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Exploring Transsexualism

Author(s) : Colette Chiland

Customer Reviews

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Willow Arune on 08/02/2005

(5 out of 5)

A truly fantastic book!!!

From the viewpoint of transsexual activists, perhaps the most politically incorrect book on the subject, but from any other view the most insightful and "tell-it-like-it-is" view of transexuality available today, perhaps ever. It does not pander to the subject, but treats it in the cold light of reality.

As a transexual woman who can deal with reality, I am overjoyed that a book finally exists that dispells the mythology concerning the subject.

Chiland easily deals with the most prevalent of TS statements ("I am a woman")and treats them with respect, but also with the logic that most ignore. She points to the finacial aspect of SRS as a motivation for some doctors and the need to face the question of SRS directly.

Her book is unique, for it does not avoid the basic questions posed by transsexuality but rather addresses each in turn, with a logic that will force all but the zealots to think.

Caregivers need to read this; transsexual patients need to read this. This book says what it real, not what is myth. Transsexuals who believe in the mythology will be irrate for it does not offer blind support(although it certainly offers compassion) and questions some of their most basic and firmly held beliefs, It questions what has become a standard medical answer in North America and elsewhere.

The transsexual "lobby" has become active in the past years, attacking without mercy those who differ with their mythology. J. Michael Bailey of Northwestern University has been a favoured target. As this book becomes known, it shall be attacked by those who wish us all to follow the demanded cant of "I am woman","I am man". Some may regard it as an attack akin to Janice Raymonds "Transexual Empire" of long ago. It is far from that. While Chiland questions the very foundation of transsexulity and Moneys seperation of "sex" and "gender", there is none of the questionable scholarship and feminist rhetoric to be found in these pages. This book is firmly based in experience and logic.

I suspect that many American readers will react much as they did when France opposed the War in Iraq, with emotional zeal and blind adherance to their view. That is a shame, for Chiland deserves and very careful consideration by all who are or deal with transexual patients. She raises questions that demand answers not blind following of a possibly misguided solution.

The truth hurts. For some, this book will hurt greatly. For those who pause and reflect rationally, it will raise issues long put to the back of the mind, uncomfortable issues that many elect to ignore. Issues that have been ignored for far too long...

A major step in our understanding of this difficult subject.

A Transsexual Woman
Willow Arune
pangarune@shaw.ca