{"product_id":"the-woman-i-was-not-aleshia-brevard-9781566398404","title":"The Woman I Was Not Born to Be: A Transsexual Journey","description":"Told with humor and flair, this is the autobiography of one transsexual's wild ride from boyhood as Alfred Brevard (\"Buddy\") Crenshaw in rural Tennessee to voluptuous female entertainer in Hollywood. Aleshia Brevard, as she is now known, underwent transitional surgery in Los Angeles in 1962, one of the first such operations in the United States. (The famous sexual surgery pioneer Harry Benjamin himself broke the news to Brevard's parents.) \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eUnder the stage name Lee Shaw, Brevard worked as a drag queen at Finocchio's, a San Francisco club, doing Marilyn Monroe impersonations. (Like Marilyn, she sought romance all the time and had a string of entanglements with men.) Later, she worked as a stripper in Reno and as a Playboy Bunny at the Sunset Strip hutch. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAfter playing opposite Don Knotts in the movie \u003ci\u003eThe Love God\u003c\/i\u003e, Brevard appeared in other films and broke into TV as a regular on the Red Skelton Show. She created the role of Tex on the daytime soap opera \u003ci\u003eOne Life To Live\u003c\/i\u003e. As a woman, Brevard returned to teach theater at East Tennessee State, the same university she had attended as a boy. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis memoir is a rare pre-Women's Movement account of coming to terms with gender identity. Brevard writes frankly about the degree to which she organized her life around pleasing men, and how absurd it all seems to her now.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Aleshia Brevard\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1566398401\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781566398404\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Temple University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/15\/2001\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 249\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.80lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.03h x 5.96w x 0.50d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 11\/20\/2000 pg. 53\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/15\/2001 pg. 1089\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/15\/2001 pg. 122","brand":"Aleshia Brevard","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44890862944511,"sku":"9781566398404","price":30.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_398c36b0-d615-49b9-a9ab-07dc90a008d0.jpg?v=1709740243","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-woman-i-was-not-aleshia-brevard-9781566398404","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}