Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity

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Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity

4.23 of 5 stars 4.23 · rating details · 1,691 ratings · 215 reviews

A provocative manifesto, Whipping Girl tells the powerful story of Julia Serano, a transsexual woman whose supremely intelligent writing reflects her diverse background as a lesbian transgender activist and professional biologist. Serano shares her experiences and observations—both pre- and post-transition—to reveal the ways in which fear, suspicion, and dismissiveness tow...more

Paperback, 390 pages

Published May 14th 2007 by Seal Press (first published April 23rd 2007)

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Jul 04, 2007 Julian rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: queer, non-fiction

COMPLETELY AWESOME IN EVERY WAY. Gender analysis and theory that is somehow not wanktastic and jargony, is fresh, clear, and not all bogged down in a bunch of agenda driven bullshit, and based on the author's experiences as a trans woman. As I read this book, my primary thoughts were "This makes SO MUCH SENSE!" Parts were like reading the inside of my own head. Parts gave me an insight into things I will never experience myself. Brilliant.

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Jul 28, 2011 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical, memoir, nonfiction, politics, queer, womens-studies

This book has two halves, one of which I loved and one of which was pretty terrible.

The parts where she discussed, analyzed, and criticized transgender issues from terminology to medical processes were awesome. Serano is a wonderful writer who really knows what she is talking about in this section. She challenges assumptions, educates, and really makes the reader think. I especially loved her final conclusions, that the focus should be on confronting gender privilege instead of simply performin...more This book has two halves, one of which I loved and one of which was pretty terrible.

The parts where she discussed, analyzed, and criticized transgender issues from terminology to medical processes were awesome. Serano is a wonderful writer who really knows what she is talking about in this section. She challenges assumptions, educates, and really makes the reader think. I especially loved her final conclusions, that the focus should be on confronting gender privilege instead of simply performing gender in alternate ways.

But the part about feminism was frustrating and terrible. I would guess that 80% of her examples of feminists who disparage transpeople come from the 70's and 80's and feminist and trans histories of that period - she is essentially telling the feminist movement to confront and change something that is already being confronted and changed by the third wave. She also uses the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival as an example of feminists excluding transwomen, but Michigan is not a feminist event, just an event with a lot women. She also seems to think that feminism doesn't encourage femininity in boys, which is simply incorrect. You can find examples of this in the feminist movement in books like William's Doll in 1972, the second-wave slogan "feminism is the liberation of the masculine in every woman and the feminine in every man", and the fact that encouraging traditionally feminine traits in men has a major component of third wave feminism. That said, she does have some good suggestions that third-wavers should take to heart (such as not discussing trans-exclusion policies in the media without transactivists, not supporting trans-excluding events, listening to transpeople, examining their cis privledge, etc). It is clear that Serano's understanding of feminism that is primarily colored by her negative experiences with second-wavers, which pretty much dooms the book if you are a third-waver because you will be frustrated with her lack of current information.

I would recommend this book to someone interested in transfeminism, with the caveat that the person knew enough about feminism to see past the parts that are clearly problematic.(less)

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Oct 17, 2011 Elizabeth S. Q. Goodman rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: everyone-must-read, social-justice

My original review is below. My viewpoint has changed as trans activism have become much more personal to me, and this book is the best "education for trans allies" book that I know of. Furthermore, it's really good if you've ever felt constrained by social gender constructions. Seriously--it's a lot of good thinking about where stuff comes from and how to deal with it.

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A friend recommended it to me; one really has to process her ideas a lot before dissenting, I think. I say this not because...more My original review is below. My viewpoint has changed as trans activism have become much more personal to me, and this book is the best "education for trans allies" book that I know of. Furthermore, it's really good if you've ever felt constrained by social gender constructions. Seriously--it's a lot of good thinking about where stuff comes from and how to deal with it.

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A friend recommended it to me; one really has to process her ideas a lot before dissenting, I think. I say this not because she presents things badly--indeed, her prose so far is quite organized and elegant--but because a lot of the value in the book so far is in absorbing her perspective.

So far I've learned one thing that surprised me, but whose truth is evident: the way many men are squeamish about wearing feminine clothes, makeup and so on, is directly from a misogynistic fear of appearing feminine. It's as if we're the "untouchable" caste. I thought of it as practical, dismissive of excess, and so on, but never realized that women and queer people of all sorts would be "untouchable" because we're another species (because hey, I don't think of myself as less than a person even when I want to be pretty). The way people assume her femininity is a sexual fetish, among other things, says a lot about how society really thinks of women (and she does point out that trans men are largely ignored). More later.

