The Man Who Would Be Queen

The Washington Post

To be sure, there is interesting information in this book, which drifts back and forth between discussions of male homosexuality in general and discussions of femininity in men, which is not always the same thing. One of Bailey's most interesting observations is that many gay men themselves dislike femininity; he led a group of students who studied classified ads and found that gay men sought masculine partners far more often ("no femmes," the ads often say, along with things like "no fatties"). Similarly, the ad-placers tended to describe themselves as masculine. To me, this was telling and disturbing: Could it be that even gay men have absorbed a sexist, macho ethos? Or is this some sort of culturally imposed self-loathing? Bailey doesn't spend much time on the cultural influences, however, because he is an essentialist in these matters: He believes that both gayness and feminine behavior are biologically derived. — Liza Mundy

Publishers Weekly

An associate professor of psychology at Northwestern University, Bailey writes with assuredness that often makes difficult, abstract material-the relationship between sexual orientation and gender affect, the origins of homosexuality and the theoretical basis of how we discuss sexuality-comprehensible. He also, especially in his portraits of the women and men he writes about, displays a deep empathy that is frequently missing from scientific studies of sexuality. But Bailey's scope is so broad that when he gets down to pivotal constructs, as in detailing the data of scientific studies such as Richard Green's about "feminine boys" or Dean Hamer's work on the so-called "gay gene," the material is vague, and not cohesive. Bailey tends towards overreaching, unsupported generalizations, such his claim that "regardless of marital laws there will always be fewer gay men who are romantically attached" or that the African-American community is "a relatively anti-gay ethnic minority." Add to this the debatable supposition that innate "masculine" and "feminine" traits, in the most general sense of the words, decidedly exist, and his account as a whole loses force. (Mar.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Bailey (psychology, Northwestern Univ.) presents himself as a psychologist firmly in the center of discussions surrounding transsexualism in males. He begins by contrasting a therapist who advocates striking a four-year-old boy for "engaging in feminine behavior" (putting clothes on his stuffed animals) with the "anti-Gender Identity Disorder folks" (Bailey's term) who say that society is sick for being intolerant of unmasculine boys. Using chatty, lay readers' terms and anecdotes from his own personal life and research, Bailey dispassionately presents the two extremes but fails to ask the deeper questions, e.g., if "masculine" and "feminine" traits and identities are so natural, why must masculinity in particular be intensely policed and enforced? He takes as a given that homosexuality has a biological root and describes transsexualism as a "developmental disorder." Subsequent chapters present discussions and case studies of male-to-female transsexuals, making this book an adequate starting point for discussions on gender; for more radical views, readers are encouraged to read works by Pat Califia and Kate Bornstein. Recommended for comprehensive collections in sexuality, psychology, and social science.-Ina Rimpau, Newark P.L. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A researcher into the genetics of homosexuality presents fascinating revelations about feminine boys, gay men, and transsexuals, combining the most recent scholarship on sexual behaviors and preferences with up-close and personal profiles. Bailey (Psychology/Northwestern Univ.) makes some controversial findings in his exploration of stereotypes about femininity and homosexuality. Among the traits he has studied are speech and body language, interest in casual sex, and the importance placed on youth and physical attractiveness in a partner. In a personable and straightforward manner, he describes his research techniques and reproduces the questionnaires given to his subjects. He concludes that gay men have a mixture of male-typical and female-typical characteristics, suggesting that the reason may very well be that their brains are mosaics of male and female parts. Feminine boys, he further asserts, usually do grow up to become gay men, and a small minority of them even become transsexuals. The first section opens with a sympathetic profile of a boy whose mother came to Bailey with questions about raising her very feminine son that lead smoothly into a discussion of the research that has been done on such boys. Next, Bailey focuses on the scientific research on gay men; cross-cultural studies and accounts of homosexual practices in ancient Greece and renaissance Florence are particularly eye-opening. As yet unanswered, Bailey notes, are questions about the existence of homosexual genes and the reason for the persistence of homosexuality in human evolution. Finally, the author explores transsexualism, defined simply as "the desire to become a member of the opposite sex." Nonjudgmentalprofiles illustrate what Bailey distinguishes as the two basic types of male transsexuals: extremely feminine gay men, and autogynephiles, "men erotically obsessed with the image of themselves as a woman." The concluding chapter details the process and costs of medical transitioning from male to female. Despite its provocative title, a scientific yet superbly compassionate exposition. Author tour