S/He
Author:  Minnie Bruce Pratt
Publisher:  Alyson Publications
ISBN:  155583888X
Publishing Date:  2005
Pages:  192
Format:  Trade paperback

This brave memoir chronicles Pratt's struggle to overcome the repressive traditions of Southern womanhood and live her life honestly. It chronicles her youth, her marriage, her eventual decision to come out as a lesbian, and her life with transgendered activist and author Leslie Feinberg.

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About the Author

Minnie Bruce Pratt is the author of "We Say We Love Each Other, "Rebellion, "Crime Against Nature, "Walking Back Up Depot Street, and "The Dirt We Ate.

Review

Pratt breaks traditions, restrictions, and taboos in what many - some with shocked horror, others with fascination - will find a high-risk book, almost sure to become one of the hottest this season in and perhaps also outside the lesbian community. In a long series of vignettes, Pratt chronicles her Southern youth, during which she was "trained into the cult of pure white womanhood" and raised to be subjugated by a man; her lengthy marriage, the birth of two sons, and her eventual leave-taking from that traditional role; her coming out, living as a lesbian, and the fear it brought of "a sisterhood based on biological definitions" ; and - at the book's pulsing, erotic core - her passionate love for a woman born female but male in gender expression, who often lives as a man and whom Pratt calls "my husband." Some straights and gays alike may be repulsed by Pratt, finding her neither a "real woman" nor a "real lesbian." Others may applaud her efforts to eradicate boundaries.

Whitney Scott, Booklist
This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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