Later: Actually I don't know what else to write about it: it says so very much. One thing that really surprised me is the revelation that transsexual people who went through sex reassignment surgery and hormones were for a long time encouraged to hide their assigned sex (probably decided genitals at birth, not chromosomes). Which means that if every transsexual in society were to come out at once, people would probably not think they were so rare, and might be less inclined to be afraid of them. Also, Serano recounts horrible interactions with doctors and researchers, so much media *and* academic bias; it's all explained and I find the explanation convincing even before reading more sources. She does *not* focus on hate crimes.

You could read this book, or ask me about it, if you want to know more (and I own a copy you could borrow). Julia Serano is in the San Francisco area, so maybe someday I'll see her give a workshop (yay SF!).(less)

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Feb 13, 2009 Vaughn rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: all "MTF spectrum" people, women's studies scholars, and especially MTF crossdressers

Shelves: gender, favorites

I read most of this book in one night. The theory half of the book was astute and well-argued, but it was the second half, chapters 10, 15, 17 19, that spoke to me. Alternately sent cold shivers down my back and had me marking up the margins with "Yes!", "**", et cetera. Just a very good book on trans misogyny unless part II personally connects with you. In which case.. Best. Book. Ever.
**Update
The preceding review is not really a critique in any way, just a reaction shortly after finishing th...more I read most of this book in one night. The theory half of the book was astute and well-argued, but it was the second half, chapters 10, 15, 17 19, that spoke to me. Alternately sent cold shivers down my back and had me marking up the margins with "Yes!", "**", et cetera. Just a very good book on trans misogyny unless part II personally connects with you. In which case.. Best. Book. Ever.
**Update
The preceding review is not really a critique in any way, just a reaction shortly after finishing the book.
It has since occurred to me that the concept of "unconscious sex" is more of an anecdotal description of a way of feeling than anything which could be placed in a causal nexus to explain the "aetiology" of transsexuality. I'm sure that it could be broken down into phenomenologically valid experiences of at least some transgendered people, but.. a) Is it supposed to be the signal of one's true or authentic sex? That concept seems problematic to me now. b) If it is something like a number of repressed drives (the word "unconscious" suggests Freud's metapsychology), how does that link up with the concept of sex? If 'sex' is defined in opposition to 'gender,' as a scientifically discoverable property of bodies, and gender is an ensemble of gestures and 'scripts,' a "cognitive style" a la Schutz, where does that leave unconscious sex? It seems to resemble the medical category of "gender identity" as in "Gender Identity Disorder" (GID).
I'm pretty sure I read and/or heard the author, who I think is awesome, describe this book as a collection of personal essays, which would mitigate the force of the criticisms above. It wasn't her intention to defend her gender/sex against academic or medical theories of gender, which might explain the reactions of another reviewer's grad. school seminar to the book. I'm a philosophy grad. student myself, but I really didn't approach this book from a 'tear it apart' perspective. I'm just trying to think through these issues myself, and I wanted to qualify my earlier enthusiasm for the book as enthusiasm for the political positions expressed and for the personal narratives.
(less)

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Mar 09, 2008 jessi lee rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: feminists

Recommended to jessi lee by: mr. strikeback

i love this book. i was just quoting it in my "cultural diversity" class in counseling school & now half the class promised to read it. it's the best feminist text i've read in years.

things that i'm grateful for: the term "transmisogyny"; the discussion of oppositional sexism; the sharp analysis of media representations of trans women & absence of trans men in the media; the discussion of the history of cis academics & scientists using/abusing transsexual people; the discussion of ci...more

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Jun 02, 2008 simon rated it 4 of 5 stars

this book is a breath of fresh air in the world of trans theory/non-fiction. personal and political, truly feminist all the way down. great critique of the objectification of trans people and bodies in the growing world of academic queer/trans studies. strategically argues for understanding the struggles for gender liberation as a coalition of allies rather than trying to fit everyone under one trans "umbrella". muscled it into my grad queer theory class to offer some balance to all the non-tran...more

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Oct 31, 2007 Shea rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

