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Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity
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Manufacturer: Seal Press
Author: Julia Serano
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Our Price: $10.85
You Save: $ 5.10 ( 32% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Seal Press
Author: Julia Serano
Publisher: Seal Press
Average Customer Rating:
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Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.768
EAN: 9781580051545
ISBN: 1580051545
Label: Seal Press
Manufacturer: Seal Press
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 280
Publication Date: 2007-06-01
Publisher: Seal Press
Studio: Seal Press
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.768
EAN: 9781580051545
ISBN: 1580051545
Label: Seal Press
Manufacturer: Seal Press
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 280
Publication Date: 2007-06-01
Publisher: Seal Press
Studio: Seal Press
Editorial Review of Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity
A provocative manifesto, Whipping Girl tells the powerful story of Julia Serano, a transsexual woman whose supremely intelligent writing reflects her diverse background as a lesbian transgender activist and professional biologist. Serano shares her experiences and observations — both pre- and post-transition — to reveal the ways in which fear, suspicion, and dismissiveness toward femininity shape our societal attitudes toward trans women, as well as gender and sexuality as a whole.
Serano's well-honed arguments stem from her ability to bridge the gap between the often-disparate biological and social perspectives on gender. She exposes how deep-rooted the cultural belief is that femininity is frivolous, weak, and passive, and how this “feminine” weakness exists only to attract and appease male desire.
In addition to debunking popular misconceptions about transsexuality, Serano makes the case that today's feminists and transgender activist must work to embrace and empower femininity — in all of its wondrous forms.
Serano's well-honed arguments stem from her ability to bridge the gap between the often-disparate biological and social perspectives on gender. She exposes how deep-rooted the cultural belief is that femininity is frivolous, weak, and passive, and how this “feminine” weakness exists only to attract and appease male desire.
In addition to debunking popular misconceptions about transsexuality, Serano makes the case that today's feminists and transgender activist must work to embrace and empower femininity — in all of its wondrous forms.
Customer Reviews of Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity
Customer Rating: 
Review Summary: A fine line between being critical/constructive and grinding an ax/being overly pedantic
Review: As the title of this review suggests, there is, at least for me, quite a fine line between making critical, thoughtful commentary and the degeneration into being pedantic and, for lack of a better term, grinding one's ax.
In this book, Serano has one foot in each of those approaches, sort to speak. She makes some very insightful comments, provides helpful terms and vocabulary that are both original and useful. In addition, she approaches Judith Butler's 'Queer Theory' with a critical eye. This is especially laudable as oftentimes there's a rather complacent and unquestioned acceptance of queery theory in much of the academy.
For readers unfamiliar with this concept - queer theory, in short, postulates that gender is merely performance and there is no such thing as 'man' or 'woman' as these are 'inventions' of social convention. I feel that Serano, as a trained biologist is qualified to provide an alternative and progressive viewpoint on this topic.
There is tremendous tension between many in the larger transsexual & genderqueer communities. Recriminations are common as genderqueer people have in many cases accused transsexuals of recreating the dominant gender binary which they perceive as oppressive. Conversely, transsexuals have charged genderqueers with being a movement that is a mere fad and specific demographic comprised of overwhelmingly white, middle-class, urban, hipsters who have no idea what oppression and violence directed at transsexuals is like.
There is a middle ground within these two extremes that would respect difference and work on forming affinities and alliances. I think this is , in part, what Serano is heeding as she argues for an end to the degeneration of conventional femininity. The author's presmise and one I agree with is that being feminine does not make a person a mere dupe or willing accomplice of the system, if a person expresses themselves in this way because of genuine, honest desire.
In addition, the author discusses hormones and other aspects of transition. Furthermore, she illustrates how transsexuals are portrayed in the media in what can only be described as caricature: hyper-feminine, devious, artificial, and mere constructs of medicine. She contrasts this with how other forms of (non-trans) femininity are presented and framed in conventional discourse. These are some of the strong points of Serano's analysis and well worth careful review.
Having noted a few of the positives aspects of her book, I also feel obliged to note qualities that I did not care for in this work. As a trans woman myself, I feel empathy for the righteous anger that permeates through Serano's book having experienced a great deal of it too.
