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Sexology is the scientific study of human sexuality, including human sexual interests, behaviors, and functions. The term sexology does not generally refer to the non-scientific study of sexuality, such as social criticism.
Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generally subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality, while asexuality is sometimes identified as the fourth category.
Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to a mismatch between their gender identity—their personal sense of their own gender—and their sex assigned at birth. Previously, the diagnostic label gender identity disorder (GID) was used, until it was eliminated in 2013 with the release of the diagnostic manual DSM-5 in favor of the current term. The condition was renamed to remove the stigma associated with the term disorder.
The Kinsey scale, also called the Heterosexual–Homosexual Rating Scale, is used in research to describe a person's sexual orientation based on one's experience or response at a given time. The scale typically ranges from 0, meaning exclusively heterosexual, to a 6, meaning exclusively homosexual. In both the male and female volumes of the Kinsey Reports, an additional grade, listed as "X", indicated "no socio-sexual contacts or reactions" (asexuality). The reports were first published in Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) by Alfred Kinsey, Wardell Pomeroy, and others, and were also prominent in the complementary work Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953).
Transvestism is the practice of dressing in a manner traditionally or stereotypically associated with a different gender. In some cultures, transvestism is practiced for religious, traditional, or ceremonial reasons. The term is considered outdated in Western cultures, especially when used to describe a transgender or gender-fluid person.
Harry Benjamin was a German-American endocrinologist and sexologist, widely known for his clinical work with transgender people.
The following outline offers an overview and guide to transgender topics.
Gender expression, or gender presentation, is a person's behavior, mannerisms, interests, and appearance that are socially associated with gender, namely femininity or masculinity. Gender expression can also be defined as the external manifestation of one's gender identity through behavior, clothing, hairstyles, voice, or body characteristics. Typically, people think about a person's gender expression in terms of masculinity and femininity, but there are many more ways to express gender than just those two options. A person's gender expression may or may not match their assigned sex at birth. This includes gender roles, and accordingly relies on cultural stereotypes about gender. It is distinct from gender identity.
Androphilia and gynephilia are terms used in behavioral science to describe sexual orientation, as an alternative to a gender binary homosexual and heterosexual conceptualization. Androphilia describes sexual attraction to men or masculinity; gynephilia describes the sexual attraction to women or femininity. Ambiphilia describes the combination of both androphilia and gynephilia in a given individual, or bisexuality.
Ray Milton Blanchard is an American-Canadian sexologist, best known for his research studies on pedophilia, sexual orientation and gender identity. He found that men with more older brothers are more likely to be gay than men with fewer older brothers, a phenomenon he attributes to the reaction of the mother's immune system to male fetuses. Blanchard has also published research studies on phallometry and several paraphilias, including autoerotic asphyxia.
Dual-role transvestism is the formal diagnosis used by psychologists and physicians to describe people who wear clothes of the opposite sex to experience being the opposite sex temporarily, but don't have a sexual motive or want gender reassignment surgery. The International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) list three diagnostic criteria for "Dual-role transvestism" (F64.1).
American-Canadian sexologist Ray Blanchard proposed a psychological typology of gender dysphoria, transsexualism, and fetishistic transvestism in a series of academic papers through the 1980s and 1990s. Building on the work of earlier researchers, including his colleague Kurt Freund, Blanchard categorized trans women into two groups: homosexual transsexuals who are attracted exclusively to men and are feminine in both behavior and appearance; and autogynephilic transsexuals who experience sexual arousal at the idea of having a female body (autogynephilia). Supporters argue that the typology explains differences between the two groups in childhood gender nonconformity, sexual orientation, history of fetishism, and age of transition.
Sexuality in transgender individuals encompasses all the issues of sexuality of other groups, including establishing a sexual identity, learning to deal with one's sexual needs, and finding a partner, but may be complicated by issues of gender dysphoria, side effects of surgery, physiological and emotional effects of hormone replacement therapy, psychological aspects of expressing sexuality after medical transition, or social aspects of expressing their gender.
The classification of transsexual and gender non-conforming people into distinct groups has been attempted since the mid-1960s.
A transgender person is someone whose gender identity differs from that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. Many experience gender dysphoria, which they may seek to alleviate through transitioning, often adopting a different name and set of pronouns in the process. They may pursue gender affirming care such as hormone replacement therapy and various gender-affirming surgeries. Not all transgender people desire these treatments and others may be unable to access them for financial, medical or legal reasons. Those who do desire to medically transition to another sex may identify as transsexual.
Transsexual people experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance to help them align their body with their identified sex or gender.
Anne Alexandra Lawrence is an American psychologist, sexologist, and former anesthesiologist who has published extensively on gender incongruence.
Gender and sexual diversity (GSD), or simply sexual diversity, refers to all the diversities of sex characteristics, sexual orientations and gender identities, without the need to specify each of the identities, behaviors, or characteristics that form this plurality.
The Transsexual Phenomenon is a medical textbook published by American endocrinologist and sexologist Harry Benjamin in 1966 with The Julian Press. The text is notable for its examination of transsexualism not as a psychological issue, but rather as a somatic disorder that should be treated through medicine. Benjamin argues that transvestism and transsexuality are a spectrum of conditions, requiring different treatments that ranged from hormone replacement therapy to surgical intervention.
Louise Lawrence (1912–1976) was an American transgender activist, artist, writer and lecturer. During the mid-20th Century, she organized a network of gender non-conforming people across the US and abroad, and advocated for transgender issues. She was an early founder of the magazine, Transvestia. Academic and historian Susan Stryker has written, "If there is an unheralded founder of the transgender community in the United States, it’s Louise Lawrence.".
References
- 1 2 3 Benjamin, Harry (1966). The Transsexual Phenomenon. The Julian Press, ISBN 9780446824262
- ↑ Heath, Rachel Ann (2006). The Praeger Handbook of Transsexuality: Changing Gender to Match Mindset. Westport, Conn. [u.a.]: Praeger. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-275-99176-0.
- ↑ Pomeroy, Wardell (1975). The diagnosis and treatment of transvestites and transsexuals. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy Volume 1, Issue 3, 1975 doi:10.1080/00926237508405291
- ↑ Kumar, Anish; Amakiri, Uchechukwu; Safer, Joshua (15 February 2022). "Medicine as constraint: Assessing the barriers to gender-affirming care". Cell Reports Medicine. 3 (2): 100517. doi:10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100517. PMC 8861822 .
- ↑ Coleman, E.; et al. (15 September 2022). "Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, Version 8". International Journal of Transgender Health. 23: S6-7. doi: 10.1080/26895269.2022.2100644 . S2CID 252127302 . Retrieved 6 December 2022.
- ↑ Velocci, Beans (2021). "Standards of Care". TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly. 8 (4): 462–480. doi:10.1215/23289252-9311060.
- ↑ Frayser, Suzanne G.; Whitby, Thomas (1995). Studies in Human Sexuality: A Selected Guide. Englewood, Colo.: Libr. Unlimited. p. 368. ISBN 978-1-56308-131-6.
- ↑ Ekins, Richard (2005). Science, politics and clinical intervention: Harry Benjamin, transsexualism and the problem of heteronormativity Sexualities July 2005 vol. 8 no. 3 306-328 doi: 10.1177/1363460705049578
- ↑ Hansbury, Griffin (2008). The Middle Men: An Introduction to the Transmasculine Identities. Studies in Gender and Sexuality Volume 6, Issue 3, 2005 doi:10.1080/15240650609349276