Transgender in other cultures
About the anthology
With this anthology, the two editors want to educate people. To clarify the difference between a serious conflict that causes psychological suffering due to the deep conviction of living in the wrong body and the current trend of mistaking gender role irritation for “transsexualism”.
The editors welcome the legal and medical assistance that has been available for 40 years in cases of diagnosed “gender dysphoria” – but they raise humanitarian and political concerns about the current trend of reacting too quickly to role irritation with serious hormone treatments and operations. It is no coincidence that the direction of “transition” (previously mostly from male to female) has statistically reversed in recent decades, which is clearly related to not being able to fulfill the expectations of the restrictive female role. Instead of encouraging girls to break out of the rigid role corset, the biological “sex” is adapted to the gender role.
In Alice Schwarzer’s and Chantal Louis’ anthology, psychiatrists, therapists, educators and parents of adolescent victims have their say, but above all those affected themselves: Women who have become men, men who have become women. Some have stayed with it, others have “detransitioned”.
