In the 1950s they didn't have GRS, so, Alishia Brevard castrated herself.  Born a farm boy in rural Tennessee, Brevard went on to become a B-film actress in Hollywood. In Michael Musto's review of her book "The woman I was not born to be," he says, [What Brevard] finds is a society that punishes those who defy assigned gender roles because they upset the status quo. She uncovers a world that stigmatizes femmes and a gay community that's deeply ashamed of drag; a women's movement that generally leaves trannies behind and a transsexual community so anxious to blend in that it strives to erase all evidence of its maleness. Buy her memoir here under Books/ Memoirs.