Quote from: FairyGirl on May 24, 2010, 08:53:51 AM"Classic transsexual" refers to so called homosexual transsexuals which as defined by this article means attracted to your birth gender, in other words for MTF's, straight women . . . It's very difficult to talk about this article which is apparently based on semantics without arguing semantics, sorry
*sigh* ain't THAT the truth! Oh well, here's the article in question - for what it's worth - and I will NEVER, EVER attempt a rational discussion with another TS again cause obviously *a consensus* on anything just ain't ever gonna happen anytime soon at all!
In teasing together these three related but distinct constructs of biology, gender and sexual orientation, scientists are starting to better understand the phenomenon of trans sexuality, a term defined by the American Psychological Association as "a strong and persistent cross-gender identification and a persistent discomfort with [one's] biological sex". Their finding are revealing that even within the transsexual community there is much diversity. For example, a biological male who experiences gender dysphoria, and thus feels like a female, can be either gay or straight when it comes to his sexual orientation. And beyond the mixing and matching that occurs between sex, gender and sexual orientation, a huge array of psychological and cultural factors seems to underlie or affect trans sexuality. Scientists are starting to unravel these seemingly innumerate influences.
Mind over GenderAlthough mental states can differ widely among transsexuals, most report experiencing gender dysphoria - the unhappy mismatch between biological sex and gender identity. A good example of gender dysphoria is the case of Chaz, formally Chasity, Bono, daughter-cum-son of entertainers Sonny and Cher.After living most of her adult life as a lesbian, Bono announced in mid-2008 that he was in fact a transsexual and had begun to transition from the lesbian "Chasity" to the straight male identity of "Chaz". (Chaz is just as attracted to his girlfriend, Jennifer, as was Chasity was before the transition, only given Bono's physical metamorphosis, their is arguably no longer a same-sex relationship.) As a female-to-male (FtM) transsexual, Chaz has already had his breasts removed and has embarked on a regimen of testosterone treatment, which has caused his voice to drop by a full octave as well as stimulated a noticeable five o'clock shadow.
"Gender is between your ears and not between your legs" Bono said during a 2009 interview with ABC's Good Morning America. "As a child, is was really clear. I felt like a boy . . . As you get older, it gets more confusing, because suddenly there's more pressure to fit into your assigned gender identity. (And so) a lot of FtMs end up doing a stint in the lesbian community because it just kind of makes sense."
Nearly all FtM transsexuals have a similar story - they are overwhelmingly homosexual (attracted to women). Male-to-female (MtF) transsexuals, on the other hand, are a much more diverse group, in terms of both their sexual orientation and the psychological underpinnings of their trans sexuality. In he late 1980's University of Toronto psychiatrist Ray Blanchard introduced the theory of " ->-bleeped-<-", in which he argued that the heterosexual MtF transsexuals (that is, biological males who are attracted to women but wish to to transition to a female identity) are in fact sexually aroused by the thought of themselves as females. As an example of ->-bleeped-<-, consider the following account by male-to-female transsexual Nancy Hunt in her memoir Mirror Image (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1978). "I was feverishly interested in (girls)," Hunt writes. "I studied their hair, their cloths, their figures. And I brooded about the increasing differences between us. I seethe with envy while at the same time becoming sexually aroused - I wanted to posses them even as I wanted to become them. In my night-time fantasies, as I masturbated or floated toward sleep, I combined the two compulsions, dreaming of sex but with myself as the girl."
"Some male-to-female transsexuals may be arosed by the thought of themselves as women. They want to look like the objects they desire."
Love Thy SelfAccording to Blanchard, such cases exemplify "erotic target location errors", in which individuals seek to change their appearance so that they more resemble the persons or things they desire. Whereas most people search for their erotic targets elsewhere, autogynephiles are prone to a search strategy error whereby they identify the object of their desires under their very own skin.
