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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
There's science and then there's..., 28 April 2003
Any new literature on the thorny and under-researched topic of gender trangression and transsexuality is welcome.
Well, almost any.I'm all for a bit of hot science - even if the ideas turn out to be cobblers. Keeping the debate open and examining and testing the possibilities is how we'll grow in time to understand what baffles us today. But hot science, cold science, even luke-warm-twitiching-it-its-grave science - I just can't find any in this book. Michael Bailey is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University, which certainly looks good on paper and sounds pretty meaty if you say it out loud, too. Unhappily, er, that's all folks - as what is presented here is but a collection of anecdotal meanderings laced with unsubstantiated assertions and qualifications. Think of Julie Burchill with a research grant. The 'ordinary' lives of transsexual and transgendered people as opposed to the shabby stereotypes he lazily presents has long overtaken Michael Bailey's dated thinking. The dogma, oh the dogma! I do not consider that this book advances thinking or understanding one pace. I love a bit of retro on the dancefloor, but not in my science, please. Which leaves me with three thoughts -
1. Let's hope this guy is an academic and doesn't get to mess with real people.
2. You'll not learn much about the whole caboodle at Northwestern.
3. Thank God it's available at a heavy discount! Lesley-Anne
(a transsexual woman, as if you hadn't guessed)
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