The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism

Rating:
Summary: An Important and Courageous Book
Review: The book may be the single most important contribution to the contemporary scholarly debate about the origins of homosexuality and transsexuality. Bailey argues that homosexuals may be mapped on a continuum from somewhat feminine to extremely feminine men. The latter category is at risk of becoming transexual depending on their self-perceived passability as women and intrinsic factors that are not well understood.

The other class of transsexuals has nothing in common with homosexuals. Instead, these transsexuals are men who desire gender reassignment because they have an unique paraphilia that causes them to be attracted to the image of themselves as women. This type of transsexuality is called autogynephilia.

Bailey based his book on studies conducted at Canada's Clarke Institute and on case studies of transsexuals he interviewed and observed.

Bailey also includes an extensive section on gender reassignment procedures--the one commonality linking homosexual and autogynephlic transsexuals. There's a lot of information in this section for transsexuals (both types) seeking practical information about surgical options. This is one of the most fascinating sections of the book because it explains in detail what exactly is required for a man to become a complete transsexual.

Bailey charts new territory in this important, lucid, and courageous study of transsexual men. A+ scholarship and highly recommended.




Rating:
Summary: Possibly the Best Book on Transsexualism--Ever
Review: This is a superb book. OK, so the author's ideas are not all that original or all that earth shattering. His conclusions are more or less the widely accepted 21st century views of homosexuality and transsexualism. True, Bailey based his thesis on conceptual frameworks developed by Blanchard, Lawrence, McHugh and other well known, widely accepted and highly esteemed transsexual experts. So what makes Bailey's book so special? Baileys' genius lies in his ability to elucidate complex issues on transsexualism using readily accessible analogies and real life examples from his personal encounters with numerous transsexuals he met in Chicago at bars, clubs, and through friends.

According to Bailey, there are two classes of transsexuals. 1. Effeminate homosexuals of low IQ, limited career prospects, and unstable family backgrounds. These are men driven by the possibility of enjoying virtually unlimited, unrestrained sex with straight (not homosexual)virile men. These transsexuals "look" like women. 2. Older, grayer, "late onset" transsexuals who are usually straight or bisexual, married, over 50, and deeply conflicted. These are men who are desperate to become women, desperate to live out their deepest sexual fantasies, desperate to become the women of their fantasies, desperate to possess very realistic female gentitalia, and, most of all, desperate to be the "object" of intercourse. In the case of (2), it is almost as if these are men who see themselves as women "through the looking glass."

Bailey is not afraid to assert these views. He rejects the simplistic (but fashionable) sociopolitical view that transsexuals are "men trapped in women's bodies." Instead, he espouses the view that these are "men trapped in men's bodies"--regardless of whether they are type one or type two transsexuals. He bases this belief on cold, hard, scientific, and irrefutable facts.

This book will have a wide readership among pre- and post-op transsexuals, psychologists, psychiatrists, families of gay and transsexual men, and others interested in variant sexual behavior/preferences. I would recommend this book to anyone with an open, inquiring mind.



Rating:
Summary: TRASH
Review: TRASH. Need I say more? (All y'all have taken the rest of the words right out of my mouth!)