Yet for all the all too real violence and issues of discrimination that face the transsexual community, I also feel that we have to move past anger and hostility. Such attitudes are frequently manifested in overly pedantic tendencies that I believe tend to alienate non-trans people as well as hinder the formation of alliances and affinities between the trans community and other communities.
On a practical note, this serves to make the book take on an air of redundancy at times as well as seeming like a rather well refined rant.
I've spoken with several non-trans, (or as the author would say 'cisgendered'), friends & family who while moved and sympathetic to the issues Serano raises, were eventually put off by what they felt was the very angry, redundant tone of the book.
Reading it as a trans person with academic and critical leanings, I feel as though a tremendous amount of the material involves things and concepts I've simply already heard, many, many times. It becomes an exercise in preaching to the choir, sort to speak.
Which, while valuable, also might leave one searching for something else in an alternative voice espousing a more whole and spiritual aesthetic.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: An breakthrough in transgendered and men/women relations studies
Review: There are a lot of books available now written by transgendered people and by their wives on how to deal with gender, their own relationships, and how they came to be. Most are really good ("She's Not There" by Jennifer Finney Boylan, "My Husband Betty" by Helen Boyd, "Alice in Genderland" by Dr. Richard "Alice" Novic, and "Head over Heals: Women who stay Cross-Dressers and Transsexuals" by Dr. Virginia Erhardt are all excellent books). This one is different: it is written by a MtF transsexual from San Francisco, Julia Serano, who has done a considerable amount of thinking about not only gender, but the degradation of the very concept of femininity itself. Written by a feminist but without the tired, ridiculously anti-sex man-hating nonsense found in first-generation feminist literature, this is a deeply-thoughtful book woven with Julia's own amazing story that will likely open your eyes to the world around you, and the roles gender can play in it. In the end, Julia's thesis is solid, well-researched, and yet entirely readable. Like Susie Bright and Pat Califa, Serano writes about sex, sexuality, and gender with understanding and affirmation. Highly recommended.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity: By Julia Serano:
Review: Aside from some of its dry, but, albeit necessary definitional terms found in the book's early chapters, Ms Serano cogently and accurately captures the transsexual experience as it relates to the straight heterosexual and homosexual people of the world. She points out the obvious reticence and lack of acceptance by straight heterosexuals of transsexuals and the sad, tragic and hypocritical truth of their marginalization and ostracization by the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual community. This is a good read and source book for medical, psychiatric and sociologist clinicians and therapists involved in the treatment of transsexual people and for members of the LGBT community, its leaders, advocates, politicians, supporters and religious leaders or for any one else interested in learning about transsexual people and their experiences. In sum, I highly recommend Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Articulate & Biting Rant
Review: Whipping Girl provides a fresh voice on matters of sexism and prejudice against femininity generally and transsexual expressions of such particularly. Julia Serano's perspective as a woman of transsexual experience, and a particularly bright and well spoken one at that, give this manifesto a brilliant and powerful credibility.
For me the deeply moving first paragraph of Chapter 15, Submissive Streak was worth the price of admission.
Serano's analysis (shredding) of the dreadful novel Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides was also refreshing after all the hoopla that book received from Oprah. I'm also indebted to Serano for the introduction of two new words, "autophallophilic"and "effemimania." Autophallophilic really helps to reframe the Bailey-Blanchard, Man Who Would Be Queen controversy.
Serano's tirade is well informed though I did tire a little of its relentlessness toward the end and longed for a bit of levity, just a little humor to make it a bit more palatable. In several places I felt she drew conclusions and made generalizations about human experience from her own youthful experience that might well evolve as she continues to observe and create. I certainly hope we'll be hearing more from her in the future.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Courageous, Intelligent, and Helpful
Review: Few books are genuine pathbreakers, but this is one of them. The author combines analysis of feminist texts, the psychiatric medical profession, popular (sexist) culture, and personal experience to produce a book that truly leads the way. Ms. Serano points out the kinds of pressure and discrimination that make life difficult for "trans" people, those whose sex at birth does not fit with their own feelings of gender. The "gatekeepers," as she calls them, are people with an agenda, and the greatest focus is the requirement that a person desiring to transition from physical male to physical female, want and expect to be heterosexual. There is additional pressure to keep everything confidential, to move away from family and friends...and all this, not to help the trans person, but to keep the normal heterosexual people comfortable.