This book was recommended to me during a conference I went to for work back when I was with AmeriCorps, and I did not get a chance to read it until last week. I nearly forgot about the recommendation actually, but I stumbled across it while working and immediately decided to read it. Serano tackles two major issues in this book: 1) "mainstream" feminism in society and 2) transsexualism in society. The former I was very acquainted with and recognized many of the authors that Serano talks about, a...more This book was recommended to me during a conference I went to for work back when I was with AmeriCorps, and I did not get a chance to read it until last week. I nearly forgot about the recommendation actually, but I stumbled across it while working and immediately decided to read it. Serano tackles two major issues in this book: 1) "mainstream" feminism in society and 2) transsexualism in society. The former I was very acquainted with and recognized many of the authors that Serano talks about, and the latter I admittedly knew little to nothing about. Serano’s biography describes her as a biologist, writer, and a musician (in a band called Bitesize, which I highly recommend by the way)…which makes her the only other person I know of, besides myself, who agrees that taking on three completely separate careers/passions is a totally acceptable method of living. Rock on sister. She’s also a transsexual woman, and much of what she has to say can knock down the most self-identified "liberal" or "open" person into a continual state of thinking "jesus, I had no idea." That is certainly what happened to me while reading this book, and I considered myself a staunch member of the most "open" group of people in the realm of individual liberty and happiness.

While some may be willing to pigeonhole this work as a "transsexual rant against society," it really isn’t. While Serano manages to force just about anyone who doesn’t (and probably in some cases, does) identify as transsexual to rethink their own misconceptions about gender identity, she also delivers a strong case against the so-called mainstream brand of feminism and argues that it has a lot of work to do before it can truly live up to the ideals it espouses at every "womyn’s rally" and "feminist day" event it conducts.

The strongest argument she introduces early on is the fact that femininity is largely demonized in our society and culture. She harps on this idea again and again and again throughout the work, and while it does become slightly monotonous (after the 93rd time I got it, really), I think her main intention was to make sure that her readers truly understood the argument because of how important it is in understanding the root causes of sexism and discrimination against transsexual women. She warrants this claim in a number of ways and one of the more compelling ways is when she points out that "MTF transsexuals" tend to experience way more scrutiny, harassment, and even fear of violence (both "pre-" and "post-op") than "FTM transsexuals". She cites a specific example in which a midwest "womyn’s festival" openly accepts lesbians, bisexual women, transsexual men, and other women, yet it specifically excludes transsexual women. I actually had to read that one again to make sure I had read it correctly, and when she describes some of the justifications for such a blatant exclusion (like the idea that transsexual women have some sort of "male aura" simply because they were born male), I had to laugh at the absurdity of it.

I’ve offered a small glimpse into the topics that Serano covers because to describe every major subject that she touches on would be nearly impossible. She makes very compelling arguments in both the feminist and transsexual realms, and at the very least, she offers a very eye-opening glimpse into issues that many of us have never thought about before (I certainly hadn’t). One of the only major downsides is that Serano is "jargony" at times, and while it does take some time to get used to the terms she creates and uses constantly throughout the work, I don’t think it will be a serious defect for anyone interested in seeing what she has to say.(less)

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Aug 04, 2007 Carolyn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Really fantastic. In this book Julia Serano makes a series of, in my mind, exceptionally clear and persuasive arguments about gender expression, illuminating and demolishing the very problematic, deeply rooted notion that (to steal from the book's rear cover) "femininity is frivolous, weak and inherently inferior to maleness and masculinity." Her experiences as a trans woman inform much of this book but this book certainly isn't exclusively for trans people. I think this book deserves to be an e...more

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Dec 02, 2008 ellen rated it 4 of 5 stars

I am still digesting this book, it's been a long time since I've read a feminist manifesto of sorts and it's taking me some time to wrap my head around it.

First and foremost I think voices like Serano's are incredibly important, to the feminist movement, the queer movement, and within mainstream society. I agree with the majority of what she has to say, about the nature of sexism and cissexual privilege, the ways in which trans voices and experiences are silenced, and how the fears and expectati...more

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Jan 28, 2008 Bryn rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: This is kind of required reading for anyone who wants to be my friend.

Shelves: gay-gay-gay

Yes yes yes yes yes. Finally.

