Rating: 
Summary: On Becoming
Review: "Crossing" is an honest account of a high-profile intellectual's sometimes terrifying journey to herself through a maze of psychological, social and physical barriers. A noted economist and economics historian, Deirdre McCloskey is currently UIC Distinguished Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago. and a visiting professor at Erasmusuniversiteit Rotterdam. She began this career as Donald McCloskey, and her gender change was heralded by accounts in The Chronicle of Higher Ed and elsewhere.
Arranged in three sections named for a progression of personae -- "Donald," "Dee," and "Deirdre," the book follows decades of furtive cross-dressing to a moment of epiphany in 1994 at the age of 52, followed by learning to "pass"as a woman, by loss of family and some friends, by painful surgery, and on to discovering new friend, and rediscovering the world (and the academic discipline of economics) through the eyes of a woman. Joys -- a child born, named for her -- sorrows -- her own children, long since grown, refusing to acknowledge her. Well paced yet thoughtful, "Crossing" reads like a novel despite its long passages of musing on the economic, social and political aspects of her situation and of that of other crossers, of women, and of men in a "free" society that is severely opressive to those whose free choice is to redefine their gender expression. Want to know more about these issues? Or just want to know a brave new woman better? Buy the book.
The medical profession has labeled crossing as a medical condition, "transsexualism," for which there is a specific cure, an agonizingly slow course of treatment consisting of counseling, mandatory two years living as the other gender, hormone therapy, and gender assignment surgery, most of which is regarded by the insurance industry as strictly elective and uninsurable. McCloskey makes the excellent point, not always made clear, that the two year's waiting game thus mandated is not only quite dangerous to many crossers, due to the activities of "gay" bashers but is in most places illegal. Police, firemen, EMTs, doctors, and nurses have all been known to slow down or even stop rendering assistance when faced with "pre-op" gender crossers. In the case publicised by the 1999 film "Boy's Don't Cry," the attitude of the police actually contributed to the death of a young woman, living as a man, at the hands of intolerant youths. Given the often painful struggle Donald went through to become Deirdre, it is interesting to note that criticism of her memoir is often directed, sometimes by women, to what is thought to be the flaw in her theory of womanhood; the word "stereotyping" is bandied about, in a tone suggesting that it is improper to notice how women move, how men move, and that we know and can tell the difference almost immediately. Such knowledge is vital to the crosser, who needs it in order to survive, yet describing these cultural realities invites ridicule. I think the flaw is in the thinking of the critics here, not that of our author. Stereotyping is simple habituation -- the habitual awareness of characteristics statistically common to a population -- raised to a pernicious art form by its being applied to individuals in order to objectify them. It's a power move, used either by oppressed or oppressors, to dehumanize the opposition. When Deirdre McCloskey observes male behavior and its consequences, or female behavior she wishes to learn, in individuals, this is not sterootyping, it's recognition -- since she has no agenda to objectify anyone. The chapter on the women's culture of gifts -- required reading for anyone hoping to make this a better world -- should be convincing on this point. One of the deepest attractions of womanhood to a gender-crossing male is the opportunity to inhabit a space of caring, of not needing to play the game of winning. McCloskey says it best: "One of the policemen asked Dee, 'Is this about money?' He meant: You obviously are not crazy; is your sister trying to get you declared crazy in order to take over some inheritance? 'No,' said Dee, "It's about love."
Rating:
Summary: Crossing: A Personal Journey
Review: As a transgendered individual and, coincidentally, an economist I looked forward to reading Deirdre McCloskey's book. I was not disappointed. In considering transition every transgendered person has to weigh their own personal costs in moving forward. By sharing her experiences, Dr. McCloskey has helpd me put things in perspective. Her greatest gift to me was the acceptance that being transgendered is not a choice, but what I do about it is. Choices have costs and Crossing makes Dr. McCloskey's painfully clear. The memoir is a candid narrative of a personal journey to self. (...)
