orifice for another male to use in a sexual way is, in effect, playing the female role since that is the primary activity of the female in normal sexual relations. Thus even those few homosexuals (probably not more than 10 percent) who adopt feminine attire, for its sexually provocative effect on their partners, do so only as a part of a sexual encounter. Generally such persons have little or no feeling of femininity and of wanting to assume the gender role. Their whole motivation is basically involved in the assumption of the sexual role. Such persons are therefore transvestites in only the most limited sense, i.e. they do put on feminine attire but their motivations, purposes and satisfactions are of an entirely different sort to that of the persons to whom the term "femmiphile" is applied.

As a problem in social psychiatry it is necessary to consider in what ways, if any, this behaviour pattern poses any threat to other persons and whether the individual should be restrained legally, morally or medically from his practices in order to protect anyone else. The distinc- tion between femmiphilia and homosexuality has already been made clear so that any of the arguments generally applied to the homosexuals are not applicable here. The phenomenon of femmiphilia is internal in the individual and therefore he is no threat at all to others. He neither seeks out children, accosts women, exposes himself, nor tries to introduce his practices to others—activities that society rightly objects to when practiced by other persons with different patterns of behaviour. All the femmiphile wants is to be relieved temporarily of the expectations, re- quirements and limitations of his own everyday masculine life and to be permitted to experience something of the life, feelings, pleasures and satisfactions inherent in the feminine gender role. Both of these ends are accomplished by abandoning the social "uniform" of manhood, i.e. trousers, jacket, tie, heavy shoes, etc. and adopting the greatly different feminine "uniform" with its bright colors, light weight, variety in style, material and type of clothing, self ornamentations and improvement through jewelry and cosmetics; change of bodily feel through restrictive garments like corsets and girdles, and postural alterations as a result of wearing high heels. Since he now looks like a different person, feels like a different person, he IS, at least temporarily, a different person or more properly a different KIND of person. As such he is free to express and enjoy emotions, attitudes and experiences that would be entirely in- appropriate in his role as a man.

The final area of consideration is that of the impact of the attitudes of society both correct and incorrect on the femmiphile. In this area a problem in social psychiatry certainly does exist and it is generated by

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