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Jun 25, 2009 Alana rated it 4 of 5 stars

I picked this up after reading an interview with the author in Bitch magazine and being intrigued by her counters to the accusation that "feminine expression is often used solely to appease and attract men" (Bitch magazine, um... issue #36, p. 60?) As a girly-girl feminist who loves a pretty dress, I was excited by Serano's statement that "Whenever I hear a feminist argue that women are subordinating themselves to men when they dress up, to me it sounds like a slightly toned-down version of 'wom...more

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Feb 27, 2013 Tamara K. W. rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: trans* women, transfeminists, feminists, friends and family of trans* women

Shelves: transfeminism

What can one say about this? It's transfeminist canon, originally, thoroughly, and significantly altering (if not framing singlehandedly in many ways) the discourse. There are a few problems (namely, the omnipresent binarism-by-default and unquestioning representation of gender as largely static), but overall, this is overwhelmingly EXCELLENT! The various pillars of cissexism, oppositional sexism, and the institutionalized transphobia that has nefariously been reflected in psychiatric 'gatekeepi...more

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Jan 09, 2013 Sherwood Smith added it

Shelves: exploring-gender-in-non-fiction

I am beginning to wonder if "It's good to be cis" parallels "It's good to be rich." Being rich makes all these other problems of life invisible--you want something? You get it. Or you order someone to get it for you. The wish is the deed. For the rest of us, the wish can be a receding mirage as we struggle to make a penny stretch, to squeeze time from job and other obligations, yadda. So, yeah, it's nice to be rich . . . but no one comes along and helpfully legislates that we all have to be rich...more

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Nov 12, 2012 Lia rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm reading this five years after it was published (in 2007) and, it seems, after loads of people I know who have discussed this book specifically and also absorbed its ideas into their critiques of so many issues (particularly in discussions around transmisogyny), so it doesn't feel as fresh as I'm sure it would have when it was first published.

Even so, it's pretty incisive. In Part 1, "Trans/Gender Theory", Serano disambiguates a lot of concepts that are confused in discourse around sex and g...more I'm reading this five years after it was published (in 2007) and, it seems, after loads of people I know who have discussed this book specifically and also absorbed its ideas into their critiques of so many issues (particularly in discussions around transmisogyny), so it doesn't feel as fresh as I'm sure it would have when it was first published.

Even so, it's pretty incisive. In Part 1, "Trans/Gender Theory", Serano disambiguates a lot of concepts that are confused in discourse around sex and gender, even in academia, by separating subconscious sex, gender expression and sexual orientation, and looking at how these identities relate to cissexism (assuming that cissexuals' gender identities are more natural, normal and unquestionable than transsexuals' gender identities), transphobia, oppositional sexism (basically maintaining gender categories as mutually exhaustive, exclusive and oppositional) and traditional sexism (devaluing women, femininity and femaleness in relation to men, masculinity and maleness). I feel that her writing and use of concrete examples would make this text fairly accessible for someone who doesn't have any pre-existing familiarity with these terms.

Part 2 "Trans Women, Femininity and Feminism" seems to be a collection of shorter papers, and I can see from the notes that some of these have been previously published on their own. This part is more personal and stylistically more forceful, but I found it pretty repetitive. I guess I've read a lot of blog posts and articles by trans women that articulate similar ideas to the chapters in Part 2, while Part 1 develops a coherent theoretical framework that sets the stage (and creates the language) for the reflections in Part 2.

The only real critique I have is that Serano spends much of the book rightly criticising how non-trans medical practitioners, feminists, filmmakers, novelists, sociologists, gender theorists and queer activists use trans women's lives as raw material to analyse or entertain without any regard for trans women's stories about themselves. But then in her discussion of non-Western gender categories such as berdaches (p 147-149), she refers to her own feelings about being "third-gendered", doubts the distinction between "third genders" and "trans people who 'cross' from one gender to the other", and characterises "third genders" as "oppositional sexist attempts by society to marginalize gender-variant people" without speaking to anyone who might identify as "third gender" or referring to any testimony or autobiography. Isn't that exactly the kind of appropriation and gender entitlement she decries? While definitely there is a romanticisation of non-Western "third gender" categories, and I would probably agree that in any contemporary society that has a "third gender" category, there would also be trans people who would prefer to be considered as part of the same category as cis people of their gender, it also seems like Serano is touching on this discussion to forward her own argument. She makes the same kind of evasive reference to people who might prefer a "third gender" identity over a transsexual one as the gatekeepers she criticises who brush off or ignore lesbian trans women whose orientation problematises their assumptions. Anyway, it's only like three pages out of 400 so really not a big deal, but it bugged me. (less)

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Jul 15, 2012 Teagan rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone who is, knows, or loves a trans person.

