Date: Sun, 23 Oct 1994 20:18:44 -0400 From: Nancy Mahl Bornstein, Kate On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us Routledge, NYC1994 Read Gayle Rubin's essays: "Thinking Sex" and "The Traffic in Women" for succinct analyses of the role gender plays in our society. Wittig, Monique The Straight Mind Beacon Press, 1992 [Especially the essay "One is Not Born a Woman" which discusses notions of identity as split from gender] Ann Fausto-Sterling- I can't recall the name of the book (somebody help me out here!) which discusses gender as a chromosomal range with the male/female line arbitrarily drawn as opposed to a crisp binary. Marjorie Garber's very fine book Vested Interests which provides every sort of perspective and context one might wish for in exploring cross-dressing, gender reassignment, etc. Jim Fouratt's discomfort with Kate's reassignment surgery is an interesting thing for all of us to examine. Is sexual preference/orientation inextricably linked to anatomical gender? Who determines what one's gender identity is? The doctor who signs one's birth certificate? Oneself? Jim Fouratt? Can there be such a thing as self-determination in terms of gender? A review of the afore mentioned works will raise more questions than it answers, but for those of us who are stimulated by a little discomfort (intellectual discomfort Richard, I'm not alluding to those whips) it's a must. As most of us are teaching or taking gender studies and queer studies courses this material is crucial.