Buy new:

$22.95

List Price: $25.95 Details

Save: $3.00 (12%)

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery: Tuesday, Sep 7 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Details

This title will be released on September 7, 2021.
As an alternative, the Kindle eBook is available now and can be read on any device with the free Kindle app.

$$22.95 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Secure transaction

Ships from	Amazon.com
Sold by	Amazon.com

Details

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Return policy: This item is returnable

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

Share <Embed>

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See this image

Follow the Author

Helen Joyce

Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality Hardcover – September 7, 2021

by Helen Joyce (Author)

124 ratings

in Gender & the Law

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$12.99

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$22.95

—

Pre-order Price Guarantee. Details

Great on Kindle

Great Experience. Great Value.

Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.

View Kindle Edition

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

'In the first decade of this century, it was unthinkable that a gender-critical book could even be published by a prominent publishing house, let alone become a bestseller.' Louise Perry, New Statesman

'This rigorous and brave book nails the absurd idea that sex is just a “social construct”' David Aaronovitch, The Times

'A tour de force.' Evening Standard

Knowing more has never meant more.

Gender identity ideology is about more than twitter storms and using the right pronouns. In just ten years, laws, company policies, school and university curricula, sport, medical protocols, and the media have been reshaped to privilege self-declared gender identity over biological sex.

People are being shamed and silenced for attempting to understand the consequences of redefining ‘man’ and ‘woman’. While compassion for transgender lives is well-intentioned, it is stifling much-needed inquiry into the significance of our bodies.

If we recommit to our liberal values of freedom of belief, freedom of speech and robust debate, we scan de-escalate this most vicious of culture wars.

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Oneworld Publications
Publication date

September 7, 2021
Dimensions

5.3 x 1.1 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

0861540492
ISBN-13

978-0861540495
See all details

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Debra Soh
966
Hardcover
50 offers from $17.47
Linda Blade
60
Paperback
2 offers from $11.82
Brian Belovitch
88
Hardcover
25 offers from $2.15
Ruth Barrett
87
Paperback
11 offers from $19.25
Noelle Mering
82
Hardcover
23 offers from $20.35
Kenny Xu
100
Hardcover
3 offers from $24.99

What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Debra Soh
966
Hardcover
50 offers from $17.47
Ben Shapiro
1,263
Hardcover
in Political Parties
38 offers from $12.25
Mark R. Levin
4,718
Hardcover
in United States National Government
50 offers from $14.75
Michael Knowles
883
Hardcover
17 offers from $22.18
Helen Pluckrose
3,157
Hardcover
49 offers from $11.84
Kenny Xu
100
Hardcover
3 offers from $24.99

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Linda Blade
60
Paperback
2 offers from $11.82
Debra Soh
966
Hardcover
50 offers from $17.47
Carole Hooven
34
Hardcover
33 offers from $18.38
Kurt Schlichter
364
Paperback
5 offers from $13.49
Charles Murray
355
Hardcover
22 offers from $12.99
Lisa Marchiano LCSW NCPsyA
84
Paperback
28 offers from $12.93

Special offers and product promotions

Pre-order Price Guarantee! Order now and if the Amazon.com price decreases between your order time and the end of the day of the release date, you'll receive the lowest price. Here's how (restrictions apply)

Editorial Reviews

Review

‘A frighteningly necessary book: well-written, thoroughly-researched, passionate and very brave.’ -- Richard Dawkins

‘A courageous, intelligent and important work, rooted in good science and common sense.’ -- Jenni Murray

'I'm off the fence...This rigorous and brave book nails the absurd idea that sex is just a “social construct”' -- David Aaronovitch, The Times

'A superlative critical analysis...With this fact-filled, humane, and brave book, a grown-up has entered the room.' -- The Telegraph

'A tour de force. With a fine eye for detail, she brings all the elements of gender ideology together with clarity and precision...simply a must-read' -- Evening Standard

'How do we want to live? How do we want our children to live? Helen Joyce tackles this matter. Buy her book for your teenagers. Give it to your boss. Send it to the head of HR. Place it on a bench at the Royal Academy. Sex matters. Tell everyone.' -- The Article

'Helen Joyce has written a very important, enlightened and powerfully-argued book on one of the most controversial issues of our times. For anyone who wants to understand the spirit of the age, its complexities and challenges, and how to map a truly progressive way forward. Riveting from start to finish.' -- Matthew d'Ancona, Editor and Partner, Tortoise Media

‘A searing analysis of the transgender debate that has dominated much of public discourse in Scotland in recent years, at least among feminists… I urge you to read Helen Joyce’s book… It may well offer you a new perspective on this most troubling of national conversations. It may even change your mind.’ -- Susan Dalgety addressing Nicola Sturgeon in the Scotsman

