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Transvestitism and Trans-sexualism

1959; BMJ; Volume: 2; Issue: 5164 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1136/bmj.2.5164.1448

0959-8138

John Randell,

African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues

Transvestitism is the impulse to wear the clothing of the opposite sex, and was given this name by Hirschfeld (1910).Ellis (1936) described the condition as a state of psychosexual inversion and called it eonism, after the Chevalier d'Eon, a French diplomat at the Court of St. James, who lived as a woman for much of his life.Trans-sexualism is the term used by Benjamin (1954) to describe the wish to change the anatomical sex.The nature of the condition suggests that transvestite and trans-sexualist individuals are predominantly homo- sexual in orientation and behaviour, and the following report on 50 such patients offers an opportunity to examine this possibility and the aetiological factors involved in the production of such deviate behaviour.Norwood East (1949) stated that the desire to wear the clothes of the opposite sex was widespread.He did not indicate the frequency of its occurrence, but believed it to be more common than is realized.Transvestites proper were defined as those men who obtained sexual gratification from dressing as, and pretending to be, women; he found that in appearance, manner, and interest they appeared to be more feminine than masculine, but also remarked that some male homosexual prostitutes wear the clothes of the female sex to vary or enhance their attractiveness to men.The practice of cross-dressing is also found as a cultural variant in primitive societies; for example, Seward (1954) describes it as occurring among the Mohave Indians of North America, and also in the latmul people of New Guinea.Krafft-Ebing (1916) cites a report of similar behaviour found by Holder in the Montana Indians.The term transvestitism is not intended to include the wearing of the clothes of the opposite sex for theatrical purposes, burlesque, or disguise.In transvestitism the clothes or the wearing of them may provide an end in itself; they are usually endowed with sexual significance, and the act of wearing them may provide the sole form of sexual expression or outlet.The condition occurs in both sexes, though male patients come to notice more often as current fashions in female clothing permit transvestite women to wear garments which have male characteristics without undue attention being drawn to the transvestite act.Wearing the garments of the opposite sex is forbidden for both sexes by Mosaic Law (Deuteronomy xxii.5).Clinical Material.-Thepatients in the present survey comprise 37 males and 13 females.Many of these patients were referred from the endocrine clinic at Charing Cross Hospital, and were seeking operations "to change their sex " or advice on their problems.