In U.S. culture today there is a conflation between sex, gender, and sexual orientation. It is my argument that this conflation spans back into the 19th century and the beginnings of sexology. In this era there was little
In U.S. culture today there is a conflation between sex, gender, and sexual orientation. It is my argument that this conflation spans back into the 19th century and the beginnings of sexology. In this era there was little distinction made between sex, gender, and sexual orientation which helped to create a discourse around these identities that often muddied them together or failed to accurately describe the significance of behavior and expressions within cases of “deviant sexuality”. Beginning with Ulrich’s description of the Hermaphrodite and moving through the vague language of Krafft-Ebbing into Herschfield’s discussion of the transvestite, it is clear that this conflation was the norm in scientific works of the 19th century. With this foundation for modern discourses around sexuality in mind, I argue that trans* communities are intrinsically connected to gay, lesbian, and bisexual communities and therefore sh