ABSTRACT
Each aspect has generated its own literature-in terms of curiosity and sensationalism in the popular press (Ekins 1990c; 1992a; King 1996a); in terms of specialist texts on ‘transvestism’, ‘transsexuality’ and ‘gender dysphoria’ in the psychiatric-psychological-medical arena (Benjamin 1966; Green and Money 1969; Steiner 1985; Docter 1988, Bockting and Coleman 1992); and in terms of world-wide information networks for cross-dressers and sex-changers themselves (Kelly 1987-90; Neil 1987-93; Renaissance Education Association 1987-96). Infrequently, social scientists have attended to the area, most typically from the specialist standpoints of ethnomethodology (Garfinkel 1967; Kessler and McKenna 1978; Hirschauer 1996), the sociology of deviance (Talamini 1982; Sagarin 1969; Feinbloom 1976), the medicalisation of gender roles (Raymond 1980; Billings and Urban 1982), or feminism (Woodhouse 1989). Studies such as these have invariably underplayed the erotic, in both its subjective and social features. Only Lewins (1995) and the occasional serious piece of journalism in the quality press have attempted to bridge the gap between the disparate and discrete literatures.