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Deirdre McCloskey has chosen to write her story in three sections. The first deals with Donald, a married heterosexual crossdresser who is also a respected and well-known free trade economist. This life is changed by Donald's recognition that, at age fifty-two, he actually identifies as a woman, and wishes to begin living as such. Enter Dee, the identity Donald chose while he went about transforming his life. This transformation was not received well by Donald's wife, children or sister. Dee is subject to legal and medical impediments in her efforts to obtain cosmetic surgery, but is heartened by the support she finds within the academic community and from other women. Dee also describes the behaviour she had to learn in order to be accepted as a woman, supporting arguments that gender is a process of acculturation. Finally, Dee becomes Deirdre who undergoes the removal of her penis, and other surgical procedures to successfully "cross". However, she does this at the expense of her family, although her acceptance in the academic world remains. This book provides interesting and informative perspectives on the approach that the medical profession takes toward transgendered people. However, I found it unemotional and unengaging. Her upper-middle class and educational status cushion Deirdre's transition, and her experience is, I think, atypical of the life of many transgendered people. I am also critical of her elevation of women to some sort of emotional saints, as well as her frequent disparaging comments about men. To me, this seemed to be an attempt at demonstrating her "belongingness". Furthermore, Deirdre confines her prescriptions of "women's behaviour" to that of heterosexual women, with disparaging remarks about lesbian separatists. Little sympathy is given to Deirdre's wife, portrayed as "manly" due to her withdrawal of emotional support. Ironically, in a book written by one who has "crossed" from one gender to another, this work retains aspects of essentialism, which do not necessarily serve the purpose of furthering the understanding of people about gender issues.
Rating:
Summary: The Courage to be Yourself
Review: Donald McCloskey is a masculine man, a university professor, a renowned economist, a father and husband. Professor McCloskey wants to think he's just a heterosexual cross-dresser, what else could it be? But there was a secret he was hiding, since youth, from everybody -even from HERself:"'As a man I love women'. At one level he was a happy young man, exercising his new manly body and manly duties and privileges, a coat and tie and chino pants for school and college. Only at another, buried level did he wish to be a young woman. 'Nothing to be done. You're a man. Report for duty'." [Crossing, p. 9.] According to current gender identity theories, Prof. McCloskey should be considered a "secondary transsexual": someone moving through stages, from rare cross-dressing to persistent cross-gender living to transsexualism. According to such theories, he was also a psychiatric case. How can a well-adjusted, productive, mature member of society have a place in the DSM-IV? How can a "secondary transsexual" have had such a clear idea of her own identity since youth? Transsexual theories are wrong for a simple reason: they assume that, since we all share a "disorder", we're all nutcases who don't deserve to be treated as individuals. Hence, we're all thrown into the basket: primary transsexuals behave like the opposite gender since their early childhood and are attracted to members of their own sex; secondary transsexuals start as cross-dressers, doing it for the sexual kicks; both of them are psychiatric cases. Prof. McCloskey is not an exception. She has to jump through the hoops, run the races and stand the "cuckoo's nest". The first part of the book (Donald) tells of her early life as a man, her early cross-dressing, her marriage, and her epiphany: the realization that it was not the clothes, but the identity. The second part (Dee) is, in my opinion, the most gut-wrenching, relevant and scary. Psychiatry has created a monster: to be considered a "real" TS, the candidate must regurgitate all the "symptoms" spelled in the Book. Since most transsexuals are highly literate people (the IQ as a group is high, although it can be explained by the fact that those among us looking for help through the regular channels must have heard of this rather obscure condition in the first place, and must have enough acumen to know where to go and whom to talk, and what to do after help is not found the first several times), it is very common for candidates to prepare for a session with the psychiatrists and just say what they are supposed to, thus re-inforcing the stereotypes and giving the system more ammunition to classify us all as an homogeneous group of people suffering of a single "disorder": "The young woman psychiatrist asked Dee the usual questions, mentally running down a checklist of the gender-crossing illness. "When did you first want to be female?" "Were you effeminate as a child?" Dee could see the psychiatrist's eyebrows rise when she got an answer that did not fit the conventional "diagnostic" list thrown together for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders out of junk science. Dee thought, 'She does not realize how silly the list is'[....] Dee started lying. They all do it. A psychiatrist proposes to withhold a desired and harmless life from a free, sane adult based on no