Fe/Male

The analysis in this book elicits and "teases out" contemporary logics of gender and sexuality from modern psychiatric texts on transsexualism. There is an explicit focus on found asymmetries of constructions of gender and sexuality with regard to the psychiatric assessment of biological females vs. males seeking legal and medical gender reassignment. Two amalgam psychiatric statements are particularly investigated. Firstly, that of the female-to-male (FTM) transsexual having an "easier" transition to man, than the male-to-female (MTF) transsexual to woman; and secondly, that of FTMs being of homosexual orientation before transition, whereas MTFs are seen as having backgrounds with more sexual variety. These depictions are analysed in connection with the construction of the fe/male body and the role of the body in the shaping of sex/gender positions, concluding an over-all symbolic logic of "the male accommodates the female, but the female does not accommodate the male". It is further suggested that this reveals a phallic core operating within still vivid active/passive paradigms being used to construct masculinity and femininity. This theoretical work will be of interdisciplinary interest to scholars and others working within feminist, women's, gender, queer, transgender and masculinity studies. Keywords: gender feminist queer transgender body masculinity femininity activity passivity transsexualism sex sexuality