‘This is the book every woman should read. It explains how we’re being erased, how our arguments are being distorted, and the cost of standing up...Brilliant, coruscating, brave.’ -- Joan Smith, author of Misogynies

'The author brave enough to take on the trans lobby' -- Mail Online

‘Incisive, compassionate and nuanced…In the first decade of this century, it was unthinkable that a gender-critical book could even be published by a prominent publishing house, let alone become a bestseller.’ -- Louise Perry, New Statesman

'Well-researched, compelling...a deeply compassionate reminder that there are real trade-offs to be made in human rights activism.’ -- Ayaan Hirsi Ali

‘There are few subjects which need treatment that is at once delicate, thoughtful and brave. Helen Joyce manages all of these things in Trans. Anyone looking to understand this most fraught of issues should start here.’ -- Douglas Murray, author of The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race, Identity

'A sane, humane book.' -- Daniel Dennett, author of Consciousness Explained

About the Author

Helen Joyce is The Economist’s Britain editor, where she has held several senior positions, including Finance editor and International editor. Before joining The Economist in 2005 she edited Plus, an online magazine about mathematics published by the University of Cambridge. She has a PhD in mathematics from University College London. Since becoming interested in gender-identity ideology, she has written for several outlets on the subject. On Twitter, she is @HJoyceGender.

Start reading Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality on your Kindle in under a minute.

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

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oneworld Publications (September 7, 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0861540492
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0861540495
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.3 x 1.1 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #10,675 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1 in Gender & the Law (Books)
- #6 in LGBTQ+ Demographic Studies
- #22 in General Gender Studies

Customer Reviews:
124 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		87%
4 star		4%
3 star		3%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star		7%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Amazon Customer

Priceless resource

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2021

Verified Purchase

A breath of fresh air! Finally a straightforward look real implications of the gender identity movement. There needs to respectful intellectual discussion on this topic. This book is not transphobic but rather presents a history of how we got there from thoughts to real life application and its impact on the society as a whole.
It examines ideas not individuals, and creates conversation on how ideas impact reality. I can’t put it down!

107 people found this helpful

Helpful

Meg

The narrative that sex doesn't matter allows sexism to spread completely unchecked

Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2021

Verified Purchase

Very honest, thorough, and well-researched assessment of what is going on in the sociopolitical world of gender politics and how this affects women and girls in society. A must read.

96 people found this helpful

Helpful

Courtney

You will not want to put this logic bomb down once you’ve started reading.

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2021

Verified Purchase

This is the most important book I have ever read. It’s brilliantly written, well structured and you will not want to put it down.

96 people found this helpful

Helpful

Patrick Butler

Helen Joyce delivers what each chapter promises

Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2021

Verified Purchase

While her chapter titles are clever, they are not helpful. Not so the chapter subtitles listed below. I found that each chapter fully delivers what its subtitle promises.

1. A brief history of transsexuality
2. Why some men want to be women, and why some people don’t want you to know
3. Gender identity 101
4. The catastrophic consequences of an adult ideology for gender-dysphoric minors
5. Why teenage girls are identifying out of the prospect of womanhood
6. How gender-identity ideology harms all children
7. How gender-identity ideology erases women
8. Why female-only spaces matter so much for women
9. How gender self-identification threatens to destroy women’s sports
10. The American Left’s embrace of gender self-identification
11. Transactivism’s long march through the institutions
12. How transactivism is chipping away at civil society
13. How British women are starting to fight back
Conclusion: Where do we go from here?

48 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amatullah

Even handed

Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2021

Well structured and easy for a layperson to follow. A dispassionate, even handed take on the illogical and harmful trend of denying biological sex and by extension denying girls and women personhood.

66 people found this helpful

Helpful

margot

Impressive effort. Yet scattered, sensationalistic, unresolved.

Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2021

Verified Purchase

One must be impressed at how Helen Joyce, a financial writer, dived headfirst into this mare’s nest of controversy. Her career experience gives her a clear, readable prose style, and a willingness to attempt mind-numbing thickets that most people would prefer to ignore.

However this also means her presentation is often overly simplified, much like the glib casuistry that characterizes cover stories and leaders in The Economist. The book is like a PowerPoint presentation where the bullet-points are demonstrable nonsense. At one point she claims that phenotypic females with anomalous XY sex-chromosome conditions—there are a number of these—occur about once every 20,000 live births. But a cursory summation of the commonest XY female conditions suggests a frequency of at least 3 per thousand. Then she discusses a specific intersex condition (here abbreviated as 5-ARD), one in which ostensibly female children turn "male" around age 12. She tells us this oddity occurs most frequently in “regions of South America.” Actually the locales that usually get cited are Hispaniola in the Caribbean (q.v. "guevedoces"), and New Guinea. An editorial fact-checker might have been useful here, but apparently commercial publishers have done away with them, along with copy editors.

