The topic of gender is relevant to everyone. It is also a topic that evokes a strong emotional response. Gender is a social construct and few of us are aware of the system of rewards and punishments that have shaped our gender identity. For others who this system did not 'succeed' are often more aware of the process that shape identity as they have had to confront and defy. It is worthwhile to spend some time thinking about how your fear manifests itself, and how your fear of stepping outside the boundaries of 'appropriate' gender behavior limits your life. It starts many of us asking a slew of questions such as what was done to us in the name of Manhood and Womanhood, why? Why dose this process exist in the first place? Whose interest dose it serve? These questions are important to understanding our gender and us as a whole. Sex Changes: The politics of Transgenderism by Pat Califia addresses such questions. The following is a summary of the general description of t!
             he book and it's main points, which I have broken down chapter by chapter.
             The first chapter examines three autobiographical testimonies about the benefits of medically mediated sex reassignment. These works may be seen as the first generation of transsexual writing. Theses early writings were often dedicated to the doctors and the researches that supported and made possible sex reassignment to be used as a treatment for gender dysphoria.
             The second chapter explores the published works of gender experts which dominated the publics understanding of transsexuality and left there mark on public policy about 'treatment' for this 'illness'. Head among these experts were Harry Benjamin, John Money, and Richard Green.
             The third chapter examines the critics of the concept of gender dysphoria, the therapy of sex reassignment, and the first transsexual activists. Some of the early critics were the New C...