Transgender Nation (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Gender is the mine field we pass through every day. In the United States, gender is all too often determined by one's anatomical sex. From birth we are bombarded with gender propaganda that supports a repressive dual gender system pitting the sexes and the genders against each other. Transgenderists as gender nonconformists challenge us to rethink traditional discourses on sex and gender. Transgender Nation dares to look at the male-to-woman transgenderist and transsexual from a sociocultural and sociopolitical perspective and maintains that it is not the individual transgenderist who is sick and in need of treatment but rather the culture that must be treated.

Transgender Nation explores historical sexological categories and decodes contemporary medical transsexual ideology, charging that contemporary "treatments" like sex reassignment surgery all too often encourage assimilation and negate differences. Proposals for endocrinological euthanasia are examined for what they reveal about personal and cultural attitudes about gender. In addition popular culture representations of transgenderists as homocidal maniacs dressed to kill are contrasted with the grim reality that in a transgenderphobic, homophobic, and misogynistic culture they are more likely to be killed because they dress. Transgender Nation concludes that transgenderism is moving away from being considered a mental disorder, treatable with surgery, to a grass roots civil rights movement that has the potential to ignite the much needed Gender Revolution.

About the Author

This book was 12 years in the making as author Gordene Olga MacKenzie became involved with the transgender community and the Gender Movement in the U.S.A., which she calls the civil rights movement of the 1990s. MacKenzie teaches courses on sex and gender, popular culture, and media politics, in the American Studies Department and the Women Studies Program at the University of New Mexico. She is an advocate and activist for transgender equal rights, which she believes is the key to a much needed Gender Revolution.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 190 pages
• Publisher: Bowling Green State Univ Popular Pr (April 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879725974
• ISBN-13: 978-0879725976
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,209,972 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant vision and insight, April 26, 1999

By A Customer

Packed with information and insight, Transgender Nation challenges the rigid gender norms that victimize people who transgress them, while exposing the mechanism that creates the hate which gets turned against transgender people. Her illumination of the emerging transgender liberation movement is unparalleled and piercing, and the book remains as visionary today as it was when it was published. A 'must read' for anyone with an interest in transgender politics, it places the blame for the violent brutality inflicted on transsexuals, transgenderists and crossdressers squarely on the narrowness of our cultural gender ideals.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book highlights the sociopolitical aspect of TG, June 11, 1999

By	[e-mail] (Tokyo,Japan) - See all my reviews

This book highlights the sociopolitical aspect of transgender.The author says the ultimate solution of transgender is the change of USA's bipolarism society.In Japan, I think the situation is somewhat different.The bipolarism and homophobia are not so strong.Rather,the phobia for SRS is very strong.The reason is Japanese think the body is as important as the soul and cutting off the part of the body is sinful. So , this book also gave me a chance to think the cultural differences between the two countries.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gender Is The Mine Field That We Pass Through Everyday, May 28, 2005

By	G. Reid (Roseland, NJ) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Transgender Nation (Hardcover)

The American society polarizes the genders in many different and harmful ways. The polarization has roots in our massive merchandising economy, our religions, our fears, our ignorance and more. Males and females are so polarized in our society that it is truly a tragedy. Actually, males and females are very much the same people who have been exposed to various varying hormone baths starting early in the womb. Some of these hormone baths are natural and some are manmade. In simple terms it is testosterone vs. estrogen. We all have both hormones, but in varying concentrations. After birth we make our own hormones based on our genetic codes and on our exposure to environmental factors.

Our gender characteristics are on a continuum. Only a few of us are the "perfect" male or the "perfect" female. The tremendous polarization in our society is acting as if there was no continuum. As we all try to fit in to our place in this polarization we may face many challenges of clinical depression, self esteem and self identity. In the United States one's gender is all too often determined by one's anatomical sex, no matter how ambiguous it might happen to be. From birth we are bombarded with gender propaganda that supports a regressive dual gender system pitting the sexes (genders) against one another. Transgender Nation looks at the male to female journey some people take as they try to find their place on the continuum.

One example of our society's polarizing the genders is that restrooms in our society are almost always polarized into men and women. This is even done in the many restrooms where only one person enters at a time so privacy is not an issue. Making these private restrooms male or female is just one sad example of how our society polarizes the genders.