Shelves: trans-gender-sexuality, science, politics, biography

Picking up this book was such an empowering moment. For the first time in my 27 years of being transgender, I saw myself reflected properly in print. Julia Serano was like a more experienced, smarter, older sister, showing me that it is ok to be myself, whatever shape that is. She showed me that we're not crazy, broken or disgusting, and some of us are clever and funny and capable. She deconstructed media representations that have troubled me since childhood and explained the origin of stereotyp...more

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Nov 18, 2010 Ruth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Although it got a little repetitive by the end this book was great in the way it made me think about lots of things just a little differently. I was intrigued by the way she breaks gender identity into 3 independent dimensions, and now I am walking around with this little map imprinted in my head that looks kind of like the soil texture triangle, except instead of sand, silt & clay, it's got sexual orientation, gender expression, and gender inclination in it. I don't know why I never explici...more Although it got a little repetitive by the end this book was great in the way it made me think about lots of things just a little differently. I was intrigued by the way she breaks gender identity into 3 independent dimensions, and now I am walking around with this little map imprinted in my head that looks kind of like the soil texture triangle, except instead of sand, silt & clay, it's got sexual orientation, gender expression, and gender inclination in it. I don't know why I never explicitly thought of gender expression as independent of gender inclination but once I got the idea in my head I couldn't help thinking of all the various combinations and the multiple layers of identity that can exist and the diversity just floors me. The other thing the author gave me is much more of a clear understanding of all the countless ways that transexuals are misinterpreted and misunderstood, many of which I've heard before and often from unlikely quarters, like the women's studies crowd. And, although understanding is somewhat beside the point (in that you shouldn't have to totally understand or identify with someone in order to accept & appreciate who they are) I feel a deeper understanding of and kinship with transexuals on both the MTF spectrum and the FTM spectrum after reading this. Like, I thought about what I'd do if tomorrow I woke up and had the gender expression and actual physique of a male but I was still myself- would I feel the need to continue to live as a woman? If I say yes, which is what I feel myself wanting to say, then that means I have a pretty strong gender inclination in there, even though I usually think about gender as being kind of arbitrary. I guess that's the thing- you only think of gender as being arbitrary if you don't experience dissonance between your perceived and your internal gender, which I've thought of with regards to other social norms, but maybe not with this topic, or at least not as specifically. I am often thinking about how to construct an idea of femininity/masculinity that we all can live with, because the denial of any meaning for these words hurts those who identify strongly with them, while the overuse of them of them hurts those who do not, and this reading fed me with some new ways I might be able to do that. On the other hand, I do have to say that her idea of bell curves for the three gender identity indicators doesn't really work for me- bell curves about people tend to make me nervous, probably because there's too much "normal" in them. Yeah, so I could go on like this, but the gist is that there's a lot of food for thought in here.

Oh, and as a side note, the Michigan Women's festival bigwigs come off kind of badly. If I was ever on the fence about them, I think I'm on Julia's side now.(less)

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Jul 03, 2012 Dijon Chiasson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: trans, favorites

Whipping Girl was the most personally important book I've read to date. Serano tore our society a new one. I can see why some people might find it upsetting since she just doesn't let up the whole book, she is relentless. But it just makes so much sense, and is so logically argued, that you find yourself with little choice but to accept what she says as true. I really found myself desperately grasping for an argument to dismiss her claims, but I couldn't. I didn't realize how bad things were for...more

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Jun 08, 2012 Leslie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club, feminism-womens-studies, nonfiction

I enjoyed this book. I was a beginner on trans issues and found "Whipping Girl" to be very accessible, even as it introduced me to a lot of history, concepts and ideas that were totally new to me. I think the best thing I gained from it was the idea of physical sex, subconscious sex, gender, and sexuality as four separate categories. Cis people (like me) tend to conflate the first two; to me, it feels like I "know" I'm a woman because my body is a female body and people have treated me as a fema...more I enjoyed this book. I was a beginner on trans issues and found "Whipping Girl" to be very accessible, even as it introduced me to a lot of history, concepts and ideas that were totally new to me. I think the best thing I gained from it was the idea of physical sex, subconscious sex, gender, and sexuality as four separate categories. Cis people (like me) tend to conflate the first two; to me, it feels like I "know" I'm a woman because my body is a female body and people have treated me as a female for my whole life, but given the experience of people whose subconscious and physical sexes are not the same, it appears that that's not actually what is going on - it's really something in my mind that tells me I'm a woman. This was a really neat idea to me, as it gave me a cognitive tool for understanding the experience of someone like, for example, Serano, who was born physically male, does not have a particularly feminine gender expression, and is attracted to women, but still felt such a great disconnect between her body and her mind's sex that she now lives as a woman. (She also does a great job, generally, of separating out sex from sexuality in terms of de-sexualizing the experience of being trans and/or transitioning physically from male to female or vice versa.)

