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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

Readers' Comments

 

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Michael Lombardi-Nash  mal123nash@aol.com

I liked translating this book.

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grglass  grglass@talk21.com.

Even real women are not free to explore the realms of the female potential.

 

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mimic 

this little story was very enlightniing on this subject

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Lisa Aguilar  lillisa_100@hotmail.com

Probably the most interesting thing I've read all week. I have to buy this book

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Bob Curran   Narruc1@aol.com

Loved it

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Shane Coulthard  coulthards@bigpond.com

I think that it was a really informative book. I would like to hear more on this kind of stuff

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JEANINE  maqgeneaolwebtv.net

The explanations and definitions of the transvestite was thoroughly enlightening and after THESE examples, I am utterly relieved! I thought there was something wrong with me. Thanks for the education. ( I feel prettier now! ) MAQUE

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MAC  maqgene@webtv.net

Thank the lord I'm normal! I so enjoy dressing up in my frills and satins, and your book made me comfortable in realising that this act is a somewhat natural way of life. I had fun reading your book, as well as discovering that I'm not alone in this. Thanx MAC

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gman  cheri112@aol.com

excellent studies and finding really helped me with my fellings and understandings

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kitkat  kkcedino@emirates.net.ae

very inspiring

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jojo  jojochance@collegeclub.com

I am a cross-dresser{and I am proud of it}... 11 years old is when I started to wear my sisters clothes and shoes. I don't care why or what anymore... I am a Cross Dresser. The cause may or may not be attractive to most people, life is a challenge that must be POSITIVE in any and all aspects. Sexuality is not a crime, as would the feeble minded Church encroached upon the masses. Wearing women's clothing is NOT a crime either, I wear women's clothing... so be it. It is the Who You Are that is important not the What{that so often is magnified by both the Gay and Heterosexual Communities} that matters this time around. I'm not surprised by the departure of Julie cypher and Anne Heche... pressure to be the MODEL LESBIANS as determined by these elements is CRUEL and DEMEANING.

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Jenifer  Sweettooth613@msn.com

I think this would be a very interesting book..i need it for a project =)

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Mark Bringhurst  markbringhurst@linkline.com

I Love the book!

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Mary K. Homer  ghohler1@comcast.net

I found this book very liberating. I would recomend it to all of my friends.

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suse  susanne_cybergal@msn.com

Any book that educates small minded bigots is a hit with me. Also in my experience I find those that shout the loudest have the biggest secrets

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Gabriel  angelgabriel_591@hotmail.com

Looking down from this height, I observe women dressing in men's clothes all the time. They gain a sensation of power that they sense, incorrectly, resides in masculinity. And society permits and encourages them. Men, however, are discouraged from gaining the power of a woman's femininity by wearing her clothes. Especially her underclothes, which she learns to emphasise from an eary age. Little girls love showing their pants to all and sundry, revelling in the power to attract attention, a power which men would love to have too. The feel of the clothes grows and develops in the puberty years when girls are encouraged, largely by one another, to extend their focus on their bodily sensations. Boys are encouraged, even driven to distance themselves from their body's feelings. It is unsuprising then that some boys and men take the initiative and see for themselves what sensations are available to girls but denied to them. Wearing women's underwear is a sexual act. It is not only expected in women who by and large just love to dress up in silky, sensual and sexually attractive lingerie, but odd that men are not expected to also. Much of the repertoire of women's underwear is explicitly sexual. Why should men not wear it also? One does not expect a woman soldier to dress for combat in clothes different from men soldiers. Why should we expect men and women to dress differently for sex? Let men wear the same underclothing fabrics, designs and styles ( even without breasts, men's chests benefit from decoration and sensation enhancement). Let men have access to the expanded repertoire of sexual sensation that women have.