Reddit reviews The Testosterone Files: My Hormonal and Social Transformation from Female to Male

>[Citation Needed]

A book, or an article? This is pretty well known stuff, really. Anyone who takes a human sexuality class in college or does even light reading on the subject will encounter it.

Here is a good book on the transsexual perspective.

>Really, I'd like to see some cross-cultural studies on all of these subjects.

Then take a class, read a book, or Google. Believe it or not, human sexuality has been studied for a while.

Of course, what you really mean to say is "I'd like to see some cross-cultural studies to show that western culture is oppressive and patriarchal, or, failing that, that human culture is oppressive and patriarchal. I will never admit that there might be a biological basis to differences in biological function."

>Western society encourages the sexuality of men while ignoring and shunning the sexuality of women--i.e. the player/slut dichotomy.

Holy shit: do you mean to tell me that a substantial segment of the world's population has a multimilennia-old tradition of expecting females to have comparatively weak sex drives and view significant divergences from the norm as, well, abnormal?

No, it's all a massive conspiracy to keep women from having sex with men.

>So how do you know women don't downplay their sexuality as a result of social conditioning?

Because gay men don't, despite far stronger cultural taboos. Because of cross-cultural studies. Because the prevalence of premarital sex hasn't really changed all that dramatically, if at all. Because women are about as likely as men to engage in premarital sex.

>Your transsexual factoid doesn't necessarily support your argument; it's not like straight men become suicidal from their overwhelming sexual urges.

TIL that several years of puberty is indistinguishable from hormone replacement therapy.

Here's my list so far. It's a mix of FTM-specific, general trans, and gender studies books, including essays, memoir, and more academic works. In no particular order:

Gender Trouble by Judith Butler


Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us by Kate Bornstein

Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation by Kate Bornstein and S. Bear Bergman


Nina Here Nor There by Nick Krieger

Female Masculinity by Judith Halberstam

Nobody Passes - Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity edited by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore


Whipping Girl by Julia Serano


How Sex Changed: A History of Transexuality in the United States by Joanne Meyerowitz

Becoming a Visible Man by Jamison Green

Queer Theory, Gender Theory: An Instant Primer by Riki Wilchins

PoMoSexuals: Challenging Assumptions About Gender and Sexuality edited by Carol Queen

Genderqueer: Voices From Beyond the Sexual Binary edited by Joan Nestle

From the Inside Out: Radical Gender Transformation, FTM and Beyond edited by Morty Diamond

Second Son by Ryan Sallans

Why are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots? by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore

and the must-read fiction:

Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg

I'll edit this if I can find any others, I'm probably missing a couple. Been a big non-fiction reading year for me!

EDIT: Edited to add links, and a few more on my wish list I haven't picked up yet.

Letters for my Brothers: Transitional Wisdom in Retrospect edited By Megan M. Rohrer, M.Div. & Zander Keig, M.SW.

That's Revolting!: Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation edited by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore

Transgender Voices: Beyond Women and Men by Lori B. Girshick

Just Add Hormones: An Insider's Guide to the Transsexual Experience by Matt Kailey

The Testosterone Files: My Hormonal and Social Transformation from Female to Male by Max Wolf Valerio

Jamison Green's Becoming a Visible Man and Max Wolf Valerio's The Testosterone Files might be up your alley. Both transitioned later in life and both spent a fair amount of identifying as lesbians before transitioning. You might also find Matt Kailey's Just Add Hormones illuminating, he's a gay trans man who transitioned in his 40's. Also, not a book, but I always personally found that Romeos resonated with me more than anything else and somewhat outside of the typical trans narrative.

At around the same time that I read Self-Made Man, I also read The Testosterone Files, by a lesbian poet who took hormone therapy to become a man. It felt like the most lucid first-hand account of male puberty that I had ever read, and I was deeply convinced to switch the pronoun that I used for the author from she at the beginning of the book to he by the end of the book.

I am not saying testosterone or estrogen make a person happier or sadder. I am saying they lead to different expression and processing of emotions and life in general.

This is the book

http://www.amazon.com/The-Testosterone-Files-Hormonal-Transformation/dp/1580051731

I knew I would have found it again:

The Testosterone Files: My Hormonal and Social Transformation from Female to Male

>Max Wolf Valerio crafts a raw, gripping, and poetic account of life before, during, and after injecting testosterone. Valerio's detailed observations about a lesbian transitioning from female to a heterosexual male highlights the physical and emotional differences between women and men, and alternately challenges and confirms readers' assumptions about gender.

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>I admire butch lesbians and find them sexually attractive

Then absolutely read at least some piece of the book above, the immense difficulties he had approaching women because he appeared too effeminate and because he never realized how much work goes into getting a girl to say yes, and even more with lesbians because they don't like men bodies.

>Could you explain how a picture of my face or body is relevant?

I would like to know if you already look manly or you are a beautiful girl who will soon grow a pirate style mustache, if you wanna keep it private message it.