Transsexualism in society

Frank W. Lewins

In Transsexualism in Society Dr Frank Lewins challenges medical and feminist models of transsexualism as well as current thinking about gender and sexuality. He demonstrates that becoming a woman is a process rather than a decision. Drawing on interviews with over fifty transsexuals, his analysis of the macro and micro dimensions of their lives shows clearly how some learn better than others the significance and skills of being a woman and 'doing gender'. By locating transsexuals in the wider society, he also demonstrates the significance of the conventional image of feminine women and the perceived necessity for the body and one's gender to correspond. His findings negate the idea that transsexuals are sexual revolutionaries and a third gender, and raise provocative questions about the link between sex, gender and sexual desire. The possibility of a range of socially invisible, psychosexual identities other than 'heterosexual masculine man' and 'heterosexual feminine woman' has implications, not only for understanding transsexualism, but also for how we view homosexuality.