My gender workbook: how to become a real man, a real woman, the real you, or something else entirely

Kate Bornstein

Psychology Press, 1998 - Social Science - 292 pages

Gender isn't just about "male" or "female" anymore - if you have any doubts, just turn on your television. RuPaul is as familiar as tomato ketchup with national radio and television shows, and transgendered folk are as common to talk-shows as screaming and yelling. But if the popularization of gender bending is revealing that "male" and "female" aren't enough, where are we supposed to go from here? Cultural theorists have written loads of smart but difficult-to-fathom texts on gender, but none provide a hands-on, accessible guide to having your own unique gender. With My Gender Workbook, Kate Bornstein brings theory down to Earth and provides a practical approach to living with or without a gender.

Bornstein starts from the premise that there are not just two genders performed in today's world, but countless genders lumped under the two-gender framework. Using a unique, deceptively simple and always entertaining workbook format, Bornstein gently but firmly guides you to discover your own unique gender identity. Whether she's using the USFDA's food group triangle to explain gender, or quoting one-liners from real "gender transgressors", Bornstein's first and foremost concern is making information on gender bending truly accessible. With quizzes and exercises that determine how much of a man or woman you are, My Gender Workbook gives you the tools to reach whatever point you desire on the gender continuum.

Bornstein also takes aim at the recent flurry of books that attempt to naturalize gender difference, and puts books like Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus squarely where they belong: on Uranus. If you don't think you are transgendered when you sit down to read this book, you will be by the time you finish it!

What people are saying

Review: My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely

User Review  - WonderGoon - Goodreads

This book is very interesting and is in many ways a manual for exploring whether or not you are transgendered. It doesn't give practical advice, like make-up tips, but it does help you to explore that side of you that you might be hiding from the world.

Review: My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely

User Review  - Salome Wilde - Goodreads

A superb book of exercises and insights to challenge your gendered brain. Written with wit, insight, theoretical support and political zest, this book fuels rebellion in the best ways. Though a bit ...

Contents

• Heres Whats In Your Workbook Look: 1
• Solving The Gender Puzzle: 25
• Whos On Top? and why are we on the bottom?: 35
• Be All That You Can Be: 73
• Fuck Your Gender Love Sex Desire and Gender: 91
• Just Say No: 109
• Just Say Yes: 159
• Zen and the Art of Gender Maintenance: 173
• The Playgrounds: 191
• Cautionary Interlude: 245
• t This Quiet Revolution: 255
• Okay Now What?: 279
• Acknowledgments: 287

About the author

Kate Bornstein is the author of Gender Outlaw (Routledge, 1994) and co-author of the novel Nearly Roadkill (1996). She lives, writes and rehearses her stage work in Seattle.

Bibliographic information

• Title: My gender workbook: how to become a real man, a real woman, the real you, or something else entirely; Gender studies-Cultural studies
• Author: Kate Bornstein
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Psychology Press, 1998
• ISBN: 0415916739, 9780415916738
• Length: 292 pages
• Subjects: Social Science / Gay Studies; Social Science / Gender Studies; Social Science / Lesbian Studies