Transvestism

:This article deals with the history of the word 'transvestite'. For information about cross-dressing, see there.

Origin of the term

Magnus Hirschfeld coined the term transvestism around 1915 in Berlin (from Latin trans- across, over and vestere to dress or to wear). He used it to describe a group of people who habitually and voluntarily wore clothes of the opposite sex. (The distinction between sex and gender had not been made at this time.) Hirschfeld's group of transvestites consisted of both male and female bodied persons with (physically) heterosexual, (physically) homosexual, bisexual and asexual preferences.

Related Topics:
Magnus Hirschfeld - 1915 - Berlin - Sex - Gender - Heterosexual - Homosexual - Bisexual - Asexual

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Hirschfeld himself was not particularly happy with the term, since he realised that clothes were only an outward sign of a variety of reasons to wear them. In fact, Hirschfeld helped people to achieve the very first name changes and to get the very first sexual reassignment surgery. Hirschfeld's transvestites therefore were, in today's terms, not only transvestites, but people from all over the transgender spectrum.

Related Topics:
Clothes - Sexual reassignment surgery - Transgender

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Hirschfeld operated very much in a three-gender framework, namely male, female and other or third gender. Included into this third gender were all people who, in today's terms, violated heteronormative rules. Again in today's terms, this is very much equivalent with the queer community, i.e. lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered people. Therefore, there was no pressing reason to find different terms for the different shades of Hirschfeld's transvestism.

Related Topics:
Third gender - Heteronormative - Queer - Lesbian - Gay - Bisexuals - Transgender

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Hirschfeld also noticed that sexual arousal was often, but by no means always associated with transvestite behaviour, and he also clearly distinguished between transvestism as an expression of a person's "contra-sexual" (transgender) feelings and fetishist behaviour, even if the later involved wearing clothes of the opposite sex.

Related Topics:
Sexual arousal - Fetish

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Today Hirschfeld's use of transvestism is extinct. Today's meaning of transgender is very much equivalent.

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