Gay & Lesbian Books
Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us
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Manufacturer: Vintage
Author: Kate Bornstein
Publisher: Vintage
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $10.88
You Save: $ 5.12 ( 32% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Vintage
Author: Kate Bornstein
Publisher: Vintage
Average Customer Rating:
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Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.3
EAN: 9780679757016
Product Features: ISBN13: 9780679757016
ISBN: 0679757015
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 272
Publication Date: 1995-04-25
Publisher: Vintage
Product Release Date: 1995-04-25
Studio: Vintage
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.3
EAN: 9780679757016
Product Features: ISBN13: 9780679757016
ISBN: 0679757015
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 272
Publication Date: 1995-04-25
Publisher: Vintage
Product Release Date: 1995-04-25
Studio: Vintage
Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us Features
ISBN13: 9780679757016
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Editorial Review of Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us
Part coming-of-age story, part mind-altering manifesto on gender and sexuality, coming directly to you from the life experiences of a transsexual woman, Gender Outlaw breaks all the rules and leaves the reader forever changed.26 black-and-white illustrations.
Customer Reviews of Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us
Customer Rating: 
Review Summary: Gender? Invent your own...
Review: I've had this book sitting on my shelf for years. I've always hesitated to read it because it was published so long ago--in the 90s--that I figured it must be really dated. Of course, it wasn't growing any more timely the more that time went by, so I decided to read it before it grew any more irrelevant. I feared the worst when Bornstein mentioned this exciting new internet bulletin board she'd just recently discovered: America Online!
Remember when America Online was new? When was that? I think you could find Ben Franklin in a chat room about that time.
Well, the fact is that society, in general, hasn't become that much more enlightened about gender since Bornstein first published this book nearly twenty years ago. Or since the days of Ben Franklin, America's first transexual. All you have to do, if youre a man, is hump it on over to the Outback Steakhouse in a miniskirt and halter top to prove that. The rigid, polarized, two-gender system that Bornstein criticizes, laments, and encourages her readers to destroy is alive and thriving ten years into the 21st century. Those of us who refuse to cooperate, who challenge the notion that one need not be defined, that is, identified and limited, by their genitalia are still "gender outlaws" and still all-too-often punished for their transgressions.
So Bornstein's book is, unfortunately, still relevant and still eloquent to those seeking to deconstruct the dominant paradigm that says men must be men and women must be women. Bornstein, a male-to-female transexual "lesbian" whose lover, as of the writing of "Gender Outaw," was a female-to-male transexual, has this interesting notion that gender can be taken on and off like an actor dons costumes. Her today, him tomorrow, and back again, in ever-varying combinations. She considers her own identity a form of collage and, as she says, her prose-style reflects her personality pastiche. Bits of interviews, personal history, gender theory, and even one of her plays comprise the bulk of "Gender Outlaw."
Most of it is interesting, some of it thought-provoking, a little of it hollow polemic, including almost the entire play, which I could have done well enough without, but, on the whole, this is still a worthwhile read. Gender theory lite is how you might think of it. If you've read heavier books on the subject, Bornstein's pop version of queer theory is probably going to seem a bit tame and a bit lame. "Gender Outlaw" is probably best as an introduction, the kind of thing that gets people thinking, especially those who seldom do, about exactly what gender is, who controls it, and why you let them.
Maybe the most interesting idea Bornstein advances is the one that seeks to open our eyes to possibilities beyond the either/or that society offers us. Why not a woman with a penis, breasts, a beard, maybe a tail, who is attracted to a castrated man with a vagina, no breasts, and a rubber fetish? Why, if I cut it off, do I have to be a woman...or why to be a woman do I have to cut if off? Why must I call myself either a man or a woman? Why can't I be both--or neither. Why cant I be a glynfexlxbzzi? Who says there's no such thing? I'm standing right here, aren't I?
