When Deborah Rudacille learned that a close friend had decided to transition from female to male, she felt compelled to understand why.
Coming at the controversial subject of transsexualism from several angles-historical, sociological, psychological, medical-Rudacille discovered that gender variance is anything but new, that changing one's gender has been met with both acceptance and hostility through the years, and that gender identity, like sexual orientation, appears to be inborn, not learned, though in some people the sex of the body does not match the sex of the brain.
Informed not only by meticulous research, but also by the author's interviews with prominent members of the transgender community, The Riddle of Gender is a sympathetic and wise look at a sexual revolution that calls into question many of our most deeply held assumptions about what it means to be a man, a woman, and a human being.
By:
Deborah Rudacille
Imprint: Anchor Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 203mm,
Width: 133mm,
Spine: 24mm
Weight: 312g
ISBN: 9780385721974
ISBN 10: 0385721978
Pages: 400
Publication Date: 14 February 2006
Audience:
College/higher education
,
General/trade
,
Primary
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction The Hands of God Conversation with Ben Barres, M.D., Ph.D. Through Science to Justice Conversation with Susan Stryker, Ph.D. The Bombshell Conversation with Aleshia Brevard Men and Women, Boys and Girls Conversation with Chelsea Goodwin and Rusty Mae Moore, Ph.D. Liberating the Rainbow Conversation with Tom Kennard Childhood, Interrupted Conversation with Dana Beyer, M.D. Fear of a Pink Planet Conversation with Joanna Clark Answering the Riddle Two Years Later: Afterword to the Anchor Books Edition Acknowledgments Notes Selected Bibliography Index
Deborah Rudacille is a science writer at Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of The Scalpel and the Butterfly- The Conflict Between Animal Research and Animal Protection. She lives in Baltimore.
Reviews for The Riddle of Gender: Science, Activism, and Transgender Rights
“Sympathetic and well-researched. . . . Lively enough to be a good introduction for the educated lay reader and documented enough for the scholar.” –Publishers Weekly “Amazing! This is the long-awaited fusion of science, criticism, and compassion that scholars of gender–and everybody else–have been waiting for. The Riddle of Gender is meticulous, funny, brilliant, and readable. . . . Not just for those interested in the enigmas of sex and gender, but for those interested in the universal mystery of how we become ourselves.” –Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of She’s Not There: a Life in Two Genders
- Winner of New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age.
