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Rating: 
Summary: this is not feminism
Review: A prime example of hate literature. The author is just trying to feel better by belittling those who are vulnerable to her attacks.
Rating:
Summary: this is not feminism
Review: A prime example of hate literature. The author is just trying to feel better by belittling those who are vulnerable to her attacks.
Rating:
Summary: For Janice Raymond, it's personal
Review: For Janice Raymond, transsexualism isn't a theoretical issue, it's personal. When The Transsexual Empire first appeared in 1979, she tookd the show on the road, attempting to convince the government and anyone else who would listen to outlaw sex reassignment. According to an interview in the late magazine TransSisters, all this bile and malevolence came from an unrequited romance with a transwoman. Considering the hostility she shows toward transsexuals in Empire, it's difficult to imagine Raymond doesn't have a personal issue, whether with having been attracted to a transsexual or having inclinications in that direction herself. Raymond's invective is apparent in the first few pages, when she says, of physician and tennis player Renee Richards, "it takes castrated balls to play women's tennis." No bias there. Uh-uh. Raymond's primary problem with transsexuals is that she expects them to singlehandedly destroy the binary gender system-- while she constructs her own gender identity so as to appear unambiguously female. News flash, Janice Raymond-- transsexuals have no special obligation to fight your fights. Most want only a little personal happiness and have no responsibility to tear down gender barriers for you (although many do). I could understand Raymond's rant if it were published as opinion-- but it purports to be a scientific study. There's evidence that contrary to her claims, she did no interviews at all. What's scary isn't that Raymond is so crazy, but that so many people listened to her, that so many have lacked the ability to differentiate vendetta from science.
Rating:
Summary: Transsexual Empire
Review: I have read both versions of this book. I tried to have an open mind. Dr. Raymond is not trying to have any sort of constructive dialogue with transpeople. She is just pushing a transphobic form of radical feminism. It is possible to constructively critique the male dominated industry that regulates transsexual surgery but Raymond is more interested in attacking transsexual people. It is wrong to call her book the mein kampf against transsexuals but there is little positive in the book. Perhaps someday Dr. Raymond will realize that her book has hurt transpeople and revise it yet again.
Rating:
Summary: Sad
Review: I picked up this publication mainly because of the poor reviews that it had received, which had gained my curiousity. Poor writing aside, this book would be laughable if the author didn't seriously seem to believe her own outlandish claims that Gender Dysphoria is somehow an attempt by men to somehow attack the feminist movement in America. Her outlandish claims (with a complete lack of factual support) make this book outright distrubing. There's a good reason that this book is out of print, and it frankly boggles my mind as to how any reasonably responsible publisher put it out in the first place.
Rating:
Summary: The Malleus Maleficarum for Transsexuals
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A must for collectors
Review: Ms. Raymond must have been dilussioanl when this book was written. Never saw so many misconceptions regarding this subject. Many lies, distortions, and falsehoods re the person, the medical condition, treatment, sociatial acceptance etc. As a member of the TS community, this book is in bad taste. Ms. Raymond did little research on the subject,and only hurt the community. BAD!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: A perspective that doesn't kow-tow to mushy good feelings
Review: Raymond's thesis is a very stimulating discussion of the transsexual "solution". Most of the reviews here obviously have soem investment in supporting a biological approach to what even a majority of physicians see as a psychological issue. While it may be popular, "liberal" and "progressive" to support surgical transgender changes, these "solutions" are far from proven effective. Raymond's book gives a fresh perspective to the issue. Her approach is very feminist and anti-patriarchal. So what? She makes some good points about the issues. Her arguments also have implications that go beyond transsexualism to questions of society's take on what is appropriate for each gender. If you aren't afraid of discussion, then Raymond's ideas are interesting to explore. Especially a good book to read along with "As Nature Made Him" by John Colapinto and Christine Jorgenson's autobiography.
Rating:
Summary: A perspective that doesn't kow-tow to mushy good feelings
Review: Raymond's thesis is a very stimulating discussion of the transsexual "solution". Most of the reviews here obviously have soem investment in supporting a biological approach to what even a majority of physicians see as a psychological issue. While it may be popular, "liberal" and "progressive" to support surgical transgender changes, these "solutions" are far from proven effective. Raymond's book gives a fresh perspective to the issue. Her approach is very feminist and anti-patriarchal. So what? She makes some good points about the issues. Her arguments also have implications that go beyond transsexualism to questions of society's take on what is appropriate for each gender. If you aren't afraid of discussion, then Raymond's ideas are interesting to explore. Especially a good book to read along with "As Nature Made Him" by John Colapinto and Christine Jorgenson's autobiography.
Rating:
Summary: Right on the Mark.
Review: This book was right on the mark. Janice Raymond is a leading cultural mind in radical feminist theorizing. Don't be fooled by the postmodern rhetoric in the past reviews. Janice Raymond addresses the issues in a clear, concise, and reasonable fashion -- from a feminist perspective, a perspective sadly lacking in today's world. Give it a read. The insight will surprise you.
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