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THE TRANSSEXUAL IN SOCIETY
Author(s) -
Matto Michele S.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
criminology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.467
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1745-9125
pISSN - 0011-1384
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1972.tb00546.x
Subject(s) - transsexual , transvestism , prejudice (legal term) , body hair , psychology , transgender , sociology , psychoanalysis , social psychology , anthropology
Because transsexuals possess bodies that their minds cannot accept, they are trapped between society's demand to conform to the anatomical self thrust on them by birth and their own desire to conform to a different interior self, Although the transsexual dresses and behaves as a member of the morphologically opposite sex, this is neither a case of transvestism nor homosexualiy. Psyahologically. the transsexual is a female within a male body, or a male within a female body. In the past these distinctions were virtually ignored by the medical world. Recently, however, attempts have been made, particularly at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, to determine precisely what constitutes transsexualism and to treat surgically those suffering from it. As important as the need to identify and heat the problem itself is the need to combat the emotionalism and prejudice surrounding the subject, which hamper serious research [Green and Money, 1969: Inside cover notes] .