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Janice G. Raymond
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The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male (Athene Series)

by Janice G. Raymond (Author)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 53 ratings
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Fifteen years ago, when it was first published, "The Transsexual Empire" challenged the medical psychiatric definition of transsexualism as a disease and sex conversion hormones and surgery as the cure. It exposed the antifeminist stereotyping that requires candidates for transsexual surgery to prove themselves by conforming to subjective, outdated and questionable feminine roles and "passing" as women. Then as now, defining and treating transsexualism as a medical problem prevents the person experiencing so-called gender dissatisfaction from seeing it in a gender-challenging or feminist framework. Transsexualism goes to the question of what gender is, how to challenge it, and what reinforces gender stereotyping in a role-defined society. In the new introduction to this feminist work, Raymond discusses how these same issues are now debated in the context of transgender. Transgenderism reduces gender resistance to wardrobes, hormones, surgery and posturing - anything but real sexual equality. It assimilates the roles and definitions of masculinity and femininity, often mixing and matching, but never really moving beyond both. In a similar way, transsexualism is thought to be a radical challenge to gender roles, breaking the boundaries of gender and transgressing its rigid lines. But if the transsexual merely exchanges one gender role for another, and if the outcome of such a sex reassignment is to endorse a femininity which, in many transsexuals, becomes a caricature of much that feminists have rejected about many-made femininity, then where is the challenge, the transgression, and the breaking of any real boundaries? This book will be used as a text in women's studies, psychology, sociology, technology and public policy, as well as by medical students, law students, and all who have an interest in feminist issues.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0807762725
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0807762721
  3. Publisher
    Teachers College Pr
  4. Publication date
    March 1, 1994
  5. Language
    English
  6. Dimensions
    6.25 x 0.75 x 9 inches
  7. Print length
    256 pages
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Teachers College Pr (March 1, 1994)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0807762725
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0807762721
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 0.75 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 53 ratings

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Janice G. Raymond

Janice G. Raymond

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Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
53 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Jane
5.0 out of 5 stars loved
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2024
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my first review was deleted. okay. i enjoyed this book immensely. it's presence on my desk alone, without even reading it..enraged my TG ex and he hurt me.

the reason trans identify as trans, is because they can not psychologically transition to "cis" female-identified. the real question Prof Raymond brings up, is: why not?
3 people found this helpful
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Martu
5.0 out of 5 stars Objective and Prescient
Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2017
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Early prescient work on the causes and conditions of the driving forces behind the burgeoning phenomenon of transsexual (now primarily transgender) men who want to be seen as women.

The roles of groupthink in medical practioners, huge profits for pharmaceutical manufacturers, erosion of the rights and even the identity of women, and the social contagion suppressing critical thinking are all getting harder to hide now but Raymond was a voice of warning back then. Reading her now prompts an inevitable, "Oh, yeah. How could we not have seen that?"

The book is not a polemic and sticks to reasoned discourse. When a book like this raises so much ire in the phenomenon it lays bare (like the bad reviews here), you know that book has been right on the mark shedding light on a reality that some would rather keep in the dark.
135 people found this helpful
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J172
1.0 out of 5 stars Horrible
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2016
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Horrible discriminatory book. Ignorant and hateful about transgender people.
9 people found this helpful
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Z.Bryl
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic, ground breaking work
Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2010
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Janice Raymond speaks an inconvient truth about male-to-constructed-females. Raymond takes us through the history of transgender/transsexual surgery and we discover that it is an entirely 20th century phenomenon, created by men, for men.

This is a genuine piece of confronting radical feminist literature. If you're of the opinion that we need to incorporate T into the GBL culture, then this book will open your eyes, and tell you the facts that you're keen to deny. If you're curious as to how transgender has permeated the mainstream and become an acceptable option instead of resistance to patriarchal cultures and standards, and it actually transgresses nothing (except for bank accounts) then this book will let you know the who, what, when, where, how and WHY the trans empire has infiltrated and mucked up the feminist movement.

