Herrn: Magnus Hirschfeld and the Birth of Sexual Science as an Emancipatory Discipline Flashcards
historical origins of gender fluidity and transgender expressions
- ancient greco-roman myths and figures (bv. poem Metamorphoses, recounts the tale of Tiresias, who was tranformed into a women, and Caenis, who wanted to live as a man, becoming Caeneus)
- roman emperors and gender: Elagabalus, requested to be addressed femininely and sought surgical interventions to resemble a woman
- Catalina de Erauso: a nun who adopted a male identity in the Spanish empire
early medical conceptions and conflations
- 19e eeuw: especially in the german speaking world. Krafft-Ebing: proposed a spectrum of gender and sexual behaviours, linking effemincay and same-sex attraction to severe “gender inversion”, a term used to describe a reversal or inversion of traditional gender roles and attraction.
- Karl Heinrich Ulrichs and early theories; Ulrichs suggested that homosexual men possess a female soul within a male body (linking identity to biological traits).
- Hirschfield: distinguished same-sex attraction and transvestitism -> clearer separation of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Evolution of terminology and conceptual framework
- transvestite to transsexual: post ww2, Harry Benjamin refined Hirschfelds early distinctions, by introducing the term ‘transsexual’ for people who want to be recognized as a gender different from their assigned sex. thus transsexual was considered a different identity from transvestite, lead to more tailored medical care.
- emergence of the term transgender in 1970, encompassing a variety of non-binary and gender-nonconforming identities. this shift moved beyond the binary gender norms.
travestie vs transsexueel
Travestie is iets wezenlijk anders dan transgender zijn; een travestiet is doorgaans comfortabel met het geslacht waarmee diegene is geboren, terwijl een transgender persoon dat niet is.
biological and sociological perspectives on gender identity
- psych: John Money argued that gender identity couldbe influenced by environmental and social factors, esp. in intersex children. upbringing could strongly shape gender identity (but heavily debated)
- biological: sexually dimorphic brain structure that resembled that of females in male-to-female transsexuals, independent of hormone exposure.
abstract Zhou et al, 1995
Transsexuals have the strong feeling, often from childhood onwards, of having been born the wrong sex. The possible psychogenic or biological aetiology of transsexuality has been the subject of debate for many years. Here we show that the volume of the central subdivision of the bed nucleus of the stria terminals (BSTc), a brain area that is essential for sexual behaviour, is larger in men than in women. A female-sized BSTc was found in male-to-female transsexuals. The size of the BSTc was not influenced by sex hormones in adulthood and was independent of sexual orientation. Our study is the first to show a female brain structure in genetically male transsexuals and supports the hypothesis that gender identity develops as a result of an interaction between the developing brain and sex hormones.
modern diagnostic frameworks and the path to deptathologization:
- DSM: gender identity disorder -> gender dysphoria, shifting the focus to the distress arising from gender incongruence. the DSM5 aims to avoid pathologizing gender diversity itself, classifying only the associated distress as a mental health concern
- ICD 10: gender incongruence, under sexual health. this reflects a progressive move towards understanding incongruence as a matter of health rather like pathology, and avoiding binary terms like ‘opposite sex’.
differences dsm 5 and icd 11
dsm5 requires distress, whilst the icd 11 does not, recognizing that gender incongruence does not inherently cause dysfunction -> broadens acceptance of gender diversity without medicalizing it unnessarily.
cultural, ethical and clinical implications
- anachronism and historical sensitivity: we need to be cautious applying modern interpretations to historical records of gender variance, as ancient and premodern cultures held different conceptions of gender and identity.
- debates on diagnosis and autonomy: should gender identity be medicalized at all? some say that gender is a personal, autonomous choice that medical systems should support without pathologizing. others say that current diagnostic frameworks still fail to encompass nonbinary and gender-fluid identities adequately.
- as research supports a biological axis for gender identity, there is a potential for reducing stigma by affirming transgender identities are neither a choice nor a social fad, but rooted in human diversity.
Hirschfeld
- started the first sexology institute in Berlin, committed to supporting homosexuals and sexual minorities; staff included trans people (e.g. Dora Richter who was a trans woman and a cleaner at the institute)
- He had reformist ideas, focused on sexuality, contraception and STIs
- Wanted to reach social justice through science
- Main principles included: Research, Teaching, Treatment and Refuge
- Fought against the ban on homosexuality
- His scientific research led him to believe that homosexuality was somehow connected to the endocrine system and the gonads
- Coined the term “sexual intermediaries” encompassing homosexuals, intersex people and trans people (basically his version of LGBT)
- Believed that gender was more in the soul than in the body (brain, rather than genitals); the person’s own feelings matter the most
- Coined the term “transvestism” to describe trans people, but later realised that it only applied to clothing (i.e. cross-dressing)
- He started issuing “transvestite passes” to allow trans people to legally wear the clothes they wanted to wear, without getting harassed by the police or arrested
- Later, Hirschfeld had to leave Berlin, due to the rise of Nazis in Germany and the institute soon dissolved in 1933
