Sexual Metamorphosis

Informationen zum Autor Jonathan Ames is the author of I Pass Like Night , The Extra Man , What's Not to Love? , My Less Than Secret Life , and Wake Up, Sir! He is the winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship and lives in New York City, where he performs frequently as a storyteller in theaters and nightclubs. He is a recurring guest on the Late Show with David Letterman , and his books are being adapted for film and television. Ames has had one amateur boxing match, losing and fighting under the nickname "The Herring Wonder." Klappentext "But who could describe my fright when! on the next morning! I awoke and found myself feeling as if completely changed into a woman. -- Case 129! Autobiography! from Psychopathia Sexualis! a Medico-Forensic Study by Richard Von Krafft-Ebing At the time the passage above was written! people who felt trapped in the wrong gender automatically became case-studies. Today they become the men and women they always felt they were. Transsexuals test our notions of what it is to be male or female and! more provocatively! what it means to be one self as opposed to another. "Their stories!" says Jonathan Ames! "hold the appeal of an adventurer's tale." In Sexual Metamorphosis! Ames presents the personal narratives of seventeen gender pioneers. Here is Christine Jorgensen! the first celebrity transsexual! greeting thousands of well-wishers from the stage of Madison Square Garden. Here is Caroline Cossey! former model and Bond (as in James) girl! being outed in the tabloid press. Here is novelist and English professor Jennifer Finney Boylan discussing her impending transformation with her heartbroken spouse and supportive yet confused colleagues. The result is a fascinating and compulsively readable book! filled with anguish! introspection and courage. Zusammenfassung But who could describe my fright when! on the next morning! I awoke and found myself feeling as if completely changed into a woman. Case 129! Autobiography! from Psychopathia Sexualis! a Medico-Forensic Study by Richard Von Krafft-Ebing At the time the passage above was written! people who felt trapped in the wrong gender automatically became case-studies. Today they become the men and women they always felt they were. Transsexuals test our notions of what it is to be male or female and! more provocatively! what it means to be one self as opposed to another. Their stories! says Jonathan Ames! hold the appeal of an adventurer's tale. In Sexual Metamorphosis ! Ames presents the personal narratives of seventeen gender pioneers. Here is Christine Jorgensen! the first celebrity transsexual! greeting thousands of well-wishers from the stage of Madison Square Garden. Here is Caroline Cossey! former model and Bond (as in James) girl! being outed in the tabloid press. Here is novelist and English professor Jennifer Finney Boylan discussing her impending transformation with her heartbroken spouse and supportive yet confused colleagues. The result is a fascinating and compulsively readable book! filled with anguish! introspection and courage. Inhaltsverzeichnis Introduction Psychopathia Sexualis Richard von Krafft-Ebbing Man Into Woman Lili Elbe, ed. Niels Hoyer The Transsexual Phenomenon Harry Benjamin, M.D. Christine Jorgensen: A Personal Autobiography Christine Jorgensen Conundrum Jan Morris Emergence Mario Martino with harriett Second Serve Reneé Richards, M.D. My Story Caroline Cossey Body Alchemy Loren Cameron Dear Sir or Madam Mark Rees Crossing Deirdre McCloskey The Woman I Was Not Born to Be Alishia Brevard Mark 947 Calpernia Sarah Addams Wrapped in Blue Donna Rose She's Not There ...

Autorentext
Jonathan Ames is the author of I Pass Like Night, The Extra Man, What's Not to Love?, My Less Than Secret Life, and Wake Up, Sir! He is the winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship and lives in New York City, where he performs frequently as a storyteller in theaters and nightclubs. He is a recurring guest on the Late Show with David Letterman, and his books are being adapted for film and television. Ames has had one amateur boxing match, losing and fighting under the nickname "The Herring Wonder."

Klappentext

"But who could describe my fright when, on the next morning, I awoke and found myself feeling as if completely changed into a woman. -- Case 129, Autobiography, from Psychopathia Sexualis, a Medico-Forensic Study by Richard Von Krafft-Ebing
At the time the passage above was written, people who felt trapped in the wrong gender automatically became case-studies. Today they become the men and women they always felt they were. Transsexuals test our notions of what it is to be male or female and, more provocatively, what it means to be one self as opposed to another. "Their stories," says Jonathan Ames, "hold the appeal of an adventurer's tale."
In Sexual Metamorphosis, Ames presents the personal narratives of seventeen gender pioneers. Here is Christine Jorgensen, the first celebrity transsexual, greeting thousands of well-wishers from the stage of Madison Square Garden. Here is Caroline Cossey, former model and Bond (as in James) girl, being outed in the tabloid press. Here is novelist and English professor Jennifer Finney Boylan discussing her impending transformation with her heartbroken spouse and supportive yet confused colleagues. The result is a fascinating and compulsively readable book, filled with anguish, introspection and courage.

Leseprobe
PSYCHOPATHIA SEXUALIS

Richard von Krafft-Ebing

1886

Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840–1902) was a German physician and neurologist. His Psychopathia Sexualis (1886), a pioneering collection of 237 case studies in sexual pathology, revolutionized the scientific understanding of sex, influencing Freud (a student of Krafft-Ebing’s) and introducing the terms sadism, masochism, and fetishism.

In this excerpt, Case 129 is presented and is the autobiography of a patient who “feels like a woman in a man’s form.”

CASE 129. Autobiography. Born in Hungary in 1844, for many years I was the only child of my parents; for the other children died for the most part of general weakness. A brother of later birth is still living.

I come of a family in which nervous and mental diseases have been numerous. It is said that I was very pretty as a little child, with blond locks and transparent skin; very obedient, quiet and modest, so that I was taken everywhere in the society of ladies without any offense on my part.

With a very active imagination—my enemy through life—my talents developed rapidly. I could read and write at the age of four; my memory reaches back to my third year. I played with everything that fell into my hands—with leaden soldiers, or stones, or ribbons from a toy shop; but a machine for working in wood, that was given to me as a present, I did not like. I liked best to be at home with my mother, who was everything to me. I had two or three friends with whom I got on good-naturedly; but I liked to play with her sisters quite as well, who always treated me like a girl, which at first did not embarrass me. I must have already been on the road to become just like a girl; at least, I can still well remember how it was always said: “He is not intended for a boy.” At this I tried to play the boy—imitated my companions in everything, and tried to surpass them in wildness. In this I succeeded. There was no tree or building too high for me to reach its top. I took great delight in soldiers. I avoided girls more, because I did not wish to play with their playthings; and it always annoyed me that they treated me so much like one of themselves.

In the society of mature people, however, I was always modest, and, also, always regarded with favor. Fantastic dreams about wild animals—which once drove me out of bed without waking me—frequently troubled me. I was always very …