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Gender Outlaw
Review: This book is interesting to read, but I would not have chosen to read it, had I not had to read it for a class assignment.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Comments on Gender Outlaw
Review: The subtitle of the book is, "on Men, Women and the Rest of Us." Bernstein's book is not just about a man becoming a woman, but it puts into doubt the whole sex/gender system. Bernstein does not use the term, "biological sex," but refers to all gender identity as "gender": biology does not have any primacy. She pokes holes in the binary gender system by questioning why one has to be one or the other of these, or even remain stable in one gender. This "fluidity" is different from ambiguity, in which it is not clear at a given moment which gender one is. This book is liberating for those who feel they might not fit in no matter what kind of operation they had.
As the New York Times says, instead of being hostile about gender liberation, Bornstein is sweet, sincere, lucid. Her sometimes anthropological point of view is useful in lifting up age-old cultural assumptions about gender and orientations in a section she jocularly calls "The Rulebook." Gender can be assigned, attributed, there can be gender roles or an experienced identity. Bernstein suggests fifteen other models in addition to the usual gay, straight or bi- orientations. The list is fascinating, including: multiple partners models, differently-abled bodies models, reproductive models, models based on sex act preference...leading up to the heading of sex without gender.
After setting up the rules, Bornstein enthusiastically dismantles them. Are there solid definitions of male and female? In addition to the usual two sets of chromosomes there are five other sets. If gender equals what hormones you have, you could buy your gender at any pharmacy. In addition, she tells us several times that in some other cultures it is normal for someone born one gender to assume the gender of the other. She mentions more than once that a gender transformation often accompanies the process of becoming a tribal healer or shaman.
Bornstein namedrops many people of transgressive gender that you can look up - many of whom have written books. In addition, she provides a fascinating bibliography. Her questions are possibly the most interesting part of the book. "Do you `feel like a man'? Do you `feel like a woman'?" she asks. "What does a man feel like? What does a woman feel like?"
There are many other considerations like gender and politics, oppression, etc., but the list is too long for a short review. There is a play included which I did not think was very good although parts were interesting. Nevertheless, I would enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone interested in transgressive gender issues.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Food for Thought
Review: You know this is not a subject that I know a whole lot about...though I do profess some interest and curiosity about the reasons why people choose gender reassignment surgery. Mostly I was interested in exploring the why's and if's about gender and the myriad of choices and ways of being that people encounter and deal with or embrace in their lives. I wasn't sure what to expect...and I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about this book, but I've finished reading it and it's time to write down my thoughts about it. First and foremost, this is a book that doesn't just rehash the same debates one sees nearly everywhere these days about how little Tommy can play with dolls and Sally can play with cars or how Molly can be a doctor and Biff can be a nurse...this goes beyond what's considered politically correct or "allowable" excursions outside the comfort zone of the tribe. In Gender Outlaw Borenstein really tries to examine why we need gender at all and how gender is really determined in today's societies, she looks both backward and forward with regards to this issue in a way that is both informative and entertaining. Gender Outlaw is a strange blend of biography and gender theory written with a theatrical flair. The author is really not looking to redefine gender so much as she is looking to toss it out altogether, in favor of a gender model that is more dynamic and fluid. Now for what I didn't like about the book...well, I do understand that the author is an artist and performer at heart, but I read because I LIKE to read and while I like most of what I read to be entertaining and informative, I DON'T like to have to struggle to read it because the author thought it would be interesting and creative to create columns and make the reader have to read from side to side skipping about on the page. There is a serious lack of continuity in the format of the text that makes it a bear to read. Everything does not have to be performance; everything does not have to be art. Sometimes a book should just be a book. Outside of that, I enjoyed reading Gender Outlaw, I think the author wanted to reach the mainstream and this book is certainly readable and accessible to the general public...now if we could just get them to read it and open their minds to the ideas presented. Borenstein certainly got there with me, as I had no quarrel with the gender I've been assigned, but it certainly gave me lots of food for thought and I'll probably never think of gender the same way again. I give it a 4 stars (3.5 really, but since Amazon doesn't allow ½ stars, I'll settle for 4, round up instead of down).