scientific evidence and no intelligent empathy for the patient and no understanding that the DSM's list of symptoms rewrites the society's myths about gender." [p. 144] The last part (Deirdre) talks mostly of her adaptation as a woman and her acceptance -and some rejection- in her new role. I must mention that Deirdre was interned three times in a mental institution (for a few hours each time, though) due to the opposition of her sister (another professor, this time of *gasp* Psychology!). She lost her wife, she lost her children, but she fought hard to retain the respect as an academic from her peers. This is a very courageous story. Don't allow yourself to be taken back by her stereotypes: we all have more than a few, and some of them do apply. I cried my eyes out reading about her loses, I cheered when she could pull through it all. But, in the end, we're left with a sad note: Deirdre is alone, the perfect mate has not materialized, although hope is always there. This is a must read for any intelligent adult person starting the TS road towards their own self. A note about the literary style: I found it superb. In the first chapter, she talks of Donald as is HE were a different person, and for a good reason (getting exactly why she does it is part of the education of any non-TS reading the book, I guess). In the second part, Dee avoids using personal pronouns and when S/HE uses them, S/HE tends to use the masculine in the first half of that section and the feminine in the second. Deirdre has finally assumed HER identity, and talks always in the first person. A very nice way to put the journey in self-referential linguistic terms.
Rating:
Summary: Vital Lesson for Everyone
Review: Dr. McCloskey has documented her transition from male to female in this harrowing memoir. The costs of gender role change are potentially high in our society--McCloskey is held against her will in the locked ward of a psychiatric hospital for the sole reason of her intention to do so. She is assessed by ignorant and bigoted doctors who cannot distinguish between Gender Identity Disorder and homosexuality, and faced with their recommendation to a judge to stop her transition for a year. Legal bills mount up to thousands of dollars to fight her committment to psychiatric hospitals. Her family is shattered, her marriage disintegrates. And all for the right to live as she wishes to; as she believes she truly is. The psychiatric community comes off very badly in her tale, as do many other medical professionals--ignorant, money-mad, self-serving. Not all of Crossing is bleak, however. Some medical professionals, notably Dr. Douglas Ousterhout--whose plastic surgery, as revealed in before and after pictures, is truly amazing--are revealed as caring professionals who see their patients as individuals. And McCloskey finds support among friends, professional colleagues, and the transgendered community. Ultimately her crossing, although costly, is successful. Some readers will be dismayed by the third person narrative; it is not, I believe, an affectation like the royal "we", but simply an effective way to let the reader know which gender role was being publically presented at the time. Other readers (and some of the reviewers below) have called McCloskey's views on gender "stereotypical"--a charge I find laughably ironic; or her decision to transition at the expense of her marriage "selfish"--a charge that would be laughable if it weren't so deplorably ignorant and potentially harmful. The real issues of selfishness and harm come down to McCloskey's marriage. This is never an easy issue for married transsexuals; but where the wife is completely resistant to even learning about transsexuality compromise is not possible; where compromise is not possible it is inevitable that one side or another is open to the charge of selfishness. Selfishness, however, must not be confused with self-concern. Being forced to live in a disturbing gender role is as harmful (or more so) as getting a divorce after a long marriage. And in recounting the relationship and its dissolution, McCloskey is as hard on herself as she is on others. Even though Crossing is a memoir, it is not a self-serving one. McCloskey's tale is vitally important, and it reaches far beyond the immediate subject of gender change. Its lesson is that everyone, short of harming another, has the right to live as they choose; that prejudice and fear must not be allowed to force our lives into confining patterns that scar our souls.
Rating:
Summary: Scholar Finds True Self
Review: I found Deirdre's memoir refreshing, honest, and insightful, as well as humorous. Deirdre is not an author who takes her self too seriously, though dealing with personal experiances that are both serious and painful. Her story brought back memories of my childhood. My mother was misdiagnosed as a schizophrenic and institutionalized when I was 7 years old. I highly recommend this book. It does have some "mild profanities" such as "jeez" and "God" (used litely in the beginning, but it turns into a heart felt prayer)
Rating: 
Summary: It made me angry
Review: i was afraid the story would be dry and distant, after all, it was penned by an economist and historian...yawn! but it turned out to be emotional and real. i found myself captivated by her stuggles with her doctors, the strength and dignity that always defines someone wanting to be true. i loved that glimpse into another world, it makes you appreciate the difference in all our lives. Plus it was a great read!
