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International Journal of Transgenderism

ISSN: 1553-2739 (Print) 1434-4599 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wijt20

Sex vs. Gender

Virginia Prince PhD

To cite this article: Virginia Prince PhD (2005) Sex vs. Gender, International Journal of
Transgenderism, 8:4, 29-32, DOI: 10.1300/J485v08n04_05

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1300/J485v08n04_05

Published online: 22 Sep 2008.

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Sex vs. Gender

Virginia Prince, PhD

SUMMARY. This article was first published in D. R. Laub and P. Gandy, (eds), Proceedings of
the Second Interdisciplinary Symposium on Gender Dysphoria Syndrome, Stanford University
Medical Center, Stanford, California, 1973, pp. 20-24. Prince argues that previous contributors to
the symposium in using such terms as “gender conversion surgery” and “anatomic and genetic
gender” were failing to grasp the distinction between sex and gender. Genital anatomy is about
sex; gender role is about a lifestyle. Out of 100 people applying for a surgery perhaps only 10 per-
cent should have it. The majority confuse sex and gender and fail to appreciate that what they are
seeking is a gender change and not a sexual change. Prince likes the word “dysphoria” but argues
for distinguishing sexual dysphoria from gender dysphoria. They are different and people should
be treated according to which one they happen to be suffering from.

KEYWORDS. Sex, gender, gender dysphoria, transsexuality, transvestism

Sex and gender are not the same thing. We let alone sensible. Why do we not learn to talk
are born into a society that is highly polarized about gender when we want to talk about gen-
and highly stereotyped, not only into male and der and talk about sex when we want to talk
female, but into man and woman. Man and about sex?
male, female and woman are considered syn- I have heard people say that somebody was
onymous pairs of words for the same thing. living in the female role before surgery. As a
They are inseparable. But it is not so. Sex and matter of fact, the definition of transsexuality in
gender are not the same thing. Money and the Money and Green’s definitive book says, “The
Hampsons were the ones who first showed this phenomena of living in the role of the opposite
in their study of pseudohermaphrodites. Some- sex before or after surgical sex reassignment
how or other, people have not been able to di- and hormone therapy.” It is impossible, I sub-
gest this, to put it into practice. For example, the mit, for anybody who is a male person by the
other day the expressions, “surgical gender re- possession of a penis to live in a female role be-
orientation,” “gender conversion surgery” and fore surgery. After surgery, he can. What was
“anatomic and genetic gender” were used. No meant was the “feminine role–gender not sex.”
one of these three expressions is even possible, How can we have intelligent communication in

(Originally published in D. R. Laub and P. Gandy, (eds), Proceedings of the Second Interdisciplinary Symposium
on Gender Dysphoria Syndrome, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, California, 1973, pp. 20-24. Re-
printed with permission.)
[Haworth co-indexing entry note]: “Sex vs. Gender.” Prince, Virginia. Co-published simultaneously in International Journal of Trans-
genderism (The Haworth Medical Press, an imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc.) Vol. 8, No. 4, 2005, pp. 29-32; and: Virginia Prince: Pioneer of
Transgendering (ed: Richard Ekins, and Dave King) The Haworth Medical Press, an imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc., 2005, pp. 29-32.

