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Variations in Sexual Behavior
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Sexual Minorities: 7. Transsexuals
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Terms
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The term “transsexualism” (lat. trans: across and sexus: sex) was coined by Magnus Hirschfeld in 1923 and was only gradually accepted by a few specialists who thereby tried to characterize a subgroup of transvestites. Eventually, the word “transsexual” entered everyday language and acquired its present meaning. According to current usage, something like the following definition is the most widely accepted:
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Transsexuals (TS) are persons whose self-identification as females or males is contradicted by their physical sex. They feel uncomfortable in their “wrong” bodies and therefore try to adapt their outward appearance to their innermost conviction.
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However, the term “transsexual” has often been criticized as misleading for two reasons: 1.The person does not have a “sexual” problem, but a problem of gender. 2. The person has not moved “across” anything. Instead, the self-identification as female or male, while contradicting the physical sex, is fixed and immutable. For this reason, most scientific witers now no longer speak of transsexualism, but of “gender dysphoria” (gr. dysphoria: irritated mood, from dys-: un-, and phorein: to carry). This new term simply refers to a mismatch of gender and sex.
Some prefer the term “transgender” to “transsexual”, because it avoids the misunderstanding that one is talking about a sexual dysfunction or a sexual orientation. However, this term - as well as “transgenderism” - now includes any and all behavior that defies the traditional definitions of femininity and masculinity. Not all individuals showing such behavior are transsexuals.
In short, the terms available today are not entirely satisfactory. They can lead to misunderstandings and may very well have to be replaced by more precise terms in the future. In the meantime, we keep using the terms “transsexual” and “transsexualism” in this course, because they are well known and still used by most academic writers.
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