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BOOK REVIEWS

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Sheila Niles 32-B-2 FPE

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Transvestism, by Hugh Magnus, Y Award Books A519S, Universal Publ. & Dist. Corp., 235 E. 45th St., New York 10017, paperback, 155 pp., 75c (1969)

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This little book has, as promised on the cover, many case histories. It also has a variety of interesting sidelights on the history of TV and problems the author considers to be related. His purpose seems to be emphasizing the wide variety of TV patterns, and he even echoes the ............ rather negative view expressed by some of our members "surely that there are as many kinds of TV as there are of sexual beings." Despite this, he makes an interesting attempt to classify us along somewhat different lines than the usual ones.

Some readers may be offended by Magnus' use of the title to include types that we do not regard as "real TVs". However, his usage is in line with both the dictionary's and the derivation of the word from "cross-dressing". His categories make it evident, however, that he does distinguish sharply among the homo, trans and hetero-sexual types. Unfortunately this wide sweep leads to shallowness, so that our type of TV reader will identify with no more than a very few of the 42 cases reviewed. These are classified as certain "basic" types (fetishist, aesthetic, Oedipal, antisocial), enforced, drag queens, promiscuous, married, narcissist and transexual. Unfortunately he spends 21 pages on one male prostitute which could well have been better used. It is evident that he has not come into contact with many non-clinical cases, and the happy, well-adjusted TVs that I meet in my travels are repre- sented by one one or two married examples. He is also remiss in draw-

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