Transgenderism and the Concept of Gender

V. Bullough

Transgender was first researched by Magnus Hirschfeld and Havelock Ellis although they did not call it that. Few immediately followed up on their pioneering work and most of those who did were psychiatrists. Freudian theories remained dominant in U.S. It was the Christine Jorgensen case, which gave renewed impetus to the study of transgendered individuals, and Harry Benjamin was particularly influential. The concept of gender as distinct from sex was developed by John Money and popularized by the second wave of feminists. The growth of organized transvestitism provided a natural research group that went beyond the clinical case study and led to new explanations and theories about gender.