The Transgender Phenomenon

CHOICE MAGAZINE Outstanding Academic Title for 2007

`The field of "transgender" and "transpositionality" has been carved out as a new field of inquiry in the past decade, showing the fragmentation and diversification of masculinities and feminities - along with the error of any sharp polarisation. Dave King and Richard Ekins are the leading world sociologists in this field and have mined it richly since the 1970′s. The book brings together a brilliant synthesis of history, case studies, ideas and positions as they have emerged over the past thirty years, and brings together a rich but always grounded account of this field, providing a state of the art of critical concepts and ideas to take this field further during the twenty first century. This is a must read for all interested in this new area of inquiry ′ - Ken Plummer, Professor of Sociology, University of Essex. Editor of Sexualities. Author of Intimate Citizenship

`An outstanding survey of the evolution of trans phenomena, splendidly written, highly informative, scholarly at its best, yet easy to read even for those neither trans nor sociologist. Drs Ekins and King, experts in the field, unroll the panoramas of sex, gender, and transgendering that have evloved during the last decades. For everyone wanting to understand the interaction of women and men and of those who cannot or will not identify with either of these two cataegories, reading this book is a must, and a real pleasure′ - Professor Friedmann Pfaefflin, University of ULM

`In a work destined to be a classic, Ekins and King offer a comprehensive overview of the diversity of contemporary transgender expression, along with an impressive conceptual framework for making sense of that diversity. The abundant case vignettes bring the authors′ concepts to life and make the book a pleasure to read′ - Dr Anne Lawrence, Clinical Sexologist in Private Practice, Seattle

`An outstanding survey of the evolution of trans phenomena, splendidly written, highly informative, scholarly at its best, yet easy to read even for those neither trans nor sociologist. Drs Ekins and King, experts in the field, unroll the panoramas of sex, gender, and transgendering that have evloved during the last decades. For everyone wanting to understand the interaction of women and men and of those who cannot or will not identify with either of these two cataegories, reading this book is a must, and a real pleasure′ -

This groundbreaking study sets out a framework for exploring transgender diversity for the new millennium. It sets forth an original and comprehensive research and provides a wealth of vivid illustrative material.

Based on two decades of fieldwork, life history work, qualitative analysis, archival work and contact with several thousand cross-dressers and sex-changers around the world, the authors distinguish a number of contemporary transgendering `stories′ to illustrate:

" the binary male/female divide;

" the interrelations betwen sex, sexuality and gender;

" the interrelations between the main sub-processes of transgendering.

Wonderfully insightful, The Transgender Phenomenon develops an original and innovative conceptual framkework for understanding the full range of the transgender experience.