As it is, when Halberstam does invoke gender and its practice in non-Euro-American culture, her critique is disappointingly cursory. Although Halberstam, in her brief discussion of African American transsexualism, legitimately criticizes Amy Bloom's piece in The New Yorker for "mak[ing] little comment on Michael's testimony," she does not take the topic any further than Bloom does. Halberstam states that "Michael's experience is crucial to the politics of transsexualism," and that "there is a huge difference between becoming a black man or a man of color and becoming a white man, and these differences are bound to create gulfs within transsexual communities and will undoubtedly resonate in the border wars between butches and transsexual men," but this is where her commentary ends (158-9).

In two other chapters, Halberstam approaches a discussion of race but never quite explains what it is she wants to say. An analysis of Queen Latifah's performance in Set It Off is confined to a perfunctory two pages (just before the conclusion) in Chapter Six, and in Chapter Eight, Halberstam makes the bold statement, "black women face far more damning accusation of masculinity than white women in our society," but does not explain why (271). Her critique of race as it relates to female masculinity is asymptotic—infintely approaching but never quite hitting the mark.

The book is silent on religious perspectives as well. Religion, like race, often has a profound influence on the ways in which we conduct our sexual lives and the ways in which our gender is perceived by others. As Marjorie Garber (1997 [1992]: 210) points out, there is a saying among the French that there are three genders—men, women and clergymen. From priest to parish, each religion has its own gendered order, one that is sometimes more accommodating than that found in the secular arena. Gender has an important place in spaces sacred and profane, and it would have served Halberstam well to have addressed this.

In general, what is most disappointing about this book is not what it says, but what it does not say. This thought was crystallized when I laughed out loud while reading Halberstam's hilarious anecdotes of drag king theatre in Chapter Seven, and then sighed when I realized she made no references to the 19th century drag (king) theatre of, for example, Sarah Bernhardt, or to the gender bending in the plays of Molière and Shakespeare. A broader treatment of (female) masculinity and how it has been performed over time is a task far less daunting than it seems. Indeed, the most powerful argument for an acceptance of (female) masculinity may simply be to demonstrate that, like any other gender construct, it has been with us all along.

April, 2001

Notes:

1) Judith Butler's quote appears in her essay, "Imitation and Gender Insubordination," in Inside/Out: Lesbian Theories, Gay Theories, ed. Diana Fuss (New York: Routledge, 1991), 14.

2) Michel Foucault, "The Repressive Hypothesis," in The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow (New York: Pantheon Books, 1984), 303.

3) Judith Butler has remarked on the usefulness of studying gender practices among non-Euro-American cultures in her book, Gender Trouble (New York: Routledge, 1990), 151 (Note 8 in "Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire").

Bibliography:

-Babatunde, Emmanuel. Women's Rites Versus Women's Rights: A Study of Circumcision Among the Kétu Yoruba of South Western Nigeria. Trenton: African World Press, Inc., 1998.

-Butler, Judith. "Imitation and Gender Insubordination." In Inside/Out: Lesbian Theories, Gay Theories, edited by Diana Fuss. New York: Routledge, 1991.

-------. Gender Trouble. New York, Routledge, 1990.

-Foucault, Michel. "The Repressive Hypothesis." In The Foucault Reader, edited by Paul Rabinow. New York: Pantheon Books, 1984.

-Garber, Marjorie. Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety. New York: Routledge, 1997 [1992].

-Halberstam, Judith. Female Masculinity. Durham: Duke University Press, 1998.

-Lang, Sabine. Men as Women, Women as Men: Changing Gender in Native American Cultures. Translated by John L. Vantine. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998.

-Lutkehaus, Nancy C. and Roscoe, Paul B., eds. Gender Rituals: Female Initiation in Melanesia. New York: Routledge, 1995.

-Roscoe, Will. The Zuni Man-Woman. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1991.

-Williams, Walter L. The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986.

-Young, Antonia. Women Who Become Men: Albanian Sworn Virgins. New York: Berg, 2000.

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