A random collection of over 1910 books and audiobooks authored by or about my transgender, intersex sisters, and gender-nonconforming persons all over the world. I read some of them, and I was inspired by some of them. I met some of the authors and heroines, some of them are my best friends, and I had the pleasure and honor of interviewing some of them. If you know of any transgender biography that I have not covered yet, please let me know.

Search for a book

Showing posts with label 1972. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1972. Show all posts

Esther Newton - Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America

Full title: "Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America" by Esther Newton.

"For two years Ester Newton did field research in the world of drag queens - homosexual men who make a living impersonating women. Newton spent time in the noisy bars, the chaotic dressing rooms, and the cheap apartments and hotels that make up the lives of drag queens, interviewing informants whose trust she had earned and compiling a lively, first-hand ethnographic account of the culture of female impersonators.

Mother Camp explores the distinctions that drag queens make among themselves as performers, the various kinds of night clubs and acts they depend on for a living, and the social organization of their work. A major part of the book deals with the symbolic geography of male and female styles, as enacted in the homosexual concept of "drag" (sex role transformation) and "camp," an important humor system cultivated by the drag queens themselves."

Lisetta Carmi - I travestiti

Original title: "I travestiti" (The transvestites) by Lisetta Carmi, (Rome, Essedi, 1972).

This is a photographic book with about 150 black and white shots on a phenomenon that – at the beginning of the 70s – did not fail to cause a sensation, gender identity. The volume was originally equipped with a paper dust jacket (now very rare) to hide from view a cover that for the time was considered particularly scandalous.

The photos were shot in Genoa from 1965 to the early 1970s. It is an intimate and deeply sensitive meditation on sexual identity. Lisetta Carmi was the first professional artist to photograph the transgender community.

Dianna Boileau - Behold I am a Woman Now

Full title: "Behold I am a Woman Now" by Dianna Boileau.

I found this book on a fantastic website of transascity.org. It is available for reading there. When reading I cried, cried, and cried. I thought that my own transition was a challenge but it was nothing compared to what Dianna Boileau had to go through in the 60s and 70s.

In the preface, we can read: "Now Dianna tells her story. The story of a boy growing up to discover he was a girl in every way but in physical equipment. The story of a boy forced by society to live a secret life of shame and degradation in the night world of the sexual outcast. A story that is bizarre, startling, shocking - yet one that is deeply human and courageous, a moving plea for tolerance and understanding of individual sexual preferences, no matter how unusual they may be".

Click at the image to visit My Blog

Search for a book