The best review of this book was presented in "Pioneers of Transgendering: The Life and Work of Virginia Prince" by Dave King, Department of Sociology, University of Liverpool, and Richard Ekins, Transgender Archive, University of Ulster at Coleraine Gendys Conference, so let me quote it.
"How to be a Woman though Male" immediately draws attention to the distinction between sex and gender which Prince underlines at various points in the book as well as in a dedicated chapter. The book is primarily a guide to changing gender for the femmiphile, and includes a wealth of information about women's clothing, make-up and so on, of thirty years ago. Some of this information is extremely detailed; there are, for example, five pages devoted to shoe styles, three to hosiery and one to gloves."
Prince writes of her awareness of the fact that she is presenting a stereotype of womanhood and that she agrees with the feminist criticism of some aspects of it but she argues that this is how things are, not as they should be and this is what it takes to be a woman in our culture (Prince, 1971: 116).
As in so much of Prince's writing, the style of her second book is a lecturing one; she is not just presenting information for her readers to use if they so wish - she is telling them what they should do, how they should dress, and how they should behave and look. So Prince wags a finger at her readers and tells them; "if you are going to appear in society as a woman, don't just be a woman, be a lady" (Prince, 1971: 135), and "it is the best in womanhood that the FP seeks to emulate, not the common. Be the LADY in the crowd if you are going to be a woman at all, not the scrubwoman or a clerk. It is the beauty, delicacy, grace, loveliness, charm and freedom of expression of the feminine world that you are seeking to experience and enjoy, so 'live it up' - be as pretty, charming and graceful as you can.""
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Photo via Wikipedia - University of Victoria Libraries, Transgender Archives
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