Kimball, Meredith

English

Journals @ The Mount

century approaches, how the interaction between femi-n i sm and psychoanalysis continues to evolve. Joanna B. Boehnert University of G u e l p h R E F E R E N C E S Chester, P. Women and Madness, New York: Doubleday, 1972. Ci l l igan, C. In a Different Voice, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1982. Miller, J . B. Toward a New Psychology of Women, Boston: Beacon Press, 1976. Gender Blend ing : Confront ing the L i m i t s of Dual i ty . H o l l y Devor, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989, Pp. 178 paperback. H o l l y Devor has explored the social meaning of gender i n an interesting and unusual study. T h e book explores the experiences of 15 gender-blending women. A l l 15 women have had frequent experiences of being mistaken for men for at least five and usually 10 or more years. These mistakes usual ly occur i n pub l i c places, frequently w i t h clerks i n stores, but also, w i t h more serious consequences, w i t h police and others w h o require proof of identity. A l t h o u g h the number of women studied is small and gender-blending as def ining by Devor is a rare pheno-menon for most women, these women's experiences are pivota l for understanding the social construction of gender. As the subtitle of the book implies, it is through the experiences of gender-blending women that we realize the l imi ts of the c o m m o n assumptions that biological sex is dichotomous and forms the basis for the assignment of social gender i n our society. Devor argues that gender cues associated w i t h mascul ini ty and feminini ty form the basis for inferring bio logica l sex rather than the reverse. Indeed most of us, i n c l u d i n g the women Devor inter-viewed, assume that to be biological ly female is sufficient to determine our inclusion i n the social category "woman." T h e experiences of gender-blending women show that b io logica l femaleness is not sufficient for some women w h o chose to present themselves i n tradit ionally mascu-l ine ways. A n interesting example of this phenomenon is that three of the women w h o first experienced being mis-taken for boys i n ch i ldhood and adolescence, and a l l six whose gender-blending experiences began or escalated i n their early twenties, reported that the mistakes began just after they cut their hair short. Devor does an excellent job of showing us, through the experience of the women i n her study, the importance of gender i n our social and emotional lives. The women reported both very positive and very negative consequen-ces of gender-blending experiences. O n the positive side, these women found that being mistaken for a man i n pub l i c offered them a physical safety that they d id not otherwise feel. Furthermore, several reported increased respect from others and self-confidence when they were mistaken for men. These women's descriptions of how it feels to walk d o w n the street at night when one is thought to be male provide some of the most powerful data I have encountered wh ich illustrates the importance of gender i n determining our experience of the world . O n the negative side, these women experienced the fear more feminine women have of men i n publ ic situations. Often other women w o u l d cross the street at night to avoid wa lk ing past them. More seriously for the gender-blending women, women's pub l i c bathrooms were places where they were often unwanted, feared, removed by force and humil ia ted. A n d some of them reported h ighly degrading and h u m i -l i a t ing experiences when they were forced to prove their physical sex to police officers or other authorities. In spite of the negative experiences, a l l of the women felt the advantages of being mistaken for a man outweighed the disadvantages. As Devor clearly points out, this is not surprising i n a patriarchal society. T h i s book is very readable and, except for the last chap-ter, free of jargon. The author has included her o w n excellent photographs of gender-blending women through-out the book. These photographs provide the reader wi th visual images that not only supplement but also enrich the written text. T h i s book could be used by undergraduate as wel l as graduate students, and anyone interested i n the development and construction of gender i n our society w o u l d f ind Devor's book useful. T h e book is divided into two parts. T h e first three chapters explore the biological , psychological and social bases of gender. They provide very good cri t ical reviews of the exist ing academic literature. The chapter on biologi-cal bases is particularly wel l done and provides the researcher, teacher and student wi th up-to-date and cri t i-cal information i n this most controversial of areas. These first three chapters could easily be used as a text for an undergraduate course i n psychology, sociology, or wom-en's studies on the development of gender. The fourth, fifth and sixth chapters explore the early ch i ldhood expe-riences, sexuality, and everyday adult experiences of gender-blending women. These chapters form the basis of a descriptive study that would make an excellent text for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses on the social construction of gender. T h e last chapter describes Devor's theoretical model of the social creation of gender. I found this chapter weaker than the others because of Devor's increased use of jargon and the presence of confusing diagrams that were not explained i n detail i n the text. H e r argument that the creation of gender is complex, that it depends cri t ical ly on feedback from the social wor ld , and that it occurs at both the level of ind iv idua l behaviour (microsocial) and social institutions (macrosocial), is true. What is problematic is that the reader who, un t i l now, has been enlightened about the construction of gender may wel l become con-fused. A more detailed explanat ion of the most complex diagram (The Social Construction of Gender) wi th spe-cific examples from the gender-blending women wou ld help to make the theory clearer. Overal l , this is a very good book and I wou ld recom-mend it to a wide range of readers interested i n issues of gender and identity. T h e experiences of the gender-blending women, wh ich Devor elucidates so clearly, br ing to the forefront what remains i n the background for most women. In the process of m a k i n g prominent what most of us take for granted, these women have a great deal to teach us. By sensitively and intelligently describing these voices to us, Devor has made an important contr ibut ion to the study of gender. Meredith M . K i m b a l l S i m o n Fraser University 

Gender Bending: Confronting the Limits of Duality. Holly Devor.

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Gender Bending: Confronting the Limits of Duality. Holly Devor.

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