If the book is “about” anything, it’s a review of tabloid sensationalism. Instead of deeply ruminative porridge, Joyce serves us a smorgasbord of ephemeral hash from the last few years of bog-media. Again and again she gawps at the figure of Jazz Jennings, alias Bloshinsky, the dusky youngster from Florida whose mismanaged sex-change got broadcast through reality TV and kiddie books. Then there's Keira/Quincy Bell from north of London, another mixed-race youth, who took testosterone from 18 to 22 before publicly expressing regret, thereby becoming a poster-child for a certain political faction. And on to Maya Forstater, a tax accountant who tried and failed to get a regular job at an American think-tank where she’d done some consulting gigs. When the London office didn’t hire her in 2019, she filed an industrial-tribunal complaint that she had “lost her job” because she liked to share her rarified "philosophical beliefs" via truculent, off-color social-media posts.

The book's deeper historical overview is similarly lurid, full of misinformation that looks to have been gleaned from the Daily Mail or Twitter. She describes Harry Benjamin—an endocrinologist, gerontologist and colleague of Alfred Kinsey who died at 101 in 1986—as having begun his career as “out-and-out-quack.” It seems that when Harry was a freshly minted, Berlin-trained physician, he briefly assisted in testing a tuberculosis vaccine derived from attenuated bacilli in turtle urine. The turtle aspect made for some amusing news stories back in 1913. But the “turtle vaccine” was not a “fake” or a “fraud,” as Joyce claims, any more than Dr. Salk’s rhesus-monkey vaccine would be in the 1950s. (The turtle-vaccine adventure is recounted in Ethel Person’s ‘The Sexual Century,’ 1999, a book that does not appear in Joyce’s endnote apparatus.) Harry’s gerontological specialization in the 1930s is likewise dismissed by Joyce as quackery, although sexual rejuvenation was a lively and respected field at the time, made notable by such luminaries as Eugen Steinach (q.v.) and my cousin O. S. Lowsley, “the father of prostate surgery.” Joyce depicts the elderly Harry Benjamin becoming fascinated by transsexualism when he meets Christine Jorgensen “at a dinner party” in 1953. But this was not a random social collision, it was an arranged introduction by an old literary-circle friend of Harry’s, the novelist Tiffany Thayer. Mr. Thayer was a founder and longtime president of the Fortean Society, which promoted the work of both Kinsey and Benjamin in its monthly journal. Fortean Tiffany was hereby introducing Fortean Harry to a most Fortean subject. A tasty nugget of cultural history, but Helen Joyce rushes past it with an uninformed sneer.

Then we have April Ashley, who according to Joyce performed as a “dancer in a Paris burlesque club” when she was 20, under the name of Toni Arthur. Well, April was no dancer; Le Carrousel was no burlesque house (rather a pricey, touristy cabaret off the Champs Elysées); while April’s stage name was Toni April, April being her birth month. “Arthur” was actually the Christian name of her first husband, the Hon. Mr. Corbett, later Lord Rowallan. (Copy editors and fact checkers, please!) Incidentally, April is still with us in her mid-80s. A more resourceful author than Joyce would have rung her up. Discussing the legal climate of the era, Joyce claims that in the 1960s it was impossible in Great Britain to change one’s birth-certificate sex. Wildly untrue. Michael Dillon and Ewan Forbes, both physicians, re-registered themselves as males after sex reassignment in the 1940s and 50s; in the same era, Roberta Cowell and Georgina Turtle likewise obtained birth certificates as females.

“Women’s sports” is a worthy cause in general, and it’s an easy play to denounce people of intersex or transsex background by insinuating that “men” are invading women’s sports. Though it's notable how the onetime females who now compete as men are conveniently overlooked when the general subject comes up. As is the fact that competitive athletics are a marginal concern for the better part of the distaff population. Left to their own devices, most girls past age 10 do not deeply desire to play football (any kind), baseball, cricket, wrestling, boxing, lacrosse; they don’t want to row crew, don't wish to press barbells or throw the hammer, have no desire to be another Megan Rapinoe. A few competitive activities, such as horseback riding, lawn tennis, badminton, skeet shooting, and field hockey were acceptable feminine pursuits 150 years ago, and they continue to be popular today. But most girls’ sports at the secondary and collegiate level today often look like Affirmative Action fakery, a faddish confidence game declaring that “we’re as good as the boys”— though we know perfectly well we’re not. (Not that most of us care; we did track or crew in high school mainly to get into Princeton, and kept it up at university because our social lives coalesced around it.)

