Sex, Gender, Becoming - PULP

6 Amanda du Preez
of transsexuality is a fairly new one. No recorded examples of physical
sex changes are available in historical resources, except perhaps for
the enigmatic figure of the eunuch, 18 who also did not physically
change his sex. According to Green and Money, what was referred to
as transsexuality in historical texts, was in fact cross-dressing or the
practice of homosexuality. 19 Transsexuality cannot therefore claim to
be a transhistorical category. Instead, as Bernice Hausman 20
indicates, the use and proliferation of transsexuality are closely
concurrent with a specific context that has been enabled by technomedical
procedures and discourses developed from the mid-twentieth
century onwards. The occurrence of transsexuality, as currently
understood and medically managed, is a fairly recent phenomenon
that requires specific techno-medical intervention in order to exist as
a separate category from, for instance, transvestism and
homosexuality.
Although sex reassignment surgery has, since its pioneering years,
become an established medical procedure, as indicated earlier, not
all transsexuals undergo reassignment surgery. However, these nonoperative
transsexuals, as they are labelled, may make use of
hormonal therapy and other medication to provide the necessary
morphological results. This makes the distinction between preoperative
and non-operative transsexuals extremely difficult, since
pre-operative transsexuals also use medication and hormonal therapy
in preparation for the reassignment operation. Non-operative
transsexuals have decided not to undergo surgery, whereas preoperative
transsexuals are preparing themselves for a series of
operations. Moreover, the distinction between non-operative and
18 As ethnographic studies have shown, different cultures dealt differently with the
apparent sex-gender dichotomy. In this regard Unni Wikan identified the xanith of
coastal Oman – biological men living as women; the berdache amongst the Plains
Indians, Tahitian, Brazilian, Aztec and Inca tribes who is described as a ‘honorary
third sex’; Serena Nanda’s analysis of the transgendered state of the hijra in India
and Will Roscoe’s analysis of the Zuni Indian man-woman. All of these testify to
alternative and complex customs through which different societies deal with the
sex-gender polarity. As to the existence of physical sex change, if one consults
online resources advocating transsexualism and transgenderism, it becomes
evident that historical examples attesting to primitive’ physical sex changes did
occur, although rarely. The figure of the eunuch cannot be described as typical of
transsexualism’s need to change into the other sex, for eunuchs, although
‘castrated men’, remained in many instances respected and politically powerful
figures within their societies. By contrast, transsexuals struggle for acceptance in
modern society. See P Ackroyd Dressing up (1979) 37; U Wikan ‘The xanith: a third
gender role?’ in U Wikan Behind the veil in Arabia: women in Oman (1982) 168; W
Roscoe The Zuni man-woman (1992); Raymond (n 2 above) 105-106; S Nanda The
hijras of India: neither man nor woman (1999).
19 R Green & J Money ‘Mythological, historical, and cross-cultural aspects of
transsexualism’ in Denny (ed) (n 3 above) 3.
20 Hausman (n 1 above) 6.