My Husband Betty: Love, Sex, and Life with a Crossdresser and over 670,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle – Amazon’s new wireless reading device. Learn more

Buy New
 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
Buy Used
Used - Very Good See details
$8.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
Fulfilled by Amazon

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
More Buying Choices
49 used & new from $5.00
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
or
Get a $0.40 Amazon.com Gift Card
My Husband Betty: Love, Sex, and Life with a Crossdresser
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book
Start reading My Husband Betty: Love, Sex, and Life with a Crossdresser on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

My Husband Betty: Love, Sex, and Life with a Crossdresser [Paperback]

Helen Boyd (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
List Price: $16.95
Price: $11.53 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $5.42 (32%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Want it delivered Monday, September 13? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
22 new from $7.69 27 used from $5.00

Formats

 Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition $9.99   -- --
Paperback $11.53   $7.69 $5.00

Frequently Bought Together

My Husband Betty: Love, Sex, and Life with a Crossdresser + She's Not the Man I Married: My Life with a Transgender Husband + My Husband Wears My Clothes: Crossdressing from the Perspective of a Wife
Price For All Three: $32.55

Show availability and shipping details

Buy the selected items together

  • In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • She's Not the Man I Married: My Life with a Transgender Husband by Helen Boyd Paperback$10.85

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • My Husband Wears My Clothes: Crossdressing from the Perspective of a Wife by Peggy Ed.D Rudd Paperback$10.17

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

She's Not the Man I Married: My Life with a Transgender Husband

She's Not the Man I Married: My Life with a Transgender Husband

by Helen Boyd
4.4 out of 5 stars (25)  $10.85
My Husband Wears My Clothes: Crossdressing from the Perspective of a Wife

My Husband Wears My Clothes: Crossdressing from the Perspective of a Wife

by Peggy Ed.D Rudd
4.0 out of 5 stars (21)  $10.17
Alice in Genderland: A Crossdresser Comes of Age

Alice in Genderland: A Crossdresser Comes of Age

by Richard J. Novic
4.7 out of 5 stars (66)  $17.95
The Lazy Crossdresser

The Lazy Crossdresser

by Charles Anders
4.5 out of 5 stars (19)  $11.86
Crossdressing With Dignity: The Case For Transcending Gender Lines

Crossdressing With Dignity: The Case For Transcending Gender Lines

by Peggy Ed.D Rudd
5.0 out of 5 stars (4)  $11.66
› Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A straight woman who has been married several years to a crossdressing man gives a thoughtful account of their relationship (as well as the relationships of other crossdressers she knows) in this forthright and revelatory book. "Instead of putting a 'pretty face' on crossdressing," Boyd writes, "I think this book paints a more realistic picture." Her interest is as much in the broader issues of love and acceptance, denial and repression, human nature and sexual identity as it is in the who, when, why and how of crossdressing. Boyd shares personal and often intensely private moments in order to illustrate her findings, describing her husband's ritual for getting dressed as a woman and candidly admitting that she once believed that she would never be able to accept his behavior. Particularly sharp is her chapter on gendered politics, which takes to task members of the crossdressing community who isolate themselves "from all the groups who could otherwise educate and liberate them: the feminist community, the gay and lesbian communities." Though such comments may be uncharacteristically harsh for a book that by and large supports crossdressers and their actions, Boyd's opinions lend her discussion a critical viewpoint and comprehensiveness that it might not have had otherwise. Boyd, who founded the online support group CDOD, helps out newbies to the topic by making distinctions among phrases like "transgendered" and "transvestite" that are sometimes unknowingly used interchangeably and by summarizing the history of and research into the behavior. Honest and well researched, this book is likely to become an indispensable guide for woman who are trying to forge stable, accepting relationships with crossdressing men. Given the topic and Boyd's approach, it is a shame that the author still felt the need to mask her true identity by using a nom de plume.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Boyd never expected to write about transvestites and their partners, yet here is her fascinating account of marriage to a cross-dresser, the intent of which is to reduce the tumult his cross-dressing causes in the couple's lives and to help more women deal better with having transgendered husbands. The originator of an online support group for such couples, Boyd supplements her own experiences with those of others to explore the diversity within a stereotyped group (the male-to-female transgendered) and answer questions concerning their behavior. Boyd was supportive from the onset of her knowledge of "Betty," but even after two years' socializing within a supportive transgender community, the Boyds' first outing in the real world terrified her because of her own and society's expectations--and that was the first of a series of painful realizations. Boyd's skill as a writer enables readers to enter a relatively hidden existence easily, and perhaps even to appreciate its complexities. Her account, though initially disquieting to some, well may become a standard text in gender studies. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Seal Press (December 23, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1560255153
  • ISBN-13: 978-1560255154
  • Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #197,584 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
    #38 in  Books > Gay & Lesbian > Nonfiction > Transgender

