Rating: 
Summary: 'Normal' folks, read this book!
Review: It's a while since I read Kate Bornstein's *Gender Outlaw*, but my overall impression is that it is a pathbreaking book which drags (!) transsexuality out of the ghetto and into the homes of 'ordinary' people.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: Just after I started my own transition I read this book, and it was possibly the most influential read of my transition. It was truly strengthening and exhilerating, and I found my voice through reading this book. A fantastic read for anyone--not just transgender folks--but especially for those proceeding into transition.
Rating:
Summary: Outlaw Kate.
Review: Kate Bornstein asks questions that are for some uncomfortable. You are asked to question the Gender system as defined by Society. You are also given an insite into the life and feelings of a Transsexual, everything you wanted to ask (well nearly). If you have an interest in Transsexuality or general Gender confusion. Then you may find that you cannot put this book down. I found this book to be well written, funny, sad, confusing. But thoroughly enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Through a lens sideways
Review: Kate Bornstein has written a fabulous book about what it means to be differently gendered. Her experience of being male, being female, being something else entirely, has lead her to ask the question "What is gender, anyway?" This book is the beginning of an answer to that question.Boornstein does not pretend to know the answers to the questions she raises. For the most part, the critical act in this book is raising the questions at all. And even when she has worked out an answer for herself, she is extremely clear (with herself and with the reader) that the boundaries of that answer pretty much end where her body ends and the rest of the world begins. Her experience acts as a prism through which she views everything else about the world (about theatre, about "the lesbian community", about straight marriage, about loving, about medicine and therapy). Her sideways view of things that had previously seemed solid to me helped me re-orient my vision of the world as it is, and as it might be. Come to this book with an open mind, and reading it will open your mind even farther. It is absolutely not required that you agree with everything she has to say, that you interpret her observations the way she does, that you experience the world the way she does. Whatever answers you find for yourself, traveling with this author through her world of questions is a ride which should not be missed.
Rating:
Summary: Through a lens sideways
Review: Kate Bornstein has written a fabulous book about what it means to be differently gendered. Her experience of being male, being female, being something else entirely, has lead her to ask the question "What is gender, anyway?" This book is the beginning of an answer to that question. Boornstein does not pretend to know the answers to the questions she raises. For the most part, the critical act in this book is raising the questions at all. And even when she has worked out an answer for herself, she is extremely clear (with herself and with the reader) that the boundaries of that answer pretty much end where her body ends and the rest of the world begins. Her experience acts as a prism through which she views everything else about the world (about theatre, about "the lesbian community", about straight marriage, about loving, about medicine and therapy). Her sideways view of things that had previously seemed solid to me helped me re-orient my vision of the world as it is, and as it might be. Come to this book with an open mind, and reading it will open your mind even farther. It is absolutely not required that you agree with everything she has to say, that you interpret her observations the way she does, that you experience the world the way she does. Whatever answers you find for yourself, traveling with this author through her world of questions is a ride which should not be missed.
Rating: 
Summary: Destroying Transsexual Civil Rights for Publicity
Review: People under 40 may not know it but once upon a time the phenomeon of transsexualism was treated with taste and even respect in the media. From Christine Jorgensen in the 1950's, Renee Richards in the 1970's, to Caroline Cossey in the 1980's, these ladies received much sympathetic press, far more than of the negative variety. People back then actually "got" transsexuality that it was a gender identity problem that could be corrected through the miracle of science. Many dramatic television shows in the 1970's and 1980's even had episodes sympathetic to the plight of transsexuals from MEDICAL CENTER to even LOVE BOAT. Unfortunately that period is over. Thanks largely in part to loony drag queens calling themselves "transsexuals" and acting like fools on Jerry Springer and other shows, but especially due to this new breed of individuals who call themselves "transgender" and don't want to be thought of as any particular sex (so why bother with expensive surgery?) the legacy of Jorgensen, Richards, Cossey, and other courageous pioneers has all but been trashed by a loud, belligerent band of jokers who have intentionally or not have destroyed the legtimacy of transsexualism in the minds of many to where it is now seen by the general public as some sort of quirk for a bunch of attention-seeking nonentities. And certainly the queen of this movement is Kate Bornstein. Like nearly 100 percent of "transgenders", Bornstein is lesbian-identified. I most definately believe a legitimate transsexual could be essentially lesbian but frankly after reading her book and profiles of a few others it seems clear most are actual extreme transvestites, straight men who like to wear women's clothes and are obssessed with lesbian sex. Transsexuality is just their mode in getting there. Could these people be happy in their chosen sex if they were denied a sex partner? It seems they don't want to really be "women" but want to be "lesbians". (No, I don't understand that either.)
