RuPaul Books

Ru is truly an insightful person, and proud of his sexuality and dragdom persona. Ru said in this book to hold on to your dream, so I will. I will pursue getting into the music industry. I don't know how I will but everyone starts from the bottom!

You won't be disappointed in this book. RuPaul really knows how to tell a real story. Very inspiration and inspiring. A must read.

I read this book for fun, and came away from it deeply, deeply moved. Having read Gender Shock, Transgender Warriors, Stone Butch Blues and been blown away by Boys Don't Cry, RuPaul was the next logical step in my exploration of this new frontier in gender study. This beautiful man knows more about love and tolerance than I could ever hope to know in a month of Sundays. The book IS fun -- it is also love, peace, healing...and hope. We should all be so lucky as to have someone like RuPaul in our lives. And no matter what he is or is not wearing, he is oh so easy on the eyes!

Very uninformative, at least untitillating. Who were/are Ru's lovers? Was he ever an "escort"? Is he top or bottom? He delivers some pious blab along the lines of Tolerance and Being Who You Are, but it feels like a studio cover-up bio of a Rock Hudson figure from the past. Ru is "outrageous", but why? In LETTING IT ALL HANG OUT his revelations are much less bizarre than what we know about Liberace or Andy Warhol, or even what we speculate about Siegfried & Roy. There must be SOMETHING transfiguring that sent him down this life-path, for better or worse. But we aren't given a clue. (HIDING MY CANDY by The Lady Chablis is much more forthcoming on the psychogenesis of crossdressing and homoeroticism.)

"Lettin It All Hang Out" is a lot like RuPaul; both are fascinating, colorful and incredibly lively! In her first book, Ru talks about how she became the world's most famous drag-queen. She is like Dolly or Charo. How can anyone not adore Ru?

I've always loved RuPaul because she is not like a typical drag-queen. Anyone that's ever known a drag-queen (especially in NY) knows how temperamental and nasty they are prone to be. But, Ru is so kind-hearted and loveable. She once described herself as a "Disney character." And, I think that really is the best way to explain her because everyone loves her.

RuPaul honestly details her rise to fame and stardom; living in NY's seedy East Village during the 70's and 80's. She also candidly writes about her tumultuous relationship with her family from the south and how she had to be who she had to be.

The book includes lots of extra tidbits and odds and ends; perhaps, even some info that I would rather not know (there is a chapter about "tucking!") And, Ru includes lots and lots of pictures of herself during the years. As a man, or as a woman, Ru is beautiful on the inside and out!

Love or hate hir, Feinberg, like Joan Baez, raises the flag with the broadest possible coloring. Since when was subtlety required of agitprop? Sure, the Lady Skimmington citation is utopian; on the other hand, Feinberg (unlike almost every feminist) actually gets Engels, so right on. Streamlined, overdetermined? All the better, I say. Hey, Baez's greatest artistic moment was announcing (on the Johnny Carson Show!) her withholding of taxes to protest Vietnam; her LPs were secondary. That's the spirit in which I took this book. In the Top 5 of TG texts.

This book was refreshingly factual and frank. I was blown away by what I read about the history of the trans person - especially Joan of Arc! I am a big fan of this book because it has provided me with enough valuable backup material for my thesis. I have searched high and low for supporting quotes such as those found in Feinberg's writing. BUY THIS BOOK - it will end up like mine, with notes written all over every page and lots of folded pages, kept next to the bed for reading regularly.

Although the sections of this book dealing with contemporary issues are reasonably accurate, many historians have pointed out that the history section desperately needed to have been vetted by someone who studies the subject.
Among the numerous errors, the section on Joan of Arc contains more than the usual quota:
1) The author was unaware of a number of basic points concerning the cross-dressing issue. Eyewitness accounts contain quotations from Joan herself stating that she continued wearing a specific type of soldiers' clothing in prison because its securely-fastened pants and tunic offered the only protection she had against attempted rape - the Condemnation transcript itself admits that this clothing was secured with dozens of cords attaching both layers of pants to the tunic. Her motive was necessity, as many of the tribunal members later confirmed. These men also confirmed that she was induced into a "relapse" by a regimen of increased rape attempts followed by the simple expedient of leaving her nothing else to wear but the male outfit. These are basic points which were overlooked by this book, whose version has little in common with history.
2) She was not a pagan. Eyewitness accounts prove this, as do extant letters which Joan dictated to scribes during her military campaigns: these contain phrases such as "King Jesus, King of Heaven and of all the world, my rightful and sovereign Lord". The names "Jesus, Mary" generally serve as the heading. One letter, dated 23 March 1430, orders a group called the Hussites to "return to the Catholic faith" or else she will lead a crusading army against them. Her trial, as we know from English government records and the later statements of the tribunal members, was deliberately rigged by the English in order to convict her for the purposes of revenge, rather than from a sincere belief that she held heretical views.
3) The Marxist and Feminist issues are anachronisms which additionally involve some ironies. Her stated and accomplished goal, after all, was to place her king on his throne, not to overthrow either the aristocracy nor the patriarchy. None of her many recorded statements imply feminist beliefs, nor anything equivalent to Marxism.

There are other books which document genuine cases of transgenderism in history. This is not one of them, and this portion of the book regrettably does a disservice to a field which has far too often been harmed by invalid or poor scholarship.

Leslie Feinberg has created a fascinating compilation of transgender history.

This book "works" in that it engages the reader and stimulates thought, questioning and debate. Even the highly negative reviews that appear here reinforce this. The review authors are inflamed by a book of substance, one which presents a consistent theoretical underpinning as it provides a wealth of historical data.

A lot of political statements are made on all sides about the natural order of things. Look at the debate over same-sex marriage in which the debate is framed in terms of traditional values.

Feinberg, in this work, does the field of gender studies a great service in expanding our awareness of just how much diversity is historically encompassed in our common tradition.

Read this book, then reflect, then challenge both it and yourself.

This is a manifesto of transgender liberation. It will be remembered and read for many years to come. As a LGBT person, it really touched me. Some societies have honored us and some have murdered us. It is time for us to rise up and say enough. I will re-read this book.