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

Helen Boyd
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Helen Boyd Page
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Even if the man in the ad were a handsome young man, a million objections instantly spring to mind. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
crossdressing community, closeted crossdresser, weirdo transvestite, crossdressing husband, average crossdresser, most crossdressers, term crossdresser, transgendered feelings, crossdressing partner, many crossdressers, other crossdressers, femme selves, one crossdresser, crossdressing men, genetic woman, heterosexual crossdressers, transsexual feelings, transsexual women, femme self, genetic women, forced feminization, femme names, tranny chasers, transsexual woman, term transvestite
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Virginia Prince, Marie Antoinette, Girl Talk, Magnus Hirschfield, Victoria's Secret, Date of Death, Eddie Izzard, Jane Ellen Fairfax, Lynn Conway, Betty Page, Lacey Leigh, The Man Who Would Be Queen, Bend Over Boyfriend, Dress Barn, Kate Bornstein, Ray Blanchard, Richard Docter, Standards of Care, Valentine's Day
New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 30 books:
See all 30 books this book cites

Books on Related Topics (learn more)
 
 

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

My Husband Betty: Love, Sex, and Life with a Crossdresser
72% buy the item featured on this page:
My Husband Betty: Love, Sex, and Life with a Crossdresser by Helen Boyd Paperback 4.1 out of 5 stars (21)
$11.53
My Husband Wears My Clothes: Crossdressing from the Perspective of a Wife
12% buy
My Husband Wears My Clothes: Crossdressing from the Perspective of a Wife by Peggy Ed.D Rudd Paperback 4.0 out of 5 stars (21)
$10.17
She's Not the Man I Married: My Life with a Transgender Husband
8% buy
She's Not the Man I Married: My Life with a Transgender Husband by Helen Boyd Paperback 4.4 out of 5 stars (25)
$10.85
The Lazy Crossdresser
5% buy
The Lazy Crossdresser by Charles Anders Paperback 4.5 out of 5 stars (19)
$11.86
› Explore similar items

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(28)
(16)
(13)
(3)
(2)
(1)
(1)
(1)
Agree with these tags?

