Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An eye opening book about the struggle of a person to be him, 16 Aug 2001
By A Customer
I have just read this book and would recomend it to anyone who is interested in Transgender issues. As a person with Gender issues I found it reassuring to see that someone else understands how I feel. I learnt a lot reading the book, it educates the reader about the processes involved and the issues affecting and facing transexuals. It was hard to read sometimes because of the intense feelings I have and how similar I have felt in events similar to those that he has described in his life. I could identify with his feelings. I think that people without any knowledge of transgender issues will learn a lot from the struggle and pain we have to go through, to find happiness, completness, and fullfilment. Something which most people will never have to go thorough and can't always understand, which is the hardest thing. Through this book people can learn of the problems transexuals face and try to understand.
|
|
|
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
TO SIR WITH LOVE..., 25 Sep 2001
This autobiographical account of the author's life focuses on gender identity issues which appear to have governed most of his life. Anatomically a female, though somewhat androgynous in appearance, the author, named Brenda at birth, always felt as if he were a male trapped in a woman's body. This created many difficult life situations for him as he was growing up. The difficulties compounded themselves when "Brenda" reached puberty, as one may well imagine.Never feeling that he belonged, yet wanting to be like other people, he struggled alone with these gender identity issues for many years. At one point in his young adult life, he was so depressed over his situation that he voluntarily entered a psychiatric hospital. His autobiographical account is a bird's eye view of the suffering that society can inflict on a human being who means no harm to anyone, and who is only trying to find a way to fit in with that society. It was not until he realized that he was not alone, that there were others like him, that he began to realize that he could be helped. It was as a mature adult that he made the transition from female to male and became "Mark". Only then did he start feeling a little more comfortable in his own skin. Yet, despite dressing as a male, hormone therapy, and surgical modification, he still had issues, as society would only legally recognize the gender assignement made at birth. This would forever consign him legally to being a female, placing him in a sort of legal limbo. The book is often poignant in that the author's desire for having a normal life is palpable. He really just wants to be like everyone else and do the things that everyone else does, such as, get a job commensurate with one's education and abilities, fall in love, get married, and have a family. Yet, all this seems to have eluded him, because of the gender identity issues which made it so difficult to attain his desired goals. Even after having become an elected official in the town where he grew up, the taunts of local children still plague him. Society may have come a long way in its understanding of these issues, but it, undoubtedly, has a long way to go. This book addresses issues that are in the social forefront today, but the author, though clearly intelligent, has a prosaic style of writing that does not fully engage the reader. His is a voice with which to be reckoned, however, due to the dearth of literature on transsexualism and its attendant, ancillary social issues.
|
|
|
3.0 out of 5 stars
TO SIR WITH LOVE..., 21 Jan 2003
This autobiographical account of the author's life focuses on gender identity issues, which appear to have governed most of his life. Anatomically a female, though somewhat androgynous in appearance, the author, named Brenda at birth, always felt as if he were a male trapped in a woman's body. This created many difficult life situations for him as he was growing up. The difficulties compounded themselves when "Brenda" reached puberty, as one may well imagine.Never feeling that he belonged, yet wanting to be like other people, he struggled alone with these gender identity issues for many years. At one point in his young adult life, he was so depressed over his situation that he voluntarily entered a psychiatric hospital. His autobiographical account is a bird's-eye view of the suffering that society can inflict on a human being who means no harm to anyone, and who is only trying to find a way to fit in with that society. It was not until he realized that he was not alone, that there were others like him, that he began to realize that he could be helped. It was as a mature adult that he made the transition from female to male and became "Mark". Only then did he start feeling a little more comfortable in his own skin. Yet, despite dressing as a male, hormone therapy, and surgical modification, he still had issues, as society would only legally recognize the gender assignment made at birth. This would forever consign him legally to being a female, placing him in a sort of legal limbo. The book is often poignant in that the author's desire for having a normal life is palpable. He really just wants to be like everyone else and do the things that everyone else does, such as, get a job commensurate with one's education and abilities, fall in love, get married, and have a family. Yet, all this seems to have eluded him, because of the gender identity issues which made it so difficult to attain his desired goals. Even after having become an elected official in the town where he grew up, the taunts of local children still plague him. Society may have come a long way in its understanding of these issues, but it, undoubtedly, has a long way to go. This book addresses issues that are in the social forefront today, but the author, though clearly intelligent, has a prosaic style of writing that does not fully engage the reader. His is a voice with which to be reckoned, however, due to the dearth of literature on transsexualism and its attendant, ancillary social issues.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Jamison Green
With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is). 
Amazon Home