Blending Genders: Social Aspects of Cross-Dressing and Sex Changing

Gender blending or transgenderism is "sexuality's newest cuttimg edge." The term "transgender" covers pre-operative and post-operative transsexuals, transvestites, drag queens, gender benders and all gender blenders, whether straight or gay, who in their cross-dressing and sex-changing "transgress" gender roles.Blending Gendersis concerned with those who attempt to or succeed in blending various aspects of gender, either in respect of themselves or others. The book describes personal experiences of those who cross-dress and how they organize themselves socially-- in both "outsider" and "respectable" communities. The contributors consider the dominant medical framework through which gender blending is so often seen and look at the treatment afforded gender blending in literature, the press and the recently emerged telephone sex lines. The book concludes with a discussion of the lively debates that have taken place concerning the politics of transgenderism in recent years, and examinesits prominence in recent years, and examines its prominence in recent contributions to contemporary cultural and queer theory.