Bornstein has got to be the very defination of an attention-seeker, not only does she publish her email address address in the book and practically beg for responses but she includes in the book's photos a snapshot from a TV screen of her yakking away on some TV talk show. The transgender leaders seem to want (or rather demand) the privileges and benefits of being BOTH male and female rather than being a single gender and accepting the responsibilities and (for lack of a better word) "baggage" that comes with being either a man or a woman. Many expect their "ex" wives to remain with them despite the fact that this would cause upheaval in the XX female's life, force her into a lifestyle she did not choose or is oriented toward and seems to be male bullying of the worst variety. Thanks to the loud transgender movement (proclaiming themselves some sort of third sex or outside the confines of male or female identities, "gender outlaws" as Ms. Bornstein would have it) transsexual civil rights have been crushed and overturned across the nation. Marriages between transsexuals and people of the opposite sex are no longer considered valid (after decades of being accepted as so!!) Transsexuals basically have no rights in the courts now as a person of their chosen gender, perhaps the first real turn-back in civil rights for any group in America.
Congratulations Katie, in your quest for attention and notoriety you have made life much more difficult for thousands of transsexuals across the country. Hope your cheesy "fame" is worth it to you.
Rating:
Summary: Provocative, informative, funny
Review: Seeing gender as simply men and women keeps us locked into our ignorance of the fluidity of our roles, identities, preferences, and sense of self. During our lives, we see ourselves differently at different times. What makes us who we are is complicated, interesting, and often surprising. Author Kate Bornstein reminds us that the simple dichotomy that most people want in gender simply doesn't exist. Asking ourselves the hard questions helps us see ourselves and others as people-beyond gender and its expectations. This is a refreshing book in a society that wants to place everyone into neat little boxes. ~~Joan Mazza, author of DREAM BACK YOUR LIFE; DREAMING YOUR REAL SELF; WHO'S CRAZY ANYWAY? and 3 books in The Guided Journal Series with Writer's Digest Books/Walking Stick Press.
Rating:
Summary: Provocative, informative, funny
Review: Seeing gender as simply men and women keeps us locked into our ignorance of the fluidity of our roles, identities, preferences, and sense of self. During our lives, we see ourselves differently at different times. What makes us who we are is complicated, interesting, and often surprising. Author Kate Bornstein reminds us that the simple dichotomy that most people want in gender simply doesn't exist. Asking ourselves the hard questions helps us see ourselves and others as people-beyond gender and its expectations. This is a refreshing book in a society that wants to place everyone into neat little boxes. ~~Joan Mazza, author of DREAM BACK YOUR LIFE; DREAMING YOUR REAL SELF; WHO'S CRAZY ANYWAY? and 3 books in The Guided Journal Series with Writer's Digest Books/Walking Stick Press.
Rating: 
Summary: The Freaks come out at night 101
Review: Take boring feminist theory, victim ideology and throw in a trans-"gender" and you have "Gender Outlaw". Kate Bornstein's book throws in every two bit cliche. Shamans, angry lesbian feminists and theatre queers. While it was a fun ride for a while I got real tired of the repetitive manifesto of gender. It should be required reading for transsexualology 101 if there ever were a course. Not bad reading, but Kate drags and drags and drags you to crossdress with gender concepts.
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