Helen Joyce, coming from a large and sporty family, pushes hard with a special pleading about the natural handicaps of young women in sports. The Female of the Species acquires extra fat as she matures, you see—to feed future babies; and then there’s the business with the hips and pelvis being shaped just so…et cetera, et cetera. The trouble with all this Robert Ardrey stuff is that it doesn’t quite jibe with reality. Young men and women of the same approximate gene pool, height, and weight are NOT particularly different in build. Distance and middle-distance runners all tend to be slender and narrow-hipped, whether male or female. Broad-pelvised, oddly jointed females seldom appear in track & field, just as achondroplastic dwarves don’t turn up on swim teams. So Joyce’s evolutionary/developmental pleading is a false argument. The fundamental athletic difference between the sexes, once you get away from extraordinary elite males like Michael Phelps, is that females by and large don’t have an overwhelming competitive drive. Not for sports, anyway. And then there are other key factors that Joyce conveniently sidesteps. She tells how some Connecticut public high-school girls tried to sue the state school board after they were beaten in a couple of sprint events by what they refer to as "males" or "transgenders." But she leaves out the most visible characteristics of these latter sprinters: they were black! We may not be privy to these sprinters’ medical history, but we can see what they look like, and they look pretty much like other black female sprinters, age 16 or 17. If you want to argue for racially segregated athletics, that’s another issue for another time. But couching your resentment by saying you were beaten by "males" rather than beaten by ”blacks" is a cowardly, sour-grapes stance.

In a plenary chapter, subtitled “Where Do We Go From Here?”, Joyce points and splutters about perceived outrages, while conceding that she has no real solutions to anything. She’s painted herself into a corner by nodding her approval of things like Diversity and gay marriage, so has no moral or logical argument against people who claim to have changed sex when they haven’t, or say they are “nonbinary” or “gender fluid.” Nevertheless, in spite of my carping, the book is very readable, sometimes enjoyable, frequently irritating. Significantly, Amazon released the book only in hardcover at their UK site, on the same day (July 15) that it released Kindle and hardbound formats in the US. This cannot have been accidental. Dozens of five-star reviews immediately appeared at Amazon UK—often strident, three-line puffs by people who hadn't made a Verified Purchase at Amazon, which to Amazon means you didn't buy or read it at all. (If you bought it from Blackwell's, people, kindly let us know.) In America the response has been sparse and sedate. Why is there such a fuss over these matters in Great Britain? A likely reason is that expression of traditional biases and disdain is now illegal there, thanks to a succession of onerous Race Relations Acts. Whom then can you still hate and abuse, legally? Why not some obscure, invisible minority whom you never see but can rant about on Twitter?

16 people found this helpful

Helpful

plc28

Hard facts versus propaganda

Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2021

Verified Purchase

Helen Joyce "Trans" is on the most important, well researched books of the last years. It presents with good argumentation and will help the reader in which crazy brainwashed times we live in.

14 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jon N

Imperative for those concerned about misogynistic gender ideologues

Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2021

Verified Purchase

Anyone with even a modicum of concern for effects of modern (misogynistic) gender identity ideology, particularly on kids, needs to read this. Contains a weath of well-sourced information and background on the subject matter. Well written, thoughtful, and above all, written clearly in good faith, as a way to convey the serious issues faced by trans-identifying adults as well as other interested people who are aghast at a rapidly changing, fallacious gender spectrum movement which has gone totally off the rails intellectually and morally.

9 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

MumofBoyz

An important overview of the current situation with regard to gender ideology

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 15, 2021

Verified Purchase

Women all over the UK are leading the way in fighting back against this nonsense. You are born male or female and remain the same until you die. However you wish to present yourself, your underlying biology never changes.

Helen Joyce has written an excellent overview of the current situation. I recommend this book very highly. So readable and comprehensive.

Now all right thinking people must unite and reclaim common sense and reality.

311 people found this helpful

Luke

Great book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 15, 2021

Verified Purchase

Brilliant as ever from Helen Joyce. Compassionate but clear-eyed about the costs of ignoring material reality in favour of feelings.

227 people found this helpful

Gabrielle

Important and well researched

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 16, 2021

Verified Purchase

This subject is emotive. People are cancelled for even daring to write about the history of the ideology.
But, unless it is discussed calmly, with Historical accuracy as this book does, we will never get to a common understanding of what gender ideology means, and why women are concerned.
Well written, clear and well researched. A much needed book.

206 people found this helpful

Delafield

Outstanding analysis

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 16, 2021

Verified Purchase

In-depth, thorough analysis that provides historical context and yet is highly readable. Shines a much-needed light on a complex topic, and will hopefully be read by many - from ordinary voters to policy makers.

161 people found this helpful

Klee

Superb explanation of current Trans debate

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 16, 2021

Verified Purchase

I couldn't put this book down and managed to read it in one sitting. Helen has a very clear writing style which makes for an easy read. Although I consider myself well researched on the current debate there was plenty in there to educate me.

142 people found this helpful