a) and b) are true then an alteration of external sexual organs will not automatically give that person the desired gender, though it might in a sense "legalize" it (once the birth certificate had been changed). d), that if it is the gender that you are after not only will you not acquire it through surgery but you will have to learn and develop it through living the role exactly as every other girl has learned what it is to be feminine, and that therefore, e) those of you toying with the idea of surgery should forget it and recognize the above facts and set about arranging things so that you can learn, enjoy and express your feminine gender role i.e. your "girl inside".

Since we tend to think in words (and to confuse ourselves with them too) it would be in order to point out that if one wishes to talk about sex from the point of view of anatomy and physiology or of reproductive roles then the proper words to use are male and female. In fact this is the only area where it is proper to use them. On the other hand when discussing gender, which involves psychology and sociology, the proper words to use are the nouns boy and girl, man and woman or the adjectives masculine and feminine. Part of the whole trouble TVs have with society stems from just these errors in understanding and communi- cation. Thus if it were not that people think that the gender word "feminine" equates only with female and her sexual role, we would not be confused with homosexuals and their orifice-providing "female type" sexual behavior. So semantics IS important since it causes most of our difficulties.

But back to the "transexual". The trouble with the word is that nobody has ever sought to define it. It is generally applied equally pre-surgically and post surgically. That is, not only is anyone who has already had the sex change operation called a transexual but anyone who comes to the doctor and says, “I'm a transexual, I'm a female trapped in a male body, I want sex change surgery" is considered by the doctor to be a "transexual”. It is about the only medical condi- tion known in which the patient presents the diagnosis and the doctor concurs uncritically.

Now let's consider for a minute what kind of a person that term really ought to be applied to. In the first place it is assumed by both the doctor and the patient that a change of gender will accompany the "change" of sex. Now it follows that if one is going to alter any part of the body or of the personality it can only be justified if it can be shown that the part to be altered is not functioning properly, is not providing adequate personal satisfaction or is standing in the way of an effective

56