Transgender Nation

by Gordene Olga MacKenzie

Book Overview

In the United States we are bombarded with gender propaganda that supports a repressive dual gender system pitting the genders against each other. Transgenderists as gender nonconformists challenge us to rethink traditional discourses on sex and gender. Transgender Nation investigates the male-to-woman transgenderist and transsexual from a sociocultural and sociopolitical perspective maintaining that it is not the individual transgenderist...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0879725966
• ISBN13: 9780879725969
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Length: 198 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Gender Is The Mine Field That We Pass Through Everyday

The American society polarizes the genders in many different and harmful ways. The polarization has roots in our massive merchandising economy, our religions, our fears, our ignorance and more. Males and females are so polarized in our society that it is truly a tragedy. Actually, males and females are very much the same people who have been exposed to various varying hormone baths starting early in the womb. Some of these hormone baths are natural and some are manmade. In simple terms it is testosterone vs. estrogen. We all have both hormones, but in varying concentrations. After birth we make our own hormones based on our genetic codes and on our exposure to environmental factors. Our gender characteristics are on a continuum. Only a few of us are the "perfect" male or the "perfect" female. The tremendous polarization in our society is acting as if there was no continuum. As we all try to fit in to our place in this polarization we may face many challenges of clinical depression, self esteem and self identity. In the United States one's gender is all too often determined by one's anatomical sex, no matter how ambiguous it might happen to be. From birth we are bombarded with gender propaganda that supports a regressive dual gender system pitting the sexes (genders) against one another. Transgender Nation looks at the male to female journey some people take as they try to find their place on the continuum. One example of our society's polarizing the genders is that restrooms in our society are almost always polarized into men and women. This is even done in the many restrooms where only one person enters at a time so privacy is not an issue. Making these private restrooms male or female is just one sad example of how our society polarizes the genders.

This book highlights the sociopolitical aspect of TG

This book highlights the sociopolitical aspect of transgender.The author says the ultimate solution of transgender is the change of USA's bipolarism society.In Japan, I think the situation is somewhat different.The bipolarism and homophobia are not so strong.Rather,the phobia for SRS is very strong.The reason is Japanese think the body is as important as the soul and cutting off the part of the body is sinful. So , this book also gave me a chance to think the cultural differences between the two countries.

Brilliant vision and insight

Packed with information and insight, Transgender Nation challenges the rigid gender norms that victimize people who transgress them, while exposing the mechanism that creates the hate which gets turned against transgender people. Her illumination of the emerging transgender liberation movement is unparalleled and piercing, and the book remains as visionary today as it was when it was published. A 'must read' for anyone with an interest in transgender politics, it places the blame for the violent brutality inflicted on transsexuals, transgenderists and crossdressers squarely on the narrowness of our cultural gender ideals.