More people should be reading this instead of that Whipping Girl crap.
120 people found this helpful
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Claire B.
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Classic Feminist Critique of “Trans”
Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2019
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This is a feminist critique of “transgender.” I respect Raymond’s point of view. Nowadays we are not really allowed to criticize “trans” if we are on the left. (To put It bluntly: “trans” has won.) This book was written in the late 1970’s. Raymond feels there is too much emphasis on plastic surgery in the “trans” movement, and I agree. This is a great work of feminist criticism, although, now, Raymond is Public Enemy #1 among many trans rights activists.
102 people found this helpful
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Susan Nunes
4.0 out of 5 stars The truth hurts
Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2010
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This book, first published in 1979, was based on a doctoral dissertation Raymond wrote. Because she tells the truth about people who go through surgical mutilation and being pumped up with hormones in order to be fake men or fake women, obviously many from the transgender community take offense. Those who are male-to-female, the major focus of the book since that is far more common than female-to-male, simply think that because they have this surgery and wear women's clothing and act out a stereotype, that they ARE "female." But they aren't, and they never will be, and they can never understand the experience of being female in a male-dominated society since they were never born female. They are in fact dysfunctional or deviant males, as Raymond writes, and they are rebelling against a male stereotype by trying to act out a female one. These transgendered people believe that the gender they were born was the "wrong" one and that they were living a "lie" until they had surgery when in fact they are living a lie now. I am glad Raymond wrote the book and only wish she would update it. The truth does hurt.
110 people found this helpful
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velvetsnout
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2017
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Excellent book.
60 people found this helpful
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Marcella G.
1.0 out of 5 stars The Malleus Maleficarum for Transsexuals
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2001
Janice Raymond purports to know the motivations of people like myself better than I do. Pressed by an inflexible society where the gender roles are fixed, me, as a chauvinist male pig either not fitting in the gender-role society prescribes to me, or as a remorseful homosexual, take on the identity of a female because I want to re-inforce the stereotypes.
And, in the process, I become an agent of patriarchal authority by infiltrating the sisterhood to destabilize it: "Transsexually constructed lesbian-feminists show yet another face of patriarchy. As the male-to-constructed-female transsexual exhibits the attempt to possess women in a bodily sense while acting out the images into which men have molded women, the male-to-constructed-female who claims to be a lesbian-feminist attempts to possess women at a deeper level, this time under the guise of challenging rather than conforming to the role and behavior of stereotypes femininity." [TTE, re-issue 1994, p. 99].
We ARE the enemy. There can be no other motivation but to put things back into their cages, to fit gender-role and biological-fact. Forget the mind, the feelings, the base itself of feminist ethics -namely, that rules shouldn't be applied rigidly to a case but each case is separate and the circumstances influence the rightness/wrongness of the rule applied.
We, transsexuals, are painted with a very broad brush. What is the solution? "I contend that the problem of transsexualism would be best served by morally mandating it out of existence." [TTE, p. 178]. The "moral mandate" is nicely covered by blaming society for our existence: "The prevention of transsexual surgery, and the social conditions that generate it, are not achieved by legislation forbidding surgery [....] Rather, it is more important to regulate, by legal measures, the sexist, social conditions that generate transsexual surgery...." [TTE, p. 179].
But in the end, a "limitting legislative" presence is suggested: "I would favor restricting the number of hospitals and centers where transsexual surgery could be performed." [TTE, p. 180].
This is a book of hate. Like the Malleus or the Protocols, it takes commonly accepted misconceptions and gives them a "sound theoretical base." Like all bigotted thinking, the argument is ultimately circular but in such a way that if you don't understand the phenomenon in depth, you can be taken in by the book.
The problem is that, by and large, the majority of the population do not understand the problem nor care enough about it as to realize how biased this book is. Two transsexuals are not alike, we, like all people, have multiple motivations -many of them remain hidden even to ourselves.
What we know is that, at a crucial point in our lives, we have to take a step that requires a lot of bravery. And the only reason why someone would risk everything (family, work, friends, etc) is *not* to become an infiltrate agent of the establishment into the "feminist sisterhood", but because, at that point in your life, you have either to live as what you are or just stop living.
Seen from that point of view, this book advocates murder: one cannot stop becoming what one already is.
83 people found this helpful
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Rebel_Against_The-Orthodoxy
5.0 out of 5 stars A worthy addition to the feminist bookshelf
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 8, 2017
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This book is written by the great feminist campaigner Janice Raymond, who is well known for her work against the exploitation of females. In this book she presents a feminist analysis of what was termed 'transsexualism' at the time she was writing; she examines how this concept is harmful to females's rights. That is what an effective feminist analysis should do after all; it should explore how accepted ideologies and practices are harmful to females as a group, and explain why such things should be opposed and fought against by females and those who care about them. This book does exactly that and is therefore an effective feminist analysis of the ideology and practice of transsexualism, as it manifested at the time the book was written.

