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Trans* Sexualities

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Handbook of the Sociology of Sexualities

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Abstract

Normative understandings of sexualities are predicated on assumptions that the sexes of people’s physical bodies correspond with their gender identities and presentations in stereotypical ways. However, the bodies and genders of trans* people do not often permit a simplistic conflation of sex and gender as being interchangeable concepts. Thus, understanding the sexualities of trans* people, and their sexual partners, requires both more nuanced understandings of the roles of genders and sexed bodies, and corresponding conceptual expansions of sexualities beyond heteronormative formulations. In this chapter, we review some basic concepts and terminology useful in understanding trans* sexualities; some methodological issues in research about trans* sexualities; some of the ways that trans* people, and their partners, express their sexualities; and some particular considerations in terms of the sexual and reproductive health of trans* people and their partners. We conclude by noting some areas for future research.

Trans* is defined by GATE-Global Action for Trans* Equality as: “Anyone who has a gender identity which differs from the gender they were assigned at birth and who chooses, or prefers, to present themselves differently than what is expected of the gender they were assigned at birth. This includes people who identify as transsexual, transgender, cross dressing, gender variant, gender fluid, genderqueer, agender, and many other identities, and serves as a placeholder term to refer to a wide variety of gender variance without reducing any one identity to characteristics of other identities.” (GATE-Global Action for Trans* Equality, n.d.).

Parts of this chapter were previously published in Aaron Devor (2015). Trans* Bodies. In P. Whelehan & A. Bolin (Eds.), The International Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality. Malden, Oxford: John Wiley and Sons.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The exact quotation from 1973 is: “Any kind of carving that you might do on me might change my sex, but it would not change my gender, because my gender, my self-identity, is between my ears, not between my legs” (Prince 2005b, p. 30).

  2. 2.

    Intersex refers to a wide range of conditions wherein physiological indicators of maleness and femaleness are combined in non-standard ways in a single individual. In earlier literature, intersexed people were often referred to the “hermaphrodites” (Dreger 2000). This is now considered derogatory. Current medical literature will often use the term “DSD,” as an abbreviation for Disorders of Sexual Development. Some activists prefer to use DSD to mean Diversity of Sexual Development.

  3. 3.

    The prefix “cis” comes from the Latin meaning “on this side of” and is used to refer to people whose gender identities are congruent with those to which they were assigned at birth. Variations on the terms cisgender (e.g., cis man, cissexual) have been adopted as parallel terms to transgender-based terms.

  4. 4.

    To differentiate between contemporary uses of sex, gender and sexuality, and historical uses which conflate the concepts, hyphens are used to denote when any subset of these terms is conflated.

  5. 5.

    See Sect. 4 for a discussion of techniques which may be used to alter one’s gender presentation.

  6. 6.

    Also frequently referred to as sex reassignment surgeries, or gender reassignment surgeries.

  7. 7.

    Any surgical procedure will result in scarring which will affect tissue sensitivities, including sexual sensitivities. Post-surgical complications can further reduce tissue sensitivities. However, one of the goals of genital surgeries is to allow gender-congruent use of genitalia, including sexual use. Successful metoidioplasties generally result in increased sexual satisfaction. Phalloplasty techniques vary, as do the resultant sexual sensitivity levels. Successful genital reconstructions for transfeminine-spectrum people result in orgasmic capacity in the majority of cases (Cotton, 2012; Klein and Gorzalka, 2009; Lief and Hubschman, 1993).

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  1. Sociology Department, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada

    Aaron H. Devor PhD & Kimi Dominic PhD

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  1. Department of Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA

    John DeLamater

  2. Department of Sociology, Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York, USA

    Rebecca F. Plante

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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Devor, A., Dominic, K. (2015). Trans* Sexualities. In: DeLamater, J., Plante, R. (eds) Handbook of the Sociology of Sexualities. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17341-2_11

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