Beyond "man" and "woman".

• Author: Laughtland, Amanda

How Sex Changed by Joanne Meyerowitz Harvard University Press, 2002. 363 pages. $29.95.

Normal by Amy Bloom Random House, 2002. 140 pages. $23.95.

Christine Jorgensen is no longer a household name, but fifty years ago, her likeness was more apt to appear in a photo spread than Lauren Bacall's. With her internationally publicized transition from "ex-G.I." George to "blonde beauty" Christine, Jorgensen introduced mainstream America to the existence of transgender individuals.

Today, increasing numbers of people are reassessing the categories of "man" and "woman." They challenge us to consider whether these categories can sufficiently contain the complexities of biology and gender that appear in human beings.

Two new books--one by history professor Joanne Meyerowitz, the other by psychotherapist and fiction writer Amy Bloom--offer illumination on the changing definitions of men and women. The authors document the stories of individuals whose affirmations of transgender identities have pushed against, and ultimately blurred, the man-or-woman boundaries. Newcomers to transgender studies should find both books to be accessible and informative.

In her history of transsexuality in America, How Sex Changed, Meyerowitz details the advancement of medical treatments for transsexuals along with accompanying changes in the scientific as well as the popular lexicon. Doctors still can't identify what causes transsexuality, a term that, as Meyerowitz explains, refers "to conditions in which people hope to change the bodily characteristics of sex" through hormone use and surgery. She adds that transsexuals can be considered a subset of transgender people, "an umbrella term used for those with various forms and degrees of cross-gender practices and identifications." A butch lesbian or a heterosexual male cross-dresser, for example, might each identify as transgender yet have no interest in pursuing transsexual surgery.

Though doctors have published a number of medical texts on transsexuality, and several transsexuals have published their autobiographies, Meyerowitz's book stands out as a comprehensive, scholarly volume that incorporates research from a wide range of sources, including the perspectives of many transgender people themselves. While she consistently maintains a user-friendly approach for readers with limited knowledge of transsexuality, her work is thorough enough to interest those well-versed in transgender studies.

In her introduction, she...