Transsexuality is the feeling of belonging to a gender other than the biological sex. Affected people feel that their innate biological sex is wrong.
What is transsexuality?
Transsexuality is the feeling of belonging to a sex other than the biological sex. In the presence of transsexuality, there is the biological sex and the social sex. The biological sex is usually either male or female, hermaphrodites are less common – these rarely occur in humans. The trans man is biologically female, but feels like a man. He dresses and styles himself male and lives like a man. The transwoman, on the other hand, was born a man, but feels female and lives accordingly. Meanwhile, transsexuality is not only considered in terms of masculinity or femininity, but it is accepted as a sexual identity by people who do not want to be clearly assigned to either gender. The social phenomena of transsexuality include, for example, cross-dressing, in which the biological sex dresses exactly the other way around, so a man styles himself into a woman, for example. However, this does not necessarily have to be due to transsexuality, it can also be merely the art form of travesty. Regardless of the expression of transsexuality forms the sexual orientation, which can be different for each transsexual.
Function and task
Transsexuality, like homosexuality, is a deviation from the sexual norm, but today it is considered widely accepted by society. It is medically considered a gender identity disorder, the causes of which are not yet well understood. However, the term “gender identity disorder” has existed since a time when heteronormativity was considered the unquestioningly correct and only healthy sexual orientation. Biologically, medically, and socially, this is perceived differently in more recent research. The occurrence of deviant sexual perceptions is known in humans as well as in mammalian species. In the latter, however, homosexuality is more frequently observed as the most common deviation, although it should be borne in mind that humans are the only animals that can reinforce gender identity, for example, through purposeful dress. It is suspected that transsexuality may have physical and psychological triggers, and genetic factors are also suspected. However, none of these theories has yet been concretely confirmed. Whether deviations of the sexual identity have a social or individual use for the person or the society is also not yet sufficiently investigated. Since transsexuality can make reproduction difficult, if not impossible, a benefit of transsexuality for society is at least not based on reproduction. In other cultures, gender is not perceived according to the rigid two categories of male and female. For example, some Native American tribes are known to know up to five genders and, due to life events, can change from one to the other. As a result, they perform different tasks within their community. A similar socially conditioned gender change is also known from Albania, when elected women take over the role and tasks of men and live as such from that moment on. Transsexuality is a minority phenomenon, but nevertheless a phenomenon that increasingly receives more attention and thus more social acceptance. Thus it is fortunately possible for transsexuals today to live out their transsexuality openly and at their own discretion in a society that is becoming more tolerant and to use even the support of modern medicine to align their biological sex with the perceived gender (felt gender). Thus, today the suffering pressure of being perceived to be in the wrong body can be reduced.
Diseases and ailments
One of the biggest problems with transsexuality is social recognition. Some affected people feel as early as childhood that their biological sex is wrong and depend on how their parents react to this message. If they experience support, they can be helped to adapt their lives to transsexuality. However, in past centuries, transsexuality was rather rigorously suppressed in Western culture, which can lead to serious psychological consequences. These can include severe grief, depression and for example inferiority complexes.Even today it is far from being a matter of course that a transsexual is met with understanding. Transsexuality requires, just like homosexuality, a coming-out, which can loosen social bonds if the environment reacts intolerantly. It is possible, in principle, to reverse one’s biological sex surgically and medically over a period of years. Thus, over time, a trans man could become a biological man who can then have sexual intercourse like a man. The other way around, from male to female, is also possible. Furthermore, transsexuals with the desire for a sex change must henceforth take long-term sex hormones of that biological sex to which they wish to physically conform.
