Customer Review
- Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2003J. Michael Bailey is one of the leading academic psychologists specializing in the study of sexual orientation. He is Chair of the Department of Psychology at Northwestern University, author of scores of scientific articles in the field, a holder of numerous National Science Foundation grants, and widely respected among professionals for his adherence to the empirical facts in a field fraught with political landmines and peopled by "vested interests". His "Man Who Would Be Queen" courageously tackles these hard problems with both scholarship and sympathy. Unfortuantely most people can't see beyond their own personal concerns to evaluate the larger scale science. Apparently alienating many on the political right, Bailey summarizes a large body of evidence making it plain that gayness has major "inborn" components (professionals read "high heritability" here), rather than a mere "lefestyle" choice. But, apparently equally iritating to others, Bailey recognizes that there are (at least) two types of male transsexuals. Exactly why this conclusion is so threatening is beyond me. If, as Bailey advocates, we lived in a world where sexual preferences were undestood to be grafted onto the self in utero, it would be no more defensibe to limit the kinds of acceptable selves to 2, 4, 6, or...? Those without an axe to grind and with an honest curiousity about the origins and develepment of sexual orientation will be amply rewarded by this well researched and highly readable book.