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Gender Outlaw
Review: I so wish I had read this book at 30 years of age. I so wish everyone would read this book.
Kate Bornstein is right. There simply is no gender. Anima, animus.
Sometimes we do need to have our ideas challenged. I am happy to have had my old ideas changed by this book. It seems to have given me answers for so many vague questions I had in my mind.
Valuable book for heterosexual ppl and homosexual ppl. Valuable book for ppl.
Review Summary: Gender? Invent your own...
Review: I've had this book sitting on my shelf for years. I've always hesitated to read it because it was published so long ago--in the 90s--that I figured it must be really dated. Of course, it wasn't growing any more timely the more that time went by, so I decided to read it before it grew any more irrelevant. I feared the worst when Bornstein mentioned this exciting new internet bulletin board she'd just recently discovered: America Online!
Remember when America Online was new? When was that? I think you could find Ben Franklin in a chat room about that time.
Well, the fact is that society, in general, hasn't become that much more enlightened about gender since Bornstein first published this book nearly twenty years ago. Or since the days of Ben Franklin, America's first transexual. All you have to do, if youre a man, is hump it on over to the Outback Steakhouse in a miniskirt and halter top to prove that. The rigid, polarized, two-gender system that Bornstein criticizes, laments, and encourages her readers to destroy is alive and thriving ten years into the 21st century. Those of us who refuse to cooperate, who challenge the notion that one need not be defined, that is, identified and limited, by their genitalia are still "gender outlaws" and still all-too-often punished for their transgressions.
So Bornstein's book is, unfortunately, still relevant and still eloquent to those seeking to deconstruct the dominant paradigm that says men must be men and women must be women. Bornstein, a male-to-female transexual "lesbian" whose lover, as of the writing of "Gender Outaw," was a female-to-male transexual, has this interesting notion that gender can be taken on and off like an actor dons costumes. Her today, him tomorrow, and back again, in ever-varying combinations. She considers her own identity a form of collage and, as she says, her prose-style reflects her personality pastiche. Bits of interviews, personal history, gender theory, and even one of her plays comprise the bulk of "Gender Outlaw."
Most of it is interesting, some of it thought-provoking, a little of it hollow polemic, including almost the entire play, which I could have done well enough without, but, on the whole, this is still a worthwhile read. Gender theory lite is how you might think of it. If you've read heavier books on the subject, Bornstein's pop version of queer theory is probably going to seem a bit tame and a bit lame. "Gender Outlaw" is probably best as an introduction, the kind of thing that gets people thinking, especially those who seldom do, about exactly what gender is, who controls it, and why you let them.
Maybe the most interesting idea Bornstein advances is the one that seeks to open our eyes to possibilities beyond the either/or that society offers us. Why not a woman with a penis, breasts, a beard, maybe a tail, who is attracted to a castrated man with a vagina, no breasts, and a rubber fetish? Why, if I cut it off, do I have to be a woman...or why to be a woman do I have to cut if off? Why must I call myself either a man or a woman? Why can't I be both--or neither. Why cant I be a glynfexlxbzzi? Who says there's no such thing? I'm standing right here, aren't I?
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Gender Outlaw
Review: This book is interesting to read, but I would not have chosen to read it, had I not had to read it for a class assignment.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Comments on Gender Outlaw
Review: The subtitle of the book is, "on Men, Women and the Rest of Us." Bernstein's book is not just about a man becoming a woman, but it puts into doubt the whole sex/gender system. Bernstein does not use the term, "biological sex," but refers to all gender identity as "gender": biology does not have any primacy. She pokes holes in the binary gender system by questioning why one has to be one or the other of these, or even remain stable in one gender. This "fluidity" is different from ambiguity, in which it is not clear at a given moment which gender one is. This book is liberating for those who feel they might not fit in no matter what kind of operation they had.