She explains at length the kinds of contradictions that are foisted upon a person who experiences "gender dissonance"--the non-congruence of one's "assigned sex" (physical sex at birth) and one's self-feeling of gender. This latter she calls "subconscious sex," pointing out that people who never experience this profound disjunct ("cissexual," she calls them) understandably don't comprehend this emotional chasm.
While it's challenging at times to incorporate the several new terms she coins, there appear to be good reasons for all of them. We have to have some words to refer to things not previously named, and the existing psychiatric language is so skewed, that it is both a "slam" on trans people and operates from profound ignorance of trans people's life experiences. For the most part, though, this book--which is a collection of long and short essays--is written in common language, and fluently so. She does lapse into the academic habit of writing "I would argue..." but this is hardly a major failing in a text that has a lot of important ideas.
Argue she does, and cogently so. I was persuaded by her point of view, insofar as I understand it. She movingly describes the plight of the person who discovers they are not cissexual, writing that ..."This gender dissonance is usually experienced as a kind of emotional pain or sadness that grows more intense over time, sometimes reaching a point where it can become debilitating." Sometimes, it results in suicide, especially for those trans people who are unable to persuade the "gatekeepers" to provide them with the physical change that would bring into alignment the trans person's assigned sex and felt gender.
Much of the book is devoted to dissection of feminist hostility and prejudice--including outright proscription from some women's gatherings--and she carefully refutes each and every slur directed at trans people. I'm impressed with her documentation and logical clarity...a crucial component that makes this book an outstanding work.
A very important idea in this book is that not only women, but *femininity* is devalued by our society--and not just by cissexual women and men, but by many feminists and even some queer and trans people. She tellingly points out that "...while most reasonable people see women and men as equals, few (if any) dare to claim that femininity is masculinity's equal. Indeed, much of what has historically been called misogyny--a hatred of women--has clearly gone underground, disguising itself as the less reprehensible derision of femininity." Until men can freely express their own femininity, they will continue to be socialized as emotionally repressed, violence-prone "tough guys." This is not a minor or "cosmetic" issue, but one with farreaching social implications for all of us.
Finally, she addresses the future for trans people, noting the various kinds of attitudes within the trans and queer communities that make it harder for trans people to seek respect, equality, and fair treatment. Ms. Serano points out the "more radical than thou" posturing adopted by some transsexual and queer people, which ironically reproduces its own version of "oppositional" and "binary" sexism...rather than acknowledging the alliance of individuals, with all the variety that that entails. At the end of this book, she strikes an uplifting note, posing the vision of a world in which "...we may finally take the next step toward a world where all people can choose their genders and sexualities at will, rather than feeling coerced by others." Right on!
Review Summary: A fine line between being critical/constructive and grinding an ax/being overly pedantic
Review: As the title of this review suggests, there is, at least for me, quite a fine line between making critical, thoughtful commentary and the degeneration into being pedantic and, for lack of a better term, grinding one's ax.
In this book, Serano has one foot in each of those approaches, sort to speak. She makes some very insightful comments, provides helpful terms and vocabulary that are both original and useful. In addition, she approaches Judith Butler's 'Queer Theory' with a critical eye. This is especially laudable as oftentimes there's a rather complacent and unquestioned acceptance of queery theory in much of the academy.
For readers unfamiliar with this concept - queer theory, in short, postulates that gender is merely performance and there is no such thing as 'man' or 'woman' as these are 'inventions' of social convention. I feel that Serano, as a trained biologist is qualified to provide an alternative and progressive viewpoint on this topic.
