Transgender Transformation: Exploring Gender Identity, Technology, and Modern Perspectives - Perfect for LGBTQ+ Studies and Gender Research
$25.18
$33.58
Safe 25%
Transgender Transformation: Exploring Gender Identity, Technology, and Modern Perspectives - Perfect for LGBTQ+ Studies and Gender Research
$25.18
$33.58
25% Off
Delivery & Return: Free shipping on all orders over $50
Estimated Delivery: 10-15 days international
30 people viewing this product right now!
SKU: 64887499
Guranteed safe checkout
Description
Changing Sex takes a bold new approach to the study of transsexualism in the twentieth century. By addressing the significance of medical technology to the phenomenon of transsexualism, Bernice L. Hausman transforms current conceptions of transsexuality as a disorder of gender identity by showing how developments in medical knowledge and technology make possible the emergence of new subjectivities. Hausman’s inquiry into the development of endocrinology and plastic surgery shows how advances in medical knowledge were central to the establishment of the material and discursive conditions necessary to produce the demand for sex change—that is, to both "make" and "think" the transsexual. She also retraces the hidden history of the concept of gender, demonstrating that the semantic distinction between "natural" sex and "social" gender has its roots in the development of medical treatment practices for intersexuality—the condition of having physical characteristics of both sexes— in the 1950s. Her research reveals the medical institution’s desire to make heterosexual subjects out of intersexuals and indicates how gender operates semiotically to maintain heterosexuality as the norm of the human body. In critically examining medical discourses, popularizations of medical theories, and transsexual autobiographies, Hausman details the elaboration of "gender narratives" that not only support the emergence of transsexualism, but also regulate the lives of all contemporary Western subjects. Changing Sex will change the ways we think about the relation between sex and gender, the body and sexual identity, and medical technology and the idea of the human.
More
Shipping & Returns
For all orders exceeding a value of 100USD shipping is offered for free.
Returns will be accepted for up to 10 days of Customer’s receipt or tracking number on unworn items. You, as a Customer, are obliged to inform us via email before you return the item.
Otherwise, standard shipping charges apply. Check out our delivery Terms & Conditions for more details.
Reviews
*****
Verified Buyer
5
In my opinion, Ms. Hausman's book is an outstanding read that looks crtitically not at the transsexual community, but at different scientific sectors (beginning with endocrinologists), and the way in which they shaped the concept of transsexualism as it existed at the end of World War II. It seems to me that the other reviewers here failed to actually look at Ms. Hausman's main argument. In her analysis, the author is not villifying transsexuals but rather the scientific and medical communities. Rather than attacking the construct of gender, Ms. Hausman is going a step further and attacking the idea of *sex* as a constricting dichotomy that doctors and scientists put forth as "truth." By deconstructing this hegemonic notion, Ms. Hausman asserts that the scientific and medical sectors created the 'need' for "sex change" as it was understood when the term was created circa 1940. Also, unlike what other reviewers have said here, Ms. Hausman does acknowledge the fact that forms of 'sex change' have existed throughout human history; however, she realizes that the term 'transsexual' is a modern one, as are the concepts now associated with it, and thus a direct comparison between modern sex change and that of antiquity is neither applicable nor appropriate.I believe it is true that any social idea needs to be analyzed within a historical context, and Ms. Hausman succeeds admirably. She looks specifically at the way in which the evolution of language and understanding within the scientific community have shaped the understanding, and even the identity construct, of transsexualism. Hausman argues that the scientific community has forced transsexuals to adjust to its ideologies; therefore, as a predominantly homophobic community (especially back in the '50s), doctors *required* that their transsexual patients assume a heterosexual lifestyle post-surgery. This is not the case today, nor is this what Hausman is suggesting.Ultimately, I would say that Hausman views early transsexuals as the victims of the medical hegemony that presents the notion of sex as truth. Although this may still be insulting, it is very different from being "anti-trans" or "hateful toward transsexuals." I find this argument (attacking the notion of sex and the way in which everyone in our society is indoctrinated to accept the body as dichotomous) is much more critical of greater society, and affects everyone who complies with this contructed binary
