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变异的性行为
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性少数: 7.
易性癖者
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术语鉴别
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术语“易性癖(transsexualism，拉丁语trans：交叉地；sexus：性别)”于1923年由马格纳斯·赫希菲尔德所撰
造，开初只是被少数几位试图描述易性癖亚群的专家所接纳。最终，“易性癖”这个词语逐步汇入日常生活语言，并赋予了现在的含义。按照现行的用法，似乎下述的定义最广泛地得到：
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但是，“易性癖者”这个术语因为引起误解的两个原因而常常受到诟病，其原因是：
一些学者更愿意使用术语“跨性者（transgender）”而不愿意使用“易性癖者（transsexual）”，因为跨性者这个术语避免了误解，不会让人误以为人们正在谈论性功能障碍或性取向。不过，跨性者和“跨性别（transgenderism）”这些术语现在包括违抗传统的女性气质和男性气概的定义的任何行为和所有的行为。显示有这样的行为的个体并不都是易性癖者。
简而言之，现今所使用的这些术语并不完全令人满意。它们可能会引起误解，而且将来可能很有必要用更精确的术语来替代。在这个过渡期间，我们仍然在本教程里使用“易性癖者（transsexual）”和“易性癖（transsexualism）”这些术语，因为它们为人所熟知和仍然被大多数理论研究者所使用。
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Variations in Sexual Behavior
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Sexual Minorities: 7. Transsexuals
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Terms
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The term “transsexualism” (lat. trans: across and sexus: sex) was coined by
Magnus Hirschfeld in 1923 and was only gradually accepted by a few specialists who thereby tried to characterize a subgroup of transvestites. Eventually, the word “transsexual” entered everyday language and acquired its present meaning. According to current usage, something like the following definition is the most widely accepted:
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Transsexuals (TS) are persons whose self-identification as females or males is contradicted by their physical sex. They feel uncomfortable in their “wrong” bodies and therefore try to adapt their outward appearance to their innermost conviction.
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However, the term “transsexual” has often been criticized as misleading for two reasons: 1.The person does not have a “sexual” problem, but a problem of gender. 2. The person has not moved “across” anything. Instead, the self-identification as female or male, while contradicting the physical sex, is fixed and immutable. For this reason, most scientific writers now no longer speak of transsexualism, but of “gender dysphoria” (gr. dysphoria: irritated mood, from dys-: un-, and phorein: to carry). This new term simply refers to a mismatch of gender and sex.
Some prefer the term “transgender” to “transsexual”, because it avoids the misunderstanding that one is talking about a sexual dysfunction or a sexual orientation. However, this term - as well as “transgenderism” - now includes any and all behavior that defies the traditional definitions of femininity and masculinity. Not all individuals showing such behavior are transsexuals.
In short, the terms available today are not entirely satisfactory. They can lead to misunderstandings and may very well have to be replaced by more precise terms in the future. In the meantime, we keep using the terms “transsexual” and “transsexualism” in this course, because they are well known and still used by most academic writers.
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