As the New York Times says, instead of being hostile about gender liberation, Bornstein is sweet, sincere, lucid. Her sometimes anthropological point of view is useful in lifting up age-old cultural assumptions about gender and orientations in a section she jocularly calls "The Rulebook." Gender can be assigned, attributed, there can be gender roles or an experienced identity. Bernstein suggests fifteen other models in addition to the usual gay, straight or bi- orientations. The list is fascinating, including: multiple partners models, differently-abled bodies models, reproductive models, models based on sex act preference...leading up to the heading of sex without gender.
After setting up the rules, Bornstein enthusiastically dismantles them. Are there solid definitions of male and female? In addition to the usual two sets of chromosomes there are five other sets. If gender equals what hormones you have, you could buy your gender at any pharmacy. In addition, she tells us several times that in some other cultures it is normal for someone born one gender to assume the gender of the other. She mentions more than once that a gender transformation often accompanies the process of becoming a tribal healer or shaman.
Bornstein namedrops many people of transgressive gender that you can look up - many of whom have written books. In addition, she provides a fascinating bibliography. Her questions are possibly the most interesting part of the book. "Do you `feel like a man'? Do you `feel like a woman'?" she asks. "What does a man feel like? What does a woman feel like?"
There are many other considerations like gender and politics, oppression, etc., but the list is too long for a short review. There is a play included which I did not think was very good although parts were interesting. Nevertheless, I would enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone interested in transgressive gender issues.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Food for Thought
Review: You know this is not a subject that I know a whole lot about...though I do profess some interest and curiosity about the reasons why people choose gender reassignment surgery. Mostly I was interested in exploring the why's and if's about gender and the myriad of choices and ways of being that people encounter and deal with or embrace in their lives. I wasn't sure what to expect...and I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about this book, but I've finished reading it and it's time to write down my thoughts about it. First and foremost, this is a book that doesn't just rehash the same debates one sees nearly everywhere these days about how little Tommy can play with dolls and Sally can play with cars or how Molly can be a doctor and Biff can be a nurse...this goes beyond what's considered politically correct or "allowable" excursions outside the comfort zone of the tribe. In Gender Outlaw Borenstein really tries to examine why we need gender at all and how gender is really determined in today's societies, she looks both backward and forward with regards to this issue in a way that is both informative and entertaining. Gender Outlaw is a strange blend of biography and gender theory written with a theatrical flair. The author is really not looking to redefine gender so much as she is looking to toss it out altogether, in favor of a gender model that is more dynamic and fluid. Now for what I didn't like about the book...well, I do understand that the author is an artist and performer at heart, but I read because I LIKE to read and while I like most of what I read to be entertaining and informative, I DON'T like to have to struggle to read it because the author thought it would be interesting and creative to create columns and make the reader have to read from side to side skipping about on the page. There is a serious lack of continuity in the format of the text that makes it a bear to read. Everything does not have to be performance; everything does not have to be art. Sometimes a book should just be a book. Outside of that, I enjoyed reading Gender Outlaw, I think the author wanted to reach the mainstream and this book is certainly readable and accessible to the general public...now if we could just get them to read it and open their minds to the ideas presented. Borenstein certainly got there with me, as I had no quarrel with the gender I've been assigned, but it certainly gave me lots of food for thought and I'll probably never think of gender the same way again. I give it a 4 stars (3.5 really, but since Amazon doesn't allow ½ stars, I'll settle for 4, round up instead of down).
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Gender Outlaw
Review: I so wish I had read this book at 30 years of age. I so wish everyone would read this book.
Kate Bornstein is right. There simply is no gender. Anima, animus.
Sometimes we do need to have our ideas challenged. I am happy to have had my old ideas changed by this book. It seems to have given me answers for so many vague questions I had in my mind.
Valuable book for heterosexual ppl and homosexual ppl. Valuable book for ppl.