Available online at http://www.haworthpress.com/web/IJT


doi:10.1300/J485v08n04_05 29
30 VIRGINIA PRINCE: PIONEER OF TRANSGENDERING

this area when the definitive book on the sub- not offer a gender solution instead of a sexual
ject does not make the basic distinction bet- one? What you really have is a “sexual dys-
ween a life style and genital anatomy? phoria syndrome.” We have sexual identity
The last two Erickson symposia as well as clinics in which people are examined, selected,
this one have given me a figure that out of 100 screened, and finally have surgery performed
people applying for a surgery perhaps only 10 on them which changes their sexual identity.
percent of them should really have it. If so, then When they can look down and say, “I am no
there are nine people who have something longer a male. I am a female,” then they feel
wrong in their heads, figuratively speaking, they can be women. Then they can do what they
compared to the one that the doctors eventually wanted to do all the time. It seems a very sad
accept for surgery. Therefore, there are nine thing to me that a great many individuals have
times as many reasons for doing rehabilitation to go to the expense, pain, danger, and every-
on those people as there are for doing surgery thing else when they could achieve a gender
on the 10 percent. I believe it was Dr. Laub who change without any of it. For those of you who
said that rehabilitation starts with the first call. do not know me, I am a male. I was born one and
The implication is that rehabilitation needs to I will die one. I am not a homosexual. I am not a
be done on everybody that calls, not just those transsexual, but I have lived the last five years
accepted for surgery. That is very good and a as a woman. There is not one thing that any doc-
step forward. It is very important to ask your- tor or any surgeon at this symposium could pos-
selves what goes on with these people. What sibly do to improve my gender. Any kind of
makes 90 people whom you do not consider carving that you might do on me might change
suitable cases for surgical reassignment come my sex, but it would not change my gender, be-
up with the idea that this is what they need? cause my gender, my self-identity is between
I suggest that a very considerable part of this, my ears, not between my legs. We very badly
is that those individuals do not understand the need to have an understanding on the part of the
difference between sex and gender. There are a profession as to just what these people are seek-
great many people from my side of the street, ing to achieve. You should get clear in your
which is the transvestite side, who really want own mind the difference between sex and gen-
to be women, but they think that the only way der, so that you recognize when somebody is
that you can be a woman is the way that mother really seeking sex change surgery for sexual in-
made it. If you are a female, then you can be a tercourse purposes, and when they are primar-
girl or a woman. You all have histories where ily seeking to change their gender. Then you
people report that, “Ever since I was this high, I will be in a better position to provide the
used to pray to God that I would wake up in the particular help they need.
morning a girl.” I asked these people, “So you I like the word “dysphoria,” but I would like
made this prayer. Suppose you woke up the to have you think of distinguishing sexual dys-
next morning and your penis and testicles were phoria from gender dysphoria. They are differ-
gone and you had a vagina. You had the same ent and people should be treated according to
clothing, took the same books to school, went which one they happen to be suffering from.
to the same class, played the same baseball The big trouble with words like homosexual,
games with the boys and did everything that heterosexual, bisexual, transsexual and trans-
you did the day before. Would you think that vestite, is that they are words describing what
God had answered your prayer?” They would somebody does. Being a medical group, you
say, “Well, no I didn’t want that. I wanted to be will recognize how stupid it would be if people
a girl.” were diagnosed as having had fever disease.
The concept of girlness and femaleness are Any number of conditions have a fever as one
blurred together. What they are seeking is gen- of the symptoms, but if you took that symptom
der change, but not a sexual change. But they as common to a lot of people and referred to fe-
think that you cannot get one without getting ver disease, you would not get to first base in
the other. I was pleased to have Dr. Fisk use the practicing medicine. You have to distinguish
term “gender dysphoria syndrome,” but if it is smallpox from malaria, both of which have a
truly a matter of gender dysphoria, why do you fever.
Virginia Prince 31

