Trans Women

“This study of a group of trans people in the USA is quite old now, being based on PhD research carried out in the early 1980’s. But even though it is in some ways outdated, it marked a turning point in writings about trans women.
   The author is an anthropologist, and as such she starts with that discipline’s approach of learning and recording the lives of her subjects, as they see themselves. The result is a book light years away from the pattern of previous writings, which were predominantly written by psychiatrists, psychologists and others … professions whose ethos is to bring to their work an expertise and insight supposedly lacked by the people who they study, and whose writings routinely dismiss and distort the experiences and understandings of those whom they purport to describe.
    Those earlier texts, and all too many since, have explained at great length the their authors’ prejudices of how trans people are deluded, or the hapless victims of their deep needs, and marginalise or ignore the voices of trans people themselves. Instead, Bolin describes with great tenderness the details of the learning processes involved in transition, the economic, social and medical hazards faced, and extent to which the trans women involved have to work around the “professionals” who purport to help them, and how the truths of this wonderful journey are all too often a secret which must be carefully guarded, particularly from those same “professionals”.
   By avoiding the temptation to construct grand theories, and working instead to build a relationship of trust with the women with whom she spent two years, Bolin was able to share the secrets witheld from those who exercise power over trans people. In Search of Eve stands as a record of the realities of the lives of her subjects … and an indictment of the dehumanising nature of so much of the rest of the academic literature. If for nothing else, her critique of the absurdity and misuse of the psychological tests applied to trans people makes this a valuable reference.
   As a model for how to write about trans people, Bolin’s book has stood the test of time far better than any of its contemporaries. My own copy is regularly lent out as required reading for those who want to understand more about how we are portrayed.” — CMcN