AUTHOR'S FOREWORD

The Amazon's Brother is a book I wrote in 1982, two years after I came out. I had never taken any college-level social sciences courses, nor had any immersive experience with feminists. In other words, I composed this in something pretty close to a social vaccuum, drawing on my own experiences and various notions I'd glommed onto or absorbed like a sponge from the surrounding society.

(I kept editing it from time to time up until 1986 or 1987, but the essentials of the book are still largely as they were 38 years ago)

I have the predictable ambivalence about showing it off to anyone. Parts of it make me cringe. Certainly there are statements in it that I would not make today. But those concerns are outweighed by a fair amount of personal satisfaction about how much I had figured out that early on, and because it's a snapshot of some of my thoughts and perspectives that I clarified or elaborated on later in life. In particular, it shows a tension between wanting to identify as a fundamentally different type of male -- the "sissy" -- or wanting to indict patriarchal socialization at it affects all male people. I think my ambivalence is very much on display.

I would ask that no one assume this book reflects my current perspective, although large parts of it actually still do. It's a preserved specimen from when I was barely a third of my current age.

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