I would like to suggest that our problem is ment is toward a more liberated and accepting
that when you use the word transvestite, which society. The effort of Women’s Liberation is to
is simply Latin for cross-dresser, and you put it make people understand, particularly the men,
back into English and use cross-dresser, that that women are people too, that they have the
only partly solves the problem. It is possible to same potentials, the same capacities to go places
make sorts, but not on the basis of what people and do things that men have and should not be
do. You make the sorts on the basis of what peo- limited by the fact that they are potential mothers.
ple are. The kinds of persons that Hirschfeld Society is moving in a direction where all of
originally meant when he coined the word, us sitting at this table are obsolescent (homo-
transvestite, were heterosexual cross-dressers. sexuals, transsexuals, transvestites, and het-
We should think in terms of what motivates erosexuals). Your practice is obsolescent too,
these people to do what they do. because it will not be too many years in the fu-
I coined the word “femiphile,” meaning “lover ture before there will be no transvestite, no
of the feminine,” to describe what these people transsexual, no homosexual. At that point, no
are doing and why they are doing it. Supposing doctors will be necessary to take care of them
just as a suggestion, instead of calling some- for the simple reason that they will all be just
body a homosexual, you referred to them as be- people. We will not have to be climbing over
ing “penis oriented.” That is to say, people who the fence of ignorance and prejudice to find liv-
look to someone else’s penis as a source of their ing space. We will not have to worry about be-
sexual pleasure. That would also include nor- ing isolated and documented and sorted into
mal “females” who also look to a penis as the this kind and that kind. When any two people
source of sexual pleasure, but “normal fe- can have whatever type of sex they choose with
males” and homosexual males have this in whomever they choose, who is homosexual
common. This describes what motivates them, and who is heterosexual? When men catch up
not simply what they do. with women in terms of Men’s Liberation–
There are people who cross-dress because when men can have the choice of looking in
they want to achieve femininity, to experience their wardrobe in the morning and selecting a
womanhood, or change a gender role. There are long or short dress or a pair of pants, with the
others, the so-called “transsexuals,” who cross- same ease and comfort that a woman today can
dress because they are firmly convinced that look in her wardrobe and see if she is going to
they should be of the opposite sex. Finally, wear a long or short dress or a pair of pants–we
there is a third group who use cross-dressing as will have reached the point where what you
a mechanism in the selection and attraction of a wear will not be a uniform to indicate what you
sexual partner. These three are not the same are. We will then have no such thing as a trans-
thing. They are just doing the same thing. vestite. How can you cross a boundary that
The world that we live in is highly polarized does not exist? We are on our way out, all of us.
and highly stereotyped into femininity and mas- The big problem is how do we get there in the
culinity. What I would like to have you think easiest way and how do we help people make
about is the word in the middle, humanity. A this journey as comfortably as possible.
man who wants to look after babies is only be- Transvestism is, unfortunately, generally de-
ing a human being in dealing with young off- fined in its most primitive manifestation, that of
spring. It has nothing to do with his being a sexual arousal from wearing feminine attire.
male and not a female, and that is the problem in Everybody is a child before they are an adult
this area of sex and gender. This high degree of and everybody is an undergraduate before they
polarization in our society leads to all kinds of are a graduate. While it is true that every trans-
confusion in our culture. We must learn that be- vestite knows about his being turned on emo-
ing a person is more important than being either tionally and sexually by the clothing, there is
man or woman, male or female. more to it than that. If that is to be the sole crite-
Consider the trends in society today: Gay rion for who is a transvestite, the true nature of
Liberation seeks to teach the public in general the condition will be completely overlooked.
that being a homosexual is no better and no The true transvestite is not a homosexual. I
worse than being a heterosexual. The move- would like to have everybody dealing with the
32 VIRGINIA PRINCE: PIONEER OF TRANSGENDERING

subject of transvestitism to understand that this standing of their feminine self do not often
is primarily a gender manifestation, not a sex- present themselves to psychiatrists. Thus, the
ual one. The fact that as a small child and as an awareness of this facet of the problem escapes
adolescent, they are turned on by clothing, is the attention of the therapists and so does not
only the very beginning. It is not the end of it. appear in the literature.
We have a great number of men transvestites The man who described it in the first place,
who are 70, 80, and almost 90 years old. I can Hirschfeld, coined it to describe heterosexual
assure you that they are not turned on sexually cross-dressers. It should be used properly, but it
by putting on a pair of panties. The trouble is is too often used simply to define behavior and
that those who have achieved some under- not motivation.

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