Document Type
Review Essay
Abstract
[First paragraph]
In their new books, Jamison Green and Henry Rubin create two very different but complimentary works about female-to-male transsexuals (FTMs) [1]. In Becoming a Visible Man, Green, a long-time transgender activist and public speaker, provides a lyrical and moving account of his own experience as a transman, as well as a comprehensive overview of the some of the issues facing transmen today, ranging from the varied effects of testosterone to the pressures to conform to hegemonic masculine ideals. Self-Made Men, on the other hand, is an interview study conducted by up and coming sociologist Henry Rubin that provides the first sociological analysis to focus specifically on how transmen (rather than transwomen) negotiate issues of identity and embodiment. Despite these differences in approach and genre, however, both books complement one another, as they shed light on the lived experiences of FTMs in America, a historically understudied group.
Repository Citation
Schilt, Kristen. "On Rubin's Self Made Men and Green's Becoming a Visible Man." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 4, no. 3, 2004, pp. 1–3. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol4/iss3/14