Synopses & Reviews
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 ones 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 authors 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.
About the Author
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.
Table of Contents
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