Customer Reviews
Curious about gender? Look elsewhere. - By: T. Mannveille, 29 May 2005 
This book was not what I expected. Having come around to the idea that gender is a playground, I guess I was looking for some kind of map pointing out the available seesaws & climbing frames & warning of the dangerous swings & roundabouts. Instead it felt a lot more like a combination of playground theory, & things to reassure one for goingin in the first place.
The quiz & workbook format is interesting but had a few shortcomings. My biggest problem was that while reading the book, definitions of terms - specifically 'identity', & the already overloaded term 'gender' - were slowly established, but while this is going on you are required to answer questions on them. It's hard to know how to answer a question about something not clearly defined, especially when you find your own (or your dictionary's) definition to be different from the one the author is thinking of.
Another problem I had was the writing style. It's very informal & is supposed to match the kind of writing you'd encounter on message boards & chatrooms across the net. Unfortunately it's a very different dialect to that which I'm used to (double colons instead of asterisks to indicate an action? Crazy! *shakes head*), & also came across to me as fairly condescending, particularly the many sentences endingin 'okay?'.
Finally, I don't know how useful or interesting other people might find this, but a heavy theme of the book was the idea of reaching 'No gender', which to me sounds like no fun at all. Here's a specific quote from earlyin the book:
"This is the key to the whole workbook. Really. Ready? [this partin large white letters on a huge black banner:] The way you live without gender is you look for where gender is, & then you go someplace else [banner ends]. If you've got that, you don't need to read any further."
I didn't find this to be the kind of thing I wanted to 'get', but I read on anyway. And to be honest, I was glad I did. Despite all my complaints, there's certainly some very interesting content - the gender/identity/power pyramid is a very enlightening way to look at the world, for example. I'm also very aware I can't possibly appreciate how useful the whole thing may be to someone actually undergoing any kind of gender reassignment.
It just wasn't what I was looking for. Although to the author's credit there was a chapter at the endin which you are strongly encouraged to respond, whether you agree or not, to anythingin the book you feel strongly about. This is the reason I'm writing this. Feedback is always good. Write on, Kate.
Gender Values - Recognize the Process and Take Control - By: Jessica, 29 Dec 2003 
Well, o.k. I'm not too objective about this. I read this book while recovering from gender re-assignment surgery (male to female). I was feeling pretty wobbly & uncertain about the future, but reading this book was a wonderful pick-me-up. It's a very strange book - part treatise on gender, part (as the name says) a "work-book", full of exercises and, at the beginning, questions & tests. There are, however, interesting dollops of theory to fill out & give substance to the more fun aspects of the book. I'm not too sure of the theory - you'll have to judge for yourself. I like the idea of gender "values" & the way this is juxtaposed with the more traditional ideas of gender "identities" - thus making the formation of gender a much more fluid & ambiguous process. And "process" is something that Kate emphasises continually. To suggest that the gender of a girl is different to that of a young woman which,in turn, is different to that of an old woman (to give one example) is interesting, but it seems that there is some danger of gender being so diluted that it becomes a pretty meaningless concept. Maybe this is the plan, maybe this is the aim & the idea. Maybe I'm being thick. Anyway, a wonderful book. Even the section on "bad days" when one feels that one's knuckles are dragging along the floor & one's shoulders would look better on a rugby player are dealt with with wit, sympathy & empathy. Who is this book aimed at? I really don't know. As Kate hirself says at the end of some of the questionnaires - "why are you reading this book?" I read it to gain a different perspective, to start to think more deeply about issues of gender & "queer theory". I got that. And I got a lot more too. Thanks Kate.
So you think you know what you are... - By: , 20 May 1998 
This book - if it can be called that - is about the most extensive coursein Gender Studies one could take without walking into a classroom & spending five months with a professor. Kate leads you through every step of the process with humor, insight & compassion - never pulling any of hir punches, though. If you're curious about the creation of gender, thinking about changing or reexamining your own gender, this is definitely a book you need to read.
