Ftm: Female-to-Male Transsexuals in Society

In this ground-breaking study, Aaron Devor provides a compassionate, intimate, and incisive look at the life experiences of forty-five trans men. Emerging into 21st-century political and social conversations, questions persist. Who are they? How do they come to know themselves as men? What do they do about it? How do their families respond? Who are their lovers? What does it mean for everyone else? To answer these and other questions, Devor spent years compiling in-depth interviews and researching the lives of transsexual and transgender people. Here, he traces the everyday and significant events that coalesce into trans identities, culminating in gender and sex transformations. Using trans men's own words as illustrations, Devor looks at how childhood, adolescence, and adult experiences with family members, peers, and lovers work to shape and clarify their images of themselves as men. With a new introduction, Devor positions the volume in twenty-first century debates of identity politics and community-building and provides a window into his own self-exploration as a result of his research.

Foreword, 2016 / by Jamison Green
Foreword, 1997 / by Jamison Green
Acknowledgements
New Introduction
Original Introduction
Part I: First Questions
1. Have Female-to-Male Transsexuals Always Existed?
2. Theories about Transsexualism
Part II: Childhood Years
3. Finding Out about Gender: Theories of Childhood Gender Acquisition
4. Family Scenes
5. Who Would Want to Be a Girl?: The Women (and Girls) in Participants' Families
6. Men Rule: The Men (and Boys) in Participants' Families
7. Lessons Learned at Home: Summary of Family Relationships
8. Childhood Friends and Foes: Relationships with Non-Family Members
Part III: Adolescence
9. Adolescence Is about Change
10. Crises at Puberty
11. Adolescent Friendships
12. Women Are Different: Relationships with Female Relatives
13. Access Denied, Restrictions Apply: Relationship with Male Relatives
14. Looking for Love, Groping for Identity: Adolescent Sexuality
15. Concluding Adolescence
Part IV: Pre-Transition Years
16. Finding Identities
Part V: Changing Over
17. A Long Road
18. Making the Decision
19. Making the Changes
20. Coming Out Stories
21. Are We There Yet?
Part VI: Life after Transition
22. Nature Calls: Toilet Traumas and Medical Necessities
23. The Naked Truth about Sexuality
24. Visions of Genders
25. Lessons from the Journey
Part: VII: Concluding
26. Conclusions and Questions
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Subject Index
Participant Index

Aaron Devor, PhD, FSSSS, FSTLHE, is the Founder and Academic Director of the world's largest Transgender Archives, the world's first Research Chair in Transgender Studies, a former Dean of Graduate Studies (2002-2012), and a professor of Sociology at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.

This is the most comprehensive, professional book to date on FTM transsexualism and the many aspects of their life journeys. For its volume, this book is clearly understandable and reads without excessive use of scientific and academic rhetoric, thus making the book available to a broad audience. It is nonjudgmental, nonsensational, and provocative in its honesty, interpretation, and challenge to the future of societal opinion regarding FTM gender identity. (Reviewing a previous edition)

Devor's exploration of the life experiences and transformations of female-to-male transsexuals richly describes a heretofore neglected topic. Devor's compelling description provides readers with insights that both contrast with and complement the existing literature on male-to-female transsexuals and other transgendered individuals. (Reviewing a previous edition)

A landmark in the documentation of the personal lives of transsexual men. (Reviewing a previous edition)

The book alternates specialized academic analysis with the individual studies, and should be of interest to both professionals who work with transsexuals and scholars interested in gender theory. (Reviewing a previous edition)

Writing with an intelligent and accessible style, Dr. Devor balances exposition, analysis, and excerpts from her subjects' interviews to present a coherent picture of what social life is like for FTMs as they find their identity and learn about themselves. (Reviewing a previous edition)