Serano's central argument (inasmuch as there is a central argument in this collection of essays) - that much of what gets classified as homophobia and transphobia is in fact conventional misogyny and sexism - is well-put and thoroughly supported. Her arguments about femininity, though, get a little muddier. She argues that feminists have rejected femininity, subscribing to the culturally prevalent sexist notions that ascribe negative meanings to feminine expressions and practices, and she argues this convincingly. Her solution is to embrace femininity and eradicate the duality or "binary" that situates femininity as masculinity's opposite, attaching positive meanings (and ideas like "natural, authentic") to the latter and negative ("unnatural, contrived") to the former; and to accept both feminine and masculine expressions and practices from all sorts of people - cis and trans men and women, intersex folks, genderqueer folks, etc. Great! This is an idea I can get behind. But I found it extremely difficult to pin down what it is she means by femininity. She is against considering weakness, helplessness, deference and passivity to be feminine traits - but what are feminine traits, then? She mentions some hormonal/biological traits, such as being in tune with your emotions, and some behaviors such as adornment of oneself and one's surroundings, but in general I felt a little unsatisfied. It seems like if we want to reposition femininity, we need to understand a little better what femininity is.(less)

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Jan 15, 2013 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Fantastic book on trans-feminism and specifically how society treats femininity from a perspective that's seen both sides of the coin. Be aware that yes, this is a fairly academic piece as opposed to more personal memoir style, but it's written in a way that even my STEM self could understand. Certainly a lot more accessible than what I read for my college Ethics course.

The first half of the book is a bit more focused than the second, and goes into the groundwork for transphobia and society's tr...more

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Aug 12, 2012 Danika rated it 5 of 5 stars

"This sort of thinking is extraordinarily naive, as it denies a basic truth: We make assumptions every day about other people's genders without seeing their birth certificates, their chromosomes, their genitals... There is no such thing as "real" gender." -P13

"Even as a preteen struggling with the inexplicable and persistent desire to be female, I understood how problematic that popular cliche was. After all, how can anyone know what it like to "feel like a woman" or "feel like a man" when we ca...more

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May 14, 2013 Adam Kranz rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: the-problem-of-civilization, wealth-and-power-inequality, non-fiction, mudd-library

In my quest to learn more about gender/feminist theory and understand the crux of the argument between rad-fem and trans-fem thought, Serano's book has been by far the most helpful. While the book occasionally seems somewhat repetitive (as though some of the chapters were written to be read independently) it explores all the important historical debates and aspects of gender theory and cultural critique relevant to the discussion. The history of sex science covered in Sexing the Body: Gender Pol ...more

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Jul 18, 2012 Jessica Evans rated it 5 of 5 stars

Really more like a 4.4, but I feel like I'm obligated to upvote it. It is good. There is maybe one essay in here which is philosophically problematic in the context of the rest but that still puts it out far ahead of most other manifesto-y type things, including often studied/quoted/taught-in-university works. Very accessible. Some people don't like it because the tone is "too angry". Those people can die. It says a lot of things that really, dearly needed saying, for a demographic who are utter...more

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Dec 05, 2011 Gwen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: gender-issues

This is, without a doubt, the most eye-opening, most mind-blowing, most important book I have ever read! This book actually proposes (successfully, I believe) the equivalent to physics' Holy Grail -- a "Unified Theory", so to speak, but not of time and matter and the universe, but of sex, gender, sexism, and privilege. Ms. Serano takes on and destroys multiple gender and psychological establishments with her keen intellect, her amazing insights, and her brilliant wit, with just a touch of sarcas...more

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Jan 22, 2012 Bill rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was, so far, the most profound book I've read on all things transgender. Ms. Serano is among the most important voices anywhere for the segment of society referred to as transgendered, and she has done an immeasurable favor for society by spending the time and effort to research and write this book. Her paradigm shift is so profound that she needed to invent several new phrases (most consisting of an adjective combined with a noun) in order to even begin to express her views. My hope is tha...more

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Sep 11, 2012 Madeline rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: queer, nonfiction, essays, feminism

The best, BEST, book on trans issues I've ever read... also one of the sharpest reflections on the continued necessity of feminism today. Even if you've read a lot about trans issues - don't miss this one, because it's simply more insightful than any other I've come across. In spite of this, it remains very accessible and would make a great primer for someone looking for a good intro to trans studies.