Unsurprisingly, Blanchard's theory of ->-bleeped-<- rubs many transsexuals the wrong way Sex may be a part of it, they say, but their identities have less to do with deviant desires than with feeling simply that they are women trapped in the bodies of men. But recently a prominent psychologists named Anne Lawrence - a male-to-female transsexual - has advocated a more more nuanced version of Blanchard's theory. Just as relationships evolve from primarily lusty and erotic attractions to more romantic, less overly sexual forms of love, she says, so, too, might autogynephiles slowly develop a nonsexual, romantic attachment to themselves as women.
Lawrence bases her theory on the similarities she has noticed among heterosexual MtF transsexuals in her Seattle clinic. Most are quite masculine in appearance and have led successful lives as men, usually in male-dominated professions such as engineering, business or computer science; often they are married and have several children. Curiously, many have autistic-like traits: they seem more interested in things than in other people and have a background of poor social relationships. And almost invariably, Lawrence points out, they have a history of sexual arousal by cross-dressing.
In a 2007 article in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, Lawrence writes that the heterosexual MtF transsexuals she has seen "typically want to undergo sex reassignment surgery as quickly as possible and want to their new genitals to resemble as closely as possible the female genitals they love and idealize. After surgery, these transsexuals are not only relieved to be rid of their male genitals but are delighted with their female-appearing genitals and are often eager to display them to other people (e.g. [in the parking lot] at transsexual support group meetings)"
In contrast, homosexual MtF transsexuals - those attracted to men - do not idealize female genitalia and "often seem indifferent or ambivalent about undergoing sex reassignment surgery," Lawrence writes. Indeed, most researchers agree that their are meaningful differences between gay and straight MtF transsexuals - including, intriguingly, the cultures in which they exist.
Emerging CulturesCultural influences are perhaps the least understood aspect of transsexuality - in large part the effects of culture are so hard to define and study. Still, the evidence suggests that these factors strongly influence whether MtF transsexuals tend to be gay of straight. In Far Eastern countries such as Korea, Malaysia. Singapore and Thailand, fewer than 5 percent of MtF transsexuals may be heterosexual. The rest are homosexual biological males, usually extremely feminine in their behavior and appearance and exclusively attracted toward men. (These are the so-called kathoeys or ladyboys of Southeast Asia.) In striking contrast, this ratio of gay to straight is almost perfectly flipped in the West, where 75 percent or more of American and British transsexuals are heterosexual - attracted to women - or bisexual.
Lawrence published a study online in December 2008 in the Archives of Sexual Behavior that may help explain this trend. She reports that the more a society is collectivist - that is, the more it values social norms over individual expression - the greater the percentage of homosexual MtF transsexuals. This correlation, she says, could result from the fact that in collectivist countries, such as those in Southeast Asia, effeminate, homosexual men are not well tolerated - they may fare better as women in accepted transgender roles such as ladyboys. Men who are too masculine to pass as women, on the other hand, would be shunned if they tried to do so. Countries such as the U.S. and U.K., on the other hand, place more value on individual expression and personal choice and are therefore more tolerant of both effeminate men and masculine MtF transsexuals.
Clearly, there are radical differences underlying the expression of transsexuality - differences involving the elusive casual algorithms of individual experience, personality, biology and culture. Scientists working in this area have made considerable progress, but much remains a mystery. Fortunately, the past decade or so has seen transsexuals increasingly "coming out of the closet" as a sexual minority. There was an equally sharp increase in clinic referred adolescents with gender identity disorder starting in 2004, which is still rising. This dramatic spike may be the result of the destigmatizing influence of media exposure. Movie such as Boys Don't Cry (1999) and Transamerica (2005) offer sympathetic portrayals of transsexuals, and the subject of childhood gender identity disorder has been featured in the New York Times, on ABC's 20/20 and on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
As transsexuals continue to become more open about their experiences, scientists are realizing that cross-gender behavior is not only a fascinating expression of human variation but also a richly informative area for studying the subtlest vagaries of sexuality. Like no other aspect of our nature, trassexuality is where biology, gender and sexual orientation meet - and, as we have seen, often part ways.