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags
 

Customer Reviews

21 Reviews
5 star:
 (11)
4 star:
 (5)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (21 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating exploration of gender, December 22, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: My Husband Betty: Love, Sex, and Life with a Crossdresser (Paperback)
Though this book will be of special interest and relevance to the partners of crossdressers, anyone intrigued by gender issues and they way they shape our lives, loves, and identities will be enthralled by this profoundly touching and well-researched book. Ms. Boyd offers a moving, honest account of her own courtship and married life with a crossdresser, illuminating every difficulty and joy with great insight. She also portrays the relationships of other crossdressing couples among whom she has found support and companionship. Having wrestled with her own gender issues, and leaving no stone unturned in her quest to understand her husband's crossdressing, Ms. Boyd seems to have read all of the trenchant literature in the gender-studies field (to her readers' benefit) and widens her scope to include the whole transgender community and the gay community. Though Ms. Boyd is admirably supportive of her husband's continuing struggle to be true to himself, she never sugar-coats the complexities transgenderism can impose upon a marriage. However, Ms. Boyd's integrity, engaging voice, and love for her husband leave the reader hopeful that happiness is eminently possible even for those who don't fit neatly into society's gender "boxes".
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
33 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Required Reading for Crossdressers and their Partners, July 20, 2004
This review is from: My Husband Betty: Love, Sex, and Life with a Crossdresser (Paperback)
?My Husband Betty? (?MHB?) by Helen Boyd is a remarkable book relating to a generally misunderstood, and also often fairly well-hidden, segment of our society: the world of heterosexual men who crossdress, and their female partners. The book is remarkable not only because it is one of the only books to address this group from the perspective of a wife of a crossdressing male, but because it is an extremely well-done melange of personal experience, shared experiences of others, as well as a survey of the available scientific and other literature available pertaining to this group. But the main virtue of MHB is that it is (at times brutally) honest about the significant challenges the author and other women have faced in the context of being in relationships with men who are crossdressers. In the end, it is this frank honesty, which some readers ? including ones who may be male crossdressers ? may find hard to swallow at times, that lends the book an enhanced degree of credibility, openness and accessibility to anyone interested in this area, and particularly to those who are living this experience.

The book begins with an examination of the crossdressers themselves, including the different kinds of things that they do, the different ?types? of crossdressing men, the different phases of crossdressing that a crossdresser may experience at different points of his life. This chapter of the book is enlightening for crossdressers themselves, but is invaluable for a partner of a crossdresser who is at square one. An extremely helpful appendix contains a glossary of crossdressing and related acronyms and jargon.

Next the book addresses the women who are the partners of crossdressers, taking into account the various experiences that they have had, their reactions to their partner?s crossdressing ways, the negative or at best conflicted feelings most of them experience, as well as the diversity of viewpoints among them as to how they relate to their crossdressing partner and his crossdressing. This is one of the primary chapters where the author?s own experiences, and her willingness and honesty in describing them, lend the book a remarkable depth and credibility. As the author notes, she is not trying to put a pretty face on crossdressing, but to address it squarely and honestly, and her admission of her own continuing challenges, fears and difficulties relating to her husband?s crossdressing is both illuminating and touching, and should be required reading for any crossdressing man who is, has been, or intends to be in a relationship with a woman. The chapter which follows ? addressing the various modes of relationships between crossdressing men and their female partners ? is told through the experiences of six different couples, each of which has come to their own way of managing the experience in a different way, and helps to move the experiential part of the book beyond the author?s own experiences to reflect those of a broader group.

A chapter is devoted to the question of whether crossdressing is a ?Slippery Slope? to transsexualism, and here again the book is brutally honest in its confrontation with the often-spouted semi-propaganda by some crossdressing groups to the effect that crossdressing has nothing to do with transsexualism and does not ever ?progress? to transsexualism. A well-done survey of the historical and existing scholarship relating to crossdressers and transsexuals forms the foundation for the author?s frank conclusion that this can sometimes happen, together with her indictment of the soft-sell engaged in by some crossdresser?s groups on these issues, which, in the long run, actually undermines trust between crossdressers and their partners and harms the crossdressers themselves by limiting their self-awareness and therefore their self-acceptance.

A frank chapter addressing the challenges in having a satisfying sexual life with a crossdresser similarly debunks the notion advanced by some crossdresser groups that crossdressing does not have a sexual element to it. In addition, this chapter should be required reading for any crossdresser who is, has been, or plans to be in a relationship with a woman, because the impacts here are extremely well presented and accurate and need to be addressed in an active manner by the crossdressing partner.