Rating:
Summary: A Well-Written Memoir with Insight into Gender Issues
Review: Kudos for the first completely honest and exceptionally well-written presentation of the difficult road a transgendered person must travel to define his/her place in the world. I was especially pleased to see how well-balanced this book is and the obvious pains the author took to show the many sides of this issue. Especially impressive are those instances where Ms. McCloskey is able to describe the mistreatment, lack of understanding, and downright cruelty of others without lapsing into vengeful remarks or angry tirades. Instead of using it to deride the mistreatment she received at the hands of the ignorant, Deidre's multi-dimensional story leaves the reader with an empathy for the plight of the so-called 'transsexual' and the need for us to rethink our view of the subject. Through her story we begin to understand in a very personal way the limiting nature of the male and female definitions of gender. This is not a historical or medical book. As the subtitle says, it's a memoir. I've struggled through books on this subject by other transgendered writers like Rikki Wilchins and Kate Bornstein, but this is the first I've found that is written in a way that makes the subject accessible to those who haven't had to deal with this situation. Ms. McCloskey has adopted a use of the third person which is wholly appropriate to her subject. Given the pronoun limitations for referencing gender, she has done a remarkable job of presenting the different aspects of herself while retaining the sense of a completely unified individual. As an educator and writer, I believe that "Crossing" should be recommended reading for people of all ages. As we grapple more and more with gender issues, Deidre McCloskey's book provides the kind of understanding and appreciation of the experiences of all gender variant persons we need to hear. Like Ms. McCloskey, one of my oldest and dearest friends is an economist. I plan to give him a copy of the book for Christmas.
Rating:
Summary: An education about gender identity
Review: McCloskey's "Crossing" describes the difficulties and joys encountered by a highly respected academic in transitioning from a 50-something-year-old libertarian conservative male economic historian to a post-op female economic historian/feminist. The story focuses on McCloskey's gender identity, its interplay with her personal relationships, and her internal dialogue about each, as she changes from genetic male married for over 30 years to the same woman with two grown children and established social networks in a small Iowa community, to a single post-operative female economist/feminist facing a seriously altered and in some ways much richer set of social relationships. While the post-op McCloskey seems to gravitate toward some of the more traditional roles played by women, the reader should not be fooled into believing that she is therefore advocating these roles for all women. The post-op McCloskey remains a world-class educator, albeit with slightly different interests. The story is not about promoting a conservative view of women's roles; instead, it's about the acceptance and love of female identity in all of its forms. McCloskey's story highlights the archaic state of psychiatric treatment for gender crossers, and the difficulties apparent in securing needed medical assistance and the resources to pay for it. Equally important are the hopeful tales of friendship, community and cultural acceptance shared throughout the book. This book is an easy read, has its share of intrigue to move you through the pages, and is well the time and effort.
Rating:
Summary: Economist transformed
Review: This is a memoir of a prominent economist who suffers from gender identity disorder. Born Donald McCloskey, the author indulges in cross-dressing until mid-life and eventually undergoes sex reassignment surgery and "becomes" a woman. One wonders if she is truly transsexual or merely a repressed homosexual (indeed, a psychiatrist raises the possibility, loudly). I didn't find the book all that engaging; I grew bored with the author's continual defensiveness, and self-pitying posture. She divides the world into those who support her and Enemies. The latter category consists of anyone who questions her intentions. She skips the usual one or two year waiting period and accompanying psychological analysis required of transsexuals planning sex reassignment surgery in the United States. Why bother, when you can have it done in Australia without all the fuss? After she has "the" operation, she spends the rest of the book honing nineteenth ideals of femininity and asking herself over and over "Did I pass, did I pass?" It gets rather tedious.
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