OurPath (formerly SSN) Open Forum / a new book on transness that is worth reading

**Posted by OutofHisCloset** July 23, 2021 8:11 am

I've posted many times a list of resources for those of us with trans-identifying spouses (males). A new book has just been released: "Trans" by Helen Joyce. I am reading it now, and recommend it. Joyce is a journalist who writes for "The Economist," and has been following and writing about trans issues and politics for some time. The book is both smart and readable, and I'd recommend it, not just for spouses but to anyone who wants to understand where we are now--males competing in women's events in Olympics, for example--and how we got here.

A large part of her book is an examination of gender theory. and the actions and beliefs of transactivists in pushing for practices that result in the opening of female-only spaces (and indeed in erasing sex--our status of male and female).

Chapter 2 (edited to add: Chapter 3, sorry) is especially useful in understanding the pressures that drive men who wish to be women. (I have read a lot of the primary sources that Joyce mentions (Blanchard, Lawrence, Bailey) and I still learned something!)

Last edited by OutofHisCloset (July 24, 2021 7:58 am)

**Posted by TakenbySurprise** July 23, 2021 11:08 pm

It's on my list. I was wondering if I could stomach it or not. I feared it might just make me angrier.

**Posted by OutofHisCloset** July 24, 2021 8:03 am

I think you will find it validating.

Although her focus is much broader, encompassing, for example, the shift from "transsexualism" to "transgenderism," from biology to social construction, from sex to self-professed "gender identity, from the surge of young girls identifying as trans/bi/non-binary to detransitioners/desisters, I was, naturally drawn to the part that addressed my own situation, and found that she does a great job of summarizing and synthesizing the research on autogynephlic men, and her explanation of the mental gymnastics autogynephilic men perform during sex to imagine themselves as women, re-casting anal penetration as vaginal sex, for example, was both illuminating of behaviors and statements my ex made during such sex and disturbing.

You might find something there equally illuminating (and disturbing) about your ex's behaviors.

Last edited by OutofHisCloset (July 24, 2021 8:08 am)