The book concludes with a chapter addressing the larger ?scene? of crossdressing outside the house, and the various options for being more open about one?s crossdressing, and a chapter relating to gender politics. It is the last chapter that is addressed to the crossdressers themselves and, while it may be hard for some crossdressers to read, in my opinion the author is dead right that the reason why the crossdressing community has lagged behind other groups in obtaining rights for itself is that it has been unwilling to build bridges with the larger feminist, gay, lesbian, and bisexual communities, and has instead spent a great deal of time trying to wall itself off from these groups in an effort to maintain its ?straightness?. In the end, I agree with the author that the crossdressing community ? which may very well be mostly heterosexual ? is nevertheless not ?straight? in any meaningful way, and that the sooner it accepts this (both on an individual level and on a broader, collective level), the sooner it will be in a position to work together with other alternative groups to forge its rightful place in society. That will not happen without changing perspectives, work and sacrifice. All of this amounts to sobering thoughts for many, but necessary ones for crossdressers themselves to hear and reflect upon.

In sum, MHB is basically required reading for anyone who is a crossdresser or who is the significant other of a crossdresser, as well as anyone who may be involved in the therapeutic community and who may deal with crossdressers and their partners from time to time. While it is likely that most who read MHB will not agree with everything in it, it is precisely this honesty and frankness which makes the book very useful because it certainly will spur the readers to think and reflect on their own experience.


Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A very candid account-helpful and revealing, March 19, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: My Husband Betty: Love, Sex, and Life with a Crossdresser (Paperback)
As a crossdresser for nearly 3 decades and someone who is married, this book gave me tremendous insights into the challenges that are faced by my spouse. Helen Boyd does a very thorough analysis of identifying the choices and tensions inherent in being a CD as well as the struggles a spouse must face. What I found especially enlightening was the description of the continuum of dressing and the various types of relationships crossdressers have with their significant others.

I highly recommend the section that deals with the real questions that should be discussed in a relationship. There is an enormous struggle that goes on in these kinds of relationships and most don't last. The book offers one useful roadmap.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars It's just OK
On one hand, this book was a very boring read in the sense that it just dragged on and on. On the other hand, it seemed pretty informative about alot of issues that arise from the... Read more
Published 11 months ago by slave

2.0 out of 5 stars not what I expected
I thought this book would be a memoir of a woman having suspisions and then finding out about her husband's crossdressing. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Annette Sonnenberg

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but nothing much
Being a Crossdresser, I purchased this book for my Wife to understand the concept of TG/Crossdressing and their life in General. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Matchestic

5.0 out of 5 stars My Husband Betty
In her book "My Husband Betty" Helen Boyd clears up a lot of misconceptions that crossdressing men have of themselves and their way of relating to women. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Man Guy Cheung

4.0 out of 5 stars Insight into male-to-female cross-dressing
For those looking for an insight into male-to-female crossdressing, this is an excellent choice. While it is written from the basis of a wife's point of view, it encompasses far... Read more
Published on August 20, 2008 by David N. Parker

5.0 out of 5 stars Transgenderism
If you are wrestling with the idea of transgenderism, this book will provide insight and inspire you to deep thought about sexuality.
Published on May 21, 2007 by Marina Kushner

1.0 out of 5 stars My Husband Betty: Love, Sex, and Life with a Crossdresser
Boring attempt at being a therapist quoting real professionals and sharing exactly nothing about Betty other than very superficial descriptions. Read more
Published on May 18, 2007 by Robert C. Tomastik

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Book!
It was a beginning for me and opened my eyes. So much so I bought the follow on book from Helen Boyd. Read more
Published on May 9, 2007 by T. Barnes

5.0 out of 5 stars A thorough, balanced, helpful look at M2F transgenderism
I am trans, and have read several books on the phenomenon in the past few months. I found My Husband Betty to be thorough, honest (painfully at times), and very helpful. Read more
Published on September 25, 2006 by td

5.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent, Insightful, and Unique
I could not disagree more with Ian Twain's review, which I think paints a demonstrably unfair picture of both the author's writing and her intent. Read more
Published on May 31, 2006 by Megan K. Pickett

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   


Look for Similar Items by Category

Look for Similar Items by Subject

Search Books by subject:


























i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...
 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.