Transvestites

Transvestites:
The Erotic Drive to Cross-Dress

Magnus Hirschfeld, M.D., translated by Michael A. Lombardi-Nash, Ph.D.

1991, Prometheus Books

424 Pages


From the Cover

Transvestites are women and men who feel reluctant and even refuse to dress in the clothing of their own sex. Indeed, for them the inherent drive to cross-dress is often more powerful than the sexual drive itself.

This complex phenomenon has usually been met with ignorance and prejudice. Most people have equated transvestites with female or male impersonators, and condemned them throughout history as berdaches, she-males, lesbians, hermaphrodites, androgynes, Urnings, and pederasts. Transvestites have been subjected not only to discrimination but also criminal prosecution for following what, for them, was an inborn inclination.

In 1910, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, one of the founders of what might be termed sexology, along with Havelock Ellis, Sigmund Freud, and others, wrote his groundbreaking work, Die Transvestiten (Transvestites), to establish a body of knowledge about this misunderstood subject and to strip away long-held prejudices. Hirschfeld established his now-famous theory of sexual intermediary stages by a study of individual cases; moreover, his research demonstrated that, contrary to popular belief, the majority of transvestites are heterosexual.

The recent sexual revolution has awakened new interest in transvestism, and therefore in Hirschfeld's pioneering work. Hirschfeld offers fascinating case histories, analyses, criticism, and historical perspectives. More importantly, he invites readers to draw their own conclusions. His book brilliantly undermines the foundations upon which traditional ideas about masculinity and femininity are based. Hirschfeld himself believed that a true understanding of transvestism would reveal the variety of roles in human sexual behavior, thus putting an end to bigotry and hatred of all sexual intermediary types.

Magnus Hirschfeld has rightfully been raised to the status not only of "Gender Studies Pioneer" but also "Feminist" and "Gay Liberation Hero." He truly deserves a place in the field of anthropology beside such notables as Ferdinand Karsch-Haack, Margaret Mead, and Evelyn Hooker. Translated into English for the first time by Dr. Michael A. Lombardi-Nash, Hirschfeld's study can now be made accessible to all those who want to acquaint themselves with what is the basis of what we know today about transvestism and transsexualism.


Table of Contents

PART ONE: QUESTIONS OF RIGHT AND WRONG IN CONDUCT AND ANALYSIS OF THE CASE HISTORIES

1. Introduction and Cases (1-17)
2. Analysis of the Cases (Complex of Symptoms)

PART TWO: CRITICISM (DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS)

3. Transvestism and Homosexuality
4. Transvestism and Monosexuality
5. Transvestism and Fetishism (Explanation of Richard Wagner's Letters to a Milliner)
6. Transvestism and Masochism
7. Transvestism and the Illusion of Sexual Metamorphosis
8. Transvestism and Hallucination
9. Clothing as a Form of Expression Mental Conditions
10. The Theory of Intermediaries

PART THREE: ETHNOLOGY AND HISTORY

11. Introduction
12. Transvestism of Children
13. Transvestism and the Law
14. Transvestism and Criminality
15. The Duration of Cross-Dressing
16. The Discovery of the Sex after Death
17. Suicide in the Clothing of the Other Sex
18. How Transvestism Is Discovered
19. Transvestism for Reasons of Normal Sexual Love and Jealousy
20. Criticism of the Supposed Motivations for Cross-Dressing
21. Transvestism on the Stage
22. Comedy and Transvestism
23. Transvestites on Thrones
24. A Few Rare Reasons for Transvestism
25. Transvestism and Career Choice
26. Name-Transvestism
27. Women as Soldiers
28. Closing Remarks