Confessions of a Gender Defender
A Psychologist's Reflections on Life among the Transgendered
by Randi Ettner Most people with working proprioception have the luxury of identifying themselves as their bodies. At the least, most people's bodies are the gender that they identify as. But some people are not so lucky. Their birth certificates and bodies brand them as a particular gender, but they identify themselves as another. In different places and times, these gender dysphoric people have received a wide variety of treatment. The society extant in the United States sees such people as curiosities. Mental health professionals and medical professionals often treat these people as disorded, obsessive or insane. Ettner holds that these people are what they say they are, that they have a better knowledge of who they are than the professionals do.
This book is composed of short stories and essays on transgendered people, mostly MtFs, because those are apparently the people that Ettner works with most. I wanted to read more on the issues involved in FtM transgendered people, as it looks like these are different issues. The title led me to expect a defense of conventional American ideas on gender, which the book does not deliver. All of the stories in this book involve people who are truly happier living with their chosen genders. Incidents showing a broader range of outcomes would have been appreciated.
Question: What is gender?
Happy reading.