Her treatment of "gender performativity" blew a big hole in the "of course Judith Butler must b...more

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Dec 14, 2012 Tara Jay rated it 3 of 5 stars

There are things I love about this book, mostly Serano's more personal writing, and some of the writing about her experiences on estrogen are beautiful/heartbreaking. All of her writing on hormones feels very spot-on to me, as do her theories on "the scapegoating of femininity."
But there were too many little unfair jabs at non-binary/genderqueer folks, and some of them felt really hurtful and maybe she made me cry. It's pretty clear that Serano doesn't think that identifying outside of the binar...more

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Nov 24, 2010 Jen rated it 1 of 5 stars

I read this book for a class about gender, specifically people that identify as transsexual or transgendered. I was fairly disappointed with this book on the whole. I have to say that it was very informative about a lot of topics that I, as someone who does not identify as transsexual, hadn't even been introduced to. However, my displeasure resulted from the tone of Serano's writing. I felt like the whole time she was explaining things, she was saying, "Oh, you cissexual people can NEVER underst...more

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Jul 04, 2012 Zoe rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: feminist, z

She's into the liberal subject, and I can't get behind that. It wasn't all terrible, but it does a lot of essentialism and demonstrates a lot of the flaws of identity politics. She dismisses performativity and construction but clearly doesn't understand the concepts, then obsesses over a real/artificial dichotomy which "makes sense" because she's trying to posit that trans women are women too, but doesn't make sense because real and artificial can't apply to gender (hence, we reach her goal but...more

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Aug 14, 2010 Mollygf rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, feminist-related, gender-related

Parts thesis, manifesto, and catharsis, Julia Serano's Whipping Girl is an essential read for anyone, period.
While it specifically tackles topics within the feminist, queer, and gender variant communities, it introduces concepts such as "oppositional sexism" (a sexism driven by the belief that men and women should be opposites, i.e. if masculinity is natural, femininity is contrived). The book is well researched and provides an insight into the psychological and medical history of treatment of...more

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Feb 16, 2011 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: class-union, lgbtq-social-ethics, queer

This book is a model for academics seeking a popular voice. Serano is mostly working in expository form here, rather than personal narration, but the personality of her writing is bracing and funny, while never backing off the precision of her claims. Part of me wishes I'd read this book before starting on trans activism work two or three years ago (how'd it take me this long? no idea), yet I also know that I found it resonant and useful in part because of how Serano's narration overlapped with...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
FABClub (Female A...: * Whipping Girl (Monthly Memoir June '13)	1	4	Jun 04, 2013 09:46pm
fMh: * Whipping Girl Introduction and Trans Woman Manifesto	17	40	Dec 11, 2012 07:58pm
fMh: Whipping Girl Chapter 1: Terminology!	6	24	Dec 09, 2012 12:13pm
fMh: Reading a book together?	6	30	Nov 24, 2012 11:31am

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About Julia Serano

Julia Serano is an Oakland, California-based writer, spoken word performer, trans activist, and biologist.

More about Julia Serano...

Books by Julia Serano

Excluded: Making Feminist and Queer Movements More Inclusive

Trans/Love: Radical Sex, Love & Relationships Beyond the Gender Binary

Best Sex Writing 2013: The State of Today's Sexual Culture

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Quotes from Whipping Girl: A Trans...

“It is offensive that so many people feel that it is okay to publicly refer to transsexuals as being “pre-op” or “post-op” when it would so clearly be degrading and demeaning to regularly describe all boys and men as being either “circumcised” or “uncircumcised.” — 19 people liked it

“I am rather disturbed by the fact that so many people—who are neither medical professionals nor trans themselves—would want to hear all of the gory details regarding transsexual physical transformations, or would feel that they have any right to ask us about the state of our genitals.” — 12 people liked it

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