Anomalies are Not Always Wrong

Anomalies are Not Always Wrong

Transsexualism, as well as transvestism, has had a long yet obscure history. Bryan Tully in Accounting for Transsexualism and Transhomosexuality writes, "In Antiquity, Hippocrates considered transvestism in men to be an illness sent by the Gods" (1). His comments indicate how long transvestism has existed and been recognized. Tully also explains that the first report of transsexualism in medical history took place around 1853, yet neither transsexualism nor transvestism were scientifically researched until after the Second World War. Around the 1950's the most famous account of transsexualism, meaning an actual operation, occurred when a Danish man named George Jorgensen was surgically castrated to make him "feel" more like a woman. He also got his name changed to Christine Jorgensen. By using these accounts, it can be understood that these are not "new" fads, but true dilemmas that have their own history.

Transsexualism and transvestism are variations from society's views of "normal" sexual behavior. These variations of the norm are explained as being disorders and are almost exclusively found in men. Transvestism is the activity of cross-dressing for sexual arousal from that specific object, whether it be clothing, shoes, or what. This can simply be called a fetish. The reasoning behind the few cases reported of female transvestism is explained in the following statement. "The culture apparently permits a greater range of fashion to women. The male transvestite wears female undergarments and uses makeup to achieve a female appearance" (Feinbloom 17). The only reason transvestites do not cross-dress for is to "transform themselves temporarily into an entity that more closely matches their own identity" (Brown 36). This is a description of why a transsexual would cross-dress. This is the difference between transvestites and transsexuals. Transvestites feel that their assigned gender is "correct" for them, and transsexuals do not feel that theirs is necessarily "correct". This mind and body incongruity of the transsexual has also been recently referred to as gender identity disorder (GID).

Male cross-dressing can be divided into three groups: homosexual (attracted to the same sex) transvestites, heterosexual (attracted to the opposite sex) transvestites, and bisexual (attracted to both sexes) transvestites. Homosexual transvestites dress for egotistical reasons or to be sexually attractive to other men. Heterosexual transvestites are compulsive cross-dressers. In the beginning their cross-dressing is purely for erotic purposes. "To use as a measure of the sources of genital pleasure and self-identity, both the homosexual and heterosexual male transvestite see themselves as male and would be most uncomfortable at the thought of sex-reassignment surgery" (Feinbloom 18).