There is tremendous tension between many in the larger transsexual & genderqueer communities. Recriminations are common as genderqueer people have in many cases accused transsexuals of recreating the dominant gender binary which they perceive as oppressive. Conversely, transsexuals have charged genderqueers with being a movement that is a mere fad and specific demographic comprised of overwhelmingly white, middle-class, urban, hipsters who have no idea what oppression and violence directed at transsexuals is like.
There is a middle ground within these two extremes that would respect difference and work on forming affinities and alliances. I think this is , in part, what Serano is heeding as she argues for an end to the degeneration of conventional femininity. The author's presmise and one I agree with is that being feminine does not make a person a mere dupe or willing accomplice of the system, if a person expresses themselves in this way because of genuine, honest desire.
In addition, the author discusses hormones and other aspects of transition. Furthermore, she illustrates how transsexuals are portrayed in the media in what can only be described as caricature: hyper-feminine, devious, artificial, and mere constructs of medicine. She contrasts this with how other forms of (non-trans) femininity are presented and framed in conventional discourse. These are some of the strong points of Serano's analysis and well worth careful review.
Having noted a few of the positives aspects of her book, I also feel obliged to note qualities that I did not care for in this work. As a trans woman myself, I feel empathy for the righteous anger that permeates through Serano's book having experienced a great deal of it too.
Yet for all the all too real violence and issues of discrimination that face the transsexual community, I also feel that we have to move past anger and hostility. Such attitudes are frequently manifested in overly pedantic tendencies that I believe tend to alienate non-trans people as well as hinder the formation of alliances and affinities between the trans community and other communities.
On a practical note, this serves to make the book take on an air of redundancy at times as well as seeming like a rather well refined rant.
I've spoken with several non-trans, (or as the author would say 'cisgendered'), friends & family who while moved and sympathetic to the issues Serano raises, were eventually put off by what they felt was the very angry, redundant tone of the book.
Reading it as a trans person with academic and critical leanings, I feel as though a tremendous amount of the material involves things and concepts I've simply already heard, many, many times. It becomes an exercise in preaching to the choir, sort to speak.
Which, while valuable, also might leave one searching for something else in an alternative voice espousing a more whole and spiritual aesthetic.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: An breakthrough in transgendered and men/women relations studies
Review: There are a lot of books available now written by transgendered people and by their wives on how to deal with gender, their own relationships, and how they came to be. Most are really good ("She's Not There" by Jennifer Finney Boylan, "My Husband Betty" by Helen Boyd, "Alice in Genderland" by Dr. Richard "Alice" Novic, and "Head over Heals: Women who stay Cross-Dressers and Transsexuals" by Dr. Virginia Erhardt are all excellent books). This one is different: it is written by a MtF transsexual from San Francisco, Julia Serano, who has done a considerable amount of thinking about not only gender, but the degradation of the very concept of femininity itself. Written by a feminist but without the tired, ridiculously anti-sex man-hating nonsense found in first-generation feminist literature, this is a deeply-thoughtful book woven with Julia's own amazing story that will likely open your eyes to the world around you, and the roles gender can play in it. In the end, Julia's thesis is solid, well-researched, and yet entirely readable. Like Susie Bright and Pat Califa, Serano writes about sex, sexuality, and gender with understanding and affirmation. Highly recommended.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity: By Julia Serano:
Review: Aside from some of its dry, but, albeit necessary definitional terms found in the book's early chapters, Ms Serano cogently and accurately captures the transsexual experience as it relates to the straight heterosexual and homosexual people of the world. She points out the obvious reticence and lack of acceptance by straight heterosexuals of transsexuals and the sad, tragic and hypocritical truth of their marginalization and ostracization by the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual community. This is a good read and source book for medical, psychiatric and sociologist clinicians and therapists involved in the treatment of transsexual people and for members of the LGBT community, its leaders, advocates, politicians, supporters and religious leaders or for any one else interested in learning about transsexual people and their experiences. In sum, I highly recommend Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Articulate & Biting Rant
Review: Whipping Girl provides a fresh voice on matters of sexism and prejudice against femininity generally and transsexual expressions of such particularly. Julia Serano's perspective as a woman of transsexual experience, and a particularly bright and well spoken one at that, give this manifesto a brilliant and powerful credibility.
