgeon with the financial resources necessary to achieve her goal. Still, her resources and did not prevent the inner turmoil and trauma that she underwent during a journey that took her from being Richard Raskin to Renee Richards. It was a journey that was, at times, to be marked by a curious ambivalence.

In reading her story, I would sometimes wonder whether it was gender dysphoria that was at the root of her unhappiness with herself or the sexual abuse that she suffered at the hands of her mother and sister during her childhood. Having read the accounts of many other gender dysphoric individuals who have surgically changed their outer selves to conform to their inner selves, I never doubted their sincerity or reasons for doing so.

In Ms. Richards' case, however, I found myself questioning the reasons for her gender change, as they rang hollow. Instead, it sounded as if she had other issues with which to contend that may have been the cause of her unhappiness. This is why I am not surprised to have recently read that she herself has apparently questioned her decision to undergo a surgical gender change and has evidently had regrets about her decision to surgically transition from male to female.

Still, Ms. Richards has led a fascinating, though utterly narcissistic, life that makes for interesting reading. A well-respected ophthalmologist, she is still in practice today at the age of seventy.

As a post-operative Transsexual Woman this book brought tears to my eyes at times as I shared in some of the authors experiences. I couldn't put it down until I finished the book, then I read it again.

Dr.Renee Richards was much in the news during the late seventies when she sought to be allowed to take part in women's tennis matches. She was successful in her battles to do this. This book was later made into a tv movie starring Vanessa Redgrave. This book is clearly not about a true transsexual person. Dr. Richards is a transvestite who had many homosexual encounters. She someone thinks that having gay sex while in women's clothing somehow made her totally heterosexual. The book states 'heterosexual as a man and as a woman'. The book goes into graphic examples of her pre and post surgical sex life. Totally unnecessary. She claims that the surgery made her life 'unbelievibly satisfying'. Now she tells People magazine that the sex reassignment was a mistake and urges trans people to seek psychiatric help such as prozac or institutionalization.

I am a 37 year old transsexual activist. I was soarly disapointed in the book 'Second Serve:The Renee Richards Story". Since writing this book Dr. Richards has expressed her regrets in interviews many times about her sex change surgery. She wishes that she had been instiutionalised or given prozac and thorazine instead. Her description of her life seems now to be that of a transvestite rather than a transsexual. The book describes the life of someone much different than the average transsexual. She describes Renee as another self who would overpower her Richard self and practically take over. She would emphasize again and again that she was not a homosexual. Her Renee self was attracted to men and her Richard self was attracted to women. This is not transsexualism. I would certainly not recomment this travesty of a book to any young person who was struggling with her or his transsexualism. This book could cause more harm than good.