RANSVESTIA

and beautiful vessel and when it was dry used it to store nuts and other edibles in the cave. Several days later Mr. Caveman came home from the hunt, tired and sort of grouchy and in the dim light of the interior of the cave accidently kicked this beautiful vessel. It fell over and shattered. The missus was fit to be tied and called him a clumsy ox and a few other appropriate stone age epithets, and ended up with the blunt statement-"and just for that you can go down to the stream tomorrow and make me another vessel just like that one." Right then was when gender came of age. Perhaps you can guess what Mr. Caveman said... In considerable disgust he said, "What ME make a mud vessel? Are you crazy? That's woman's work." That was a symbolic beginning of gender which began when behaviour patterns and skills that were accidently discovered and perfected by one sex were then assigned to that sex as though there was some relationship to the genital structure of the discoverers. On such a primitive foundation all of the separations of human potential that are now enshrined in the words "masculine" and "feminine" were built. It has gone on unabated since those times. Only of very recent years have we begun to realize that gender, while related to and founded on sex in the genital sense is nevertheless NOT sex.

Now that, with John Money's help, we have defined gender, and with the awareness of the three-dimensionality of people, let's get down to cases about the title of this paper, "The Transcendents" or "Trans" people. This refers specifically to those who move along the third or sociological dimension, that of gender, in one direction or the other. The barrier that they climb over in so doing exists right at the two extremes where our culture sets up the rules that all males shall choose female partners for sex and shall conform to a uniform code of masculine behaviour at all times in dress, behaviour, activities, in- terests, occupations, attitudes, hobbies, etc. on pain of excommuni- cation. The same "rule" applies at the other end of the scale by simply substituting the word feminine for masculine. When one transcends that restriction, then, how far out along the continuum he or she chooses to go is entirely up to them for they are now free agents at least as far as that transcended barrier is concerned. But such transcendence or liberation is not easy and exacts a high price.

There are three classes of such "trans" people, generally called. "transvestites, transgenderists and transexuals." To start with the term "transvestite," although meaningful when Herschfeld coined it back at the beginning of this century, it is no longer communicative. It

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