For me the deeply moving first paragraph of Chapter 15, Submissive Streak was worth the price of admission.
Serano's analysis (shredding) of the dreadful novel Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides was also refreshing after all the hoopla that book received from Oprah. I'm also indebted to Serano for the introduction of two new words, "autophallophilic"and "effemimania." Autophallophilic really helps to reframe the Bailey-Blanchard, Man Who Would Be Queen controversy.
Serano's tirade is well informed though I did tire a little of its relentlessness toward the end and longed for a bit of levity, just a little humor to make it a bit more palatable. In several places I felt she drew conclusions and made generalizations about human experience from her own youthful experience that might well evolve as she continues to observe and create. I certainly hope we'll be hearing more from her in the future.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Courageous, Intelligent, and Helpful
Review: Few books are genuine pathbreakers, but this is one of them. The author combines analysis of feminist texts, the psychiatric medical profession, popular (sexist) culture, and personal experience to produce a book that truly leads the way. Ms. Serano points out the kinds of pressure and discrimination that make life difficult for "trans" people, those whose sex at birth does not fit with their own feelings of gender. The "gatekeepers," as she calls them, are people with an agenda, and the greatest focus is the requirement that a person desiring to transition from physical male to physical female, want and expect to be heterosexual. There is additional pressure to keep everything confidential, to move away from family and friends...and all this, not to help the trans person, but to keep the normal heterosexual people comfortable.
She explains at length the kinds of contradictions that are foisted upon a person who experiences "gender dissonance"--the non-congruence of one's "assigned sex" (physical sex at birth) and one's self-feeling of gender. This latter she calls "subconscious sex," pointing out that people who never experience this profound disjunct ("cissexual," she calls them) understandably don't comprehend this emotional chasm.
While it's challenging at times to incorporate the several new terms she coins, there appear to be good reasons for all of them. We have to have some words to refer to things not previously named, and the existing psychiatric language is so skewed, that it is both a "slam" on trans people and operates from profound ignorance of trans people's life experiences. For the most part, though, this book--which is a collection of long and short essays--is written in common language, and fluently so. She does lapse into the academic habit of writing "I would argue..." but this is hardly a major failing in a text that has a lot of important ideas.
Argue she does, and cogently so. I was persuaded by her point of view, insofar as I understand it. She movingly describes the plight of the person who discovers they are not cissexual, writing that ..."This gender dissonance is usually experienced as a kind of emotional pain or sadness that grows more intense over time, sometimes reaching a point where it can become debilitating." Sometimes, it results in suicide, especially for those trans people who are unable to persuade the "gatekeepers" to provide them with the physical change that would bring into alignment the trans person's assigned sex and felt gender.
Much of the book is devoted to dissection of feminist hostility and prejudice--including outright proscription from some women's gatherings--and she carefully refutes each and every slur directed at trans people. I'm impressed with her documentation and logical clarity...a crucial component that makes this book an outstanding work.
A very important idea in this book is that not only women, but *femininity* is devalued by our society--and not just by cissexual women and men, but by many feminists and even some queer and trans people. She tellingly points out that "...while most reasonable people see women and men as equals, few (if any) dare to claim that femininity is masculinity's equal. Indeed, much of what has historically been called misogyny--a hatred of women--has clearly gone underground, disguising itself as the less reprehensible derision of femininity." Until men can freely express their own femininity, they will continue to be socialized as emotionally repressed, violence-prone "tough guys." This is not a minor or "cosmetic" issue, but one with farreaching social implications for all of us.
Finally, she addresses the future for trans people, noting the various kinds of attitudes within the trans and queer communities that make it harder for trans people to seek respect, equality, and fair treatment. Ms. Serano points out the "more radical than thou" posturing adopted by some transsexual and queer people, which ironically reproduces its own version of "oppositional" and "binary" sexism...rather than acknowledging the alliance of individuals, with all the variety that that entails. At the end of this book, she strikes an uplifting note, posing the vision of a world in which "...we may finally take the next step toward a world where all people can choose their genders and sexualities at will, rather than feeling coerced by others." Right on!