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many transvestites on record who are exclusively heters- sexual. Frequently they are married and often fathers. Whereas these people usually have a greater understand- ing for the plight of homosexuals than do "normal" males, they frequently have just as much aversion to such prac- tices, as far as they themselves are coneerned, as does the ordinary male. Unlike the transsexual, the transvest- ite values his male organs, enjoys using them and does not desire them removed. De is under no illusions as to his But nevertheless, there is an aspect of his psyche which is satisfied only by being permitted to present himself to himself, as well as to the world,
actual masculinity.
as a
women
It must not be supposed that the author feels that all cases can be sharply and precisely divided into these three categories. Obviously, the emotional experiences of a young male are cumulative over his childhood, youth and adolescense, and what may have in origin, been a pure form of one of these three classes may be subsequently overlain by later experiences which confuse the pattern and mix up the subsequent adult behavior. Thus a person who (everything else being equal) would have developed into a simple case of transvestism with a normal hetero- sexual orientation as far as his sex life was concerned, may have had experiences in school, jail, or in the army in which the feminine aspects of his nature were miscon- strued and imposed upon so that he is introduced into the homosexual behavior patterns. If a high enough level of aversion to such practices has not been acquired during early years, he may find them an interesting addition to his previously socially oriented identification. He will then become "bisexual" or perhaps preferentially a homo sexual. Uther kinds of secondary experiences might give rise to transsexual tendencies.
However, the fact that such subsequent confusions can and do occur does not invalidate the usefulness of the concept of the three different aspects of womanhood, the sexual, the psycho-emotional, and the social, and their ultimate identification forms of homosexuality, transsex- uality and transvestism, respectively.
NOTE: The Ibliography is omitted for lack of space.