Blending Genders Social Aspects of Cross-Dressing and Sex Changing

Gender blending or transgenderism is "sexuality's newest cuttimg edge." The term "transgender" covers pre-operative and post-operative transsexuals, transvestites, drag queens, gender benders and all gender blenders, whether straight or gay, who in their cross-dressing and sex-changing "transgress" gender roles." Blending Genders" is concerned with those who attempt to or succeed in blending various aspects of gender, either in respect of themselves or others. The book describes personal experiences of those who cross-dress and how they organize themselves socially-- in both "outsider" and "respectable" communities. The contributors consider the dominant medical framework through which gender blending is so often seen and look at the treatment afforded gender blending in literature, the press and the recently emerged telephone sex lines. The book concludes with a discussion of the lively debates that have taken place concerning the politics of transgenderism in recent years, and examines its prominence in recent years, and examines its prominence in recent contributions to contemporary cultural and queer theory.

First published in 1995, the book describes personal experiences of those who cross-dress and sex change, how they organise themselves socially - in both `outsider' and `respectable' communities. The contributors consider the dominant medical framework through which gender blending is so often seen and look at the treatment afforded gender blending in literature, the press and the recently emerged telephone sex lines. The book concludes with a discussion of the lively debates that have taken place concerning the politics of transgenderism in recent years, and examines its prominence in recent contributions to contemporary cultural theory and queer theory.

List of plates, List of contributors, Foreword by Ken Plummer, Acknowledgements, BLENDING GENDERS—AN INTRODUCTION, Part I Experiencing gender blending, Part II The social organisation of gender blending, Part III The medicalisation of gender blending, Part IV Gender blending and the media, Part V Gender blending and gender politics, APPENDIX I, APPENDIX II, Bibliography, Index