However, there are two questions people usually ask whenever this book is mentioned. The first is; 'is the book hateful of transgender people'. In this book Raymond explains why the idea of transsexualism is harmful to females, and she does so in a clear and direct manner. In doing this she is prioritising females, not the feelings of males who consider themselves trans, this can be shocking to those who are not used to females being put first and so they can interpret it as being hateful. Those that insist the idea of changing sex is not harmful to females need to demonstrate how she is wrong, and how it is not harmful to females. Simply calling her or the book 'bigoted', 'transphobic' or 'hateful' is not a valid argument, it is in fact just a way of trying to silence feminist critiques and female voices. It is similar to when feminists point out how pornography or prostitution are harmful to females and are called various slurs by those who like those things. Likewise, the book criticises the idea that people can change sex, for the same reason why feminists criticise prostitution and pornography; because these things are harmful to females as a group. Unfortunately it is often the case that when females point out that various practices and ideologies are harmful to females, males (and sometimes even females) who enjoy engaging in those things will often try to silence the female who is speaking out, for obvious reasons. Indeed, trying to silence feminist critiques like that contained in this book with accusations of bigotry etc, so that one can carry on indulging in behaviours and practices that are harmful to females, is actually very transparent. In the end the best way to reach a conclusion about this book is to read it.

The second question people sometimes ask is; 'is this book still relevant all these years after it was first published?' I think it is evident that the ideological belief that someone can change sex and is a reasonable position to hold, is more popular now, than when this book was first written. Therefore, in that way it certainly could be successfully argued to have continued relevancy. However, the term 'transexual' has recently given way to the term; 'transgender' or more specifically in relation to males; 'transwoman'. Furthermore, there are now many more heterosexual men calling themselves 'lesbian transwomen' than there were when Raymond first wrote this book. Moreover, there are now newer texts available that address the conflict between the ideology (that has become known as 'transgenderism') and females rights. For example books such as Gender Hurts by Sheila Jeffreys and Female Erasure by Ruth Barrett do a excellent job of addressing this conflict. Indeed, these newer books examine the impact this increasing trend of heterosexual males calling themselves 'lesbian transwomen' is having on females (particularly lesbian females) legal right to privacy away from these males. They also detail how many lesbians themselves have been sold on the idea of 'transing', and how it is harmful to them, as well as explaining how children are now being harmed by this ideology. These things have either appeared since or gotten much worse since Raymond first wrote this book. Therefore it could be successfully argued that the newer texts are more relevant to the present situation, than Raymond's book.

In summery this book is not hateful, it just prioritises females rights above males feelings. This text has in a way been superseded by more recent texts, however, this text was one of the first to highlight the conflict between females rights and the idea that sex could be changed. Therefore this is a landmark book and for that reason if nothing else it is worth reading. It may not be a substitute for the newer books, but it is good to read along with the newer texts; as it allows one to see how much worse things have gotten for females in this area since Raymond first addressed the problem 35+ years ago. If you can pick it up for a reasonable price then it is certainly well worth a read and a great addition to the feminist bookshelf.
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fashionweb_fit
4.0 out of 5 stars 医療関係者には耳が痛いかも
Reviewed in Japan on March 30, 2003
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ＭＴＦトランスセクシュアルが、男性中心の医療により造り出される人造人間のように扱われているのは噴飯ものだが、医療機関におけるジェンダー・バイアスの問題という見方をすれば、傾聴に値する部分も多い。
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Mika
1.0 out of 5 stars I was disgusted!
Reviewed in Canada on November 6, 2016
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This publication was a total re-write of her 1970s Making Of The She Male andit betrayed everything she forwarded to stay 'relevant' with the APA establishement and, in my opinion, to stay published. I was disgusted!
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Angel
1.0 out of 5 stars A waste of time: Fanatical rather than feminist
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 8, 2016
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TRIGGER WARNING:

A dreary and outdated book. The author appears to advocate hate-crime against trans people by calling for them to be "morally mandated out of existence" and employs what it claims to be "feminist" analysis of transgender people. Unbelieveably for someone claiming to be a feminist she inappropriately uses rape analogies in her attempt to harm and discredit trans people. Despite her claim to be writing from a feminist perspective, I can see little anyone would regard as feminism in this book and nothing to gain from reading it other than an understanding of how fanatical hatred can manifest itself.

Julia Serano's "Whipping Girl" addresses this subject in a much more up-to-date insightful, balanced and interesting approach to this subject.
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