Jason’s Book

Writing as an insider and an anthropologist, Jason Cromwell presented the first in-depth examination of what it means to be an AFAB transperson. Through extensive participant observation and open-ended interviews, this book, published in 1999, allows female-to-male transsexuals to speak for themselves and reveal aspects of female gender diversity that do not fit into the ready-made categories of male and female. In clarifying how transmen and FTMs define and validate their lives, as opposed to how society attempts to pigeonhole and belittle them, Dr. Cromwell shows how female-to-male transpeople have been made virtually invisible by male-dominated discourses. He considers cross-cultural data on female gender diversity, historical evidence of female-bodied people who have lived as men, and contemporary transmen and FTMs. He also addresses how FTMs and transmen work to challenge the mental illness model of transness as well as other misconceptions. Jason’s book reframes the dialogue about gender identity and moves us away from regarding fixed gender categories as normative. By redefining gender diversity as a human condition Transmen and FTMs promotes a fuller understanding of transmasculine people in their own right.