Customer Reviews

So You Want To Be A Woman: A Transsexuals's Guide

5 star:		(1)
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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I agree with the previous reviewer. I found the book to be something wholly different than the title encouraged the reader to believe that it was. It was more a memoir and truly a very personal memoir - certainly valuable as a journey to the writer - but of little value to the reader, more a chatty diary than a guide to transsexualism. Plus, it was very poorly edited. I felt like I was reading a first draft of a book, something that the editor had failed to review before publishing. In fact, I wonder if the Trafford publishers act as editors at all. Are they simply publishers of texts submitted to them without any sort of review before publication? Many of the spelling errors could have been identified with a decent spell-checker program, and the book was rife with grammatical errors, which weighed down the reader with having to add letters to a text which was already fairly indecipherable.

As a "guide for transsexuals" it was of minimal value. There are many personal memoirs in the marketplace about transition to womanhood, many of them written in a manner which draws the reader into the story with much more verve, such as Jennifer Boylan's "She's Not There: A Life of Two Genders", Deirdre McCloskey's "Crossing: A Memoir", or Erica Zander's "TransActions". All of those memoirs are not only written in a far more interesting style, but give good information about "the transition" to a reader interested in such information. Ms. Sly, the author of "So You Want To Be A Woman" would have done herself and her readers a favor to coauthor the book with a ghost writer, who knew HOW to write and who was a good editor.

There are several books on transsexualism which are far better "Guides" than this one, and which give the information they purport to give. "Trans-X-U-All: The Naked Difference" by Tracie O'Keefe and Katrina Fox; "The Univited Dilemma: A Question of Gender" by Kim Elizabeth Stuart; and "In Search of Eve: Transsexual Rites of Passage" are far better texts on this subject and much more intelligently written. Ms. Sly's little book is a waste of time to any person who is interested in information about "the process of transition". It is personal to her alone and should have remained so, to be shared, at most, with close friends, as the 'first draft' that it is.

Like the previous reviewer, after reading this book, I also felt "ripped off" by the purchase.

I honestly feel cheated having bought this little book. The title is misleading, for it is not so much a guide as a poorly written memoir. I was looking for information and found nothing useful here. If you're looking for a thoughtful and eloquently written memoir see Jan Morris's classic "Conundrum." If you're looking for a source of information for potential transsexuals - well, I haven't found one yet. You'd do well to just skip this one.

As most transsexual woman know, they don't "become" women, they just gain the visible ability to be seen as the women they felt themselves to be inside. Anatomy does not define a woman. This book is offensive because it invalidates the fact that trans women are already women, not just men who "want to be" women. Part of transsexual women's struggle is gaining the basic respect they deserve from other people regarding their identities as women. Also, there are many kinds of women with diverse cultural, racial, ethnic, religious, and geographical influences, including women from extremely diverse personalities. Transsexual women need to be the kind of women that fit with their diverse personalities- there is no one way to be a non-trans woman, so why would anyone try to caim there is one way to be a woman of trans experience? Buy another book that is less essentialist and dogmatic.

I must admit I was disappointed when I read this book. I am transsexual and in my early fifties. I am just coming out and finally doing something about me. When I bought the book I was looking and was expecting more from it. That being said there are two reasons I will keep this book 1) The author wrote it with her full heart in to it and 2) She transitioned later in life which encourages me. It is too bad that she didn't have more help editing the book or change the title to reflect that it was more about her journey than advice on on how avoid the heart breaks of the journey. I was hoping that the book would have been hopeful and helpful. It was not so much.

This is book about a subject that is very difficult to face. If you are a woman and you are married to a man who decides he no longer wants to be a man you might find this gentle book to be helpful. Like the other reviewers I agree this is not a treatise or a complete medical overview of this situation. If you are a man who is thinking he wants to be a woman reading this book might help you understand what some of the problems you might face are going to be, and it might give you some insight into what your spouse or partner might feel as you go through this. I recommend this as a helpful book to anyone who wants to begin to understand what a person who has masculine traits but wants to be a feminine person is all about. It is not just about the surgery or about wearing bras and garter belts, there is a mind set and emotional set that changes as well. It is very difficult for a wife to find these things out about her husband, and I think this book might help.