The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism
• Gender Outsiders: Transgendered & Others , • Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual
A gawky straight academic rehearses the old cliches in fancy new jargon. Robin Wilson writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education:
When the majority of those in the Stanford University lecture hall decide that a man with hissy s's and precise articulation is gay, the professor pronounces them correct. The lesson: You can determine a man's sexual orientation after simply listening to him talk for 20 seconds.
...Other scholars and activists have blasted the book for reinforcing inaccurate stereotypes. It has come under the harshest attack for challenging the common medical diagnosis of "gender-identity disorder," which is used in treating people who want to change their sex. Men who want a sex change to become women have long been thought of by psychiatrists as "women trapped in men's bodies." But Mr. Bailey writes that men who want sex-change operations are either extremely gay or are sexual fetishists.
...The arousal study is supported by a $100,000 federal grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the results are to be published soon in the journal Psychological Science. Mr. Bailey found that while straight men are aroused by women and gay men are aroused by men, women -- whether heterosexual or lesbian -- are bisexual in their arousal, attracted to both men and women.
...Gay men have more feminine traits than straight men, he writes, including their interests in fashion and show tunes and their choice of occupations, including florist, waiter, and hair stylist. If a man is feminine, says Mr. Bailey, it is a key sign that he is gay. And if a man is gay, Mr. Bailey says he can tell a lot about what that man's childhood was like. He "played with dolls and loathed football" and "his best friends were girls," he writes in the book.
...Ms. Conway and other transsexuals say Mr. Bailey never bothered to talk to them, even though many learned about his project and offered their views. Instead, they charge, he focused on the handful of transsexuals he met in Chicago's gay bars.
Comments
Posted by: Fly Boy | June 27, 2003 02:51 PM
Posted by: Rev. McGregor | June 27, 2003 03:04 PM