Sexual inversion (sexology)
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Sexual inversion is a theory of homosexuality popular primarily in the late 19th and early 20th century.[1] Sexual inversion was believed to be an inborn reversal of gender traits: male inverts were, to a greater or lesser degree, inclined to traditionally female pursuits and dress and vice versa.[2] The sexologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing described female sexual inversion as "the masculine soul, heaving in the female bosom".[3]
Initially confined to medical texts, the concept of sexual inversion was given wide currency by
Historical context
In 19th century Europe, where the theory of sexual inversion emerged, homosexuality was a criminal offense in most jurisdictions. The emergence of the theory of sexual inversion marked a turn in the conceptualization of same-sex sexual behavior from vice to congenital disposition.[5]
Origin and popularization
In 1869, the same year that
Theory
The theory of sexual inversion understands same-sex attraction as a form of gender variance. A sexual invert is someone who is attracted to their own sex, and the theory makes limited distinction between same-sex attracted people who are gender conforming apart from their attractions and same-sex attracted people who transgress assigned sex roles in other ways, such as crossdressing or cross-sex identification.
According to this theory,
References
- Notes
- ^ Havelock Ellis's definition was "sexual instinct turned by inborn constitutional abnormality toward persons of the same sex". Ellis, 1.
- ^ Doan, 26.
- ^ Taylor, 288–289.
- ^ Prosser, 133; Taylor, 288–290.
- ISBN 0875863566.
- S2CID 21275286. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
- . Retrieved 31 January 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-230-23163-4.
- ^ Wikisource. – via
- ISBN 9781580054751. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
- Bibliography
- Doan, Laura (2001). Fashioning Sapphism: The Origins of a Modern English Lesbian Culture. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-11007-3.
- Ellis, Havelock (1927). Studies in the Psychology of Sex Volume II: Sexual Inversion. 3rd Ed. Project Gutenberg.
- Prosser, Jay (2001). "'Some Primitive Thing Conceived in a Turbulent Age of Transition': The Transsexual Emerging from The Well". Doan, Laura; Prosser, Jay (2001). Palatable Poison: Critical Perspectives on The Well of Loneliness. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 129–144. ISBN 0-231-11875-9.
- Taylor, Melanie A. (1998). "'The Masculine Soul Heaving in the Female Bosom': Theories of inversion and The Well of Loneliness". Journal of Gender Studies. 7 (3): 287–296. .