Margaret McGhee

Male to Female (MtF) Transgender Expression

Note that my ideas on this topic have changed quite a bit since I wrote this. I am currently writing an updated version. (Jan, 2006)

We know that some male babies will start to exhibit signs of female gender behavior as early as one year of age. Certainly, most parents are eagerly looking for the typical boy to appear by that time - but it seems that these male babies want to be a girl. They seem to have a female gender identity, something many of them will attest to throughout their lives.

My hypothesis is that as the child develops from these first signs, the child's psychological makeup and the parent's response to the child's girlish behavior interact to produce the several common examples of gender and sexual variant males that we are aware of in our culture; Type I Transsexuals, Homosexuals, Type II Transsexuals and Asexual Transsexuals.

I believe there are two important internal psychological factors in transgender infants that combine to produce these outcomes:

Libido - Early on this will be expressed as a level of willfulness. A high libido baby will be willful and demanding. A low libido baby is not strong willed and is more passive. Later on it becomes sexual as well - and includes some level of attraction for males - depending on the strength of their libido.

Readiness to Conform to Gender Norms - By this I mean the child's readiness to conform to gender norms (RCGN) as required by parents and siblings - or, how eagerly the child accepts (or rejects) social pressure to conform. This pressure typically comes from parents, mostly the mother at this age but could come from fathers and siblings, babysitters, etc. It probably corresponds to both a sense of social conscience in the developing child as well as the strength of the guidance (or punishment) they experience.

The Model

Assume some biological/neurological/hormonal (whatever) "gender switch" has been thrown in these boys - probably before birth but certainly by 18 to 24 months of age - to "female".

The general idea is that high libido in transgender boys will tend to result in a sexual attraction to males and eventually will become a part of their lives. A low libido will be less likely to attach sexually to an appropriate male target (for female gender identity persons).

A high RCGN boy will tend to repress their inappropriate gender (and later sexual) feelings and behavior in order to be accepted by parents, peers and society. A low social conscience child will be less likely to modify their desires and behavior according to outside forces.

And of course, parents may exert a very strong or a weak pressure to conform to accepted gender roles and behavior. Even at a very young age I believe some parents, especially high libido fathers, might severely punish boys (physically or emotionally) who wear mommy's clothes for example.

This is how I imagine these factors might interact to produce various male transgender types:

MtF Transgender Personality Types

Note: Those persons whose RCGN is high enough to be to the right of their perceived "social limits" will keep their transsexuality hidden from others. Over the last 40 years the "Social Limit" line has shifted gradually to the left, allowing more MtF transgender persons to come out.

Note: The relative size of the boxes does not correspond to demographics - only my estimate of the relative strength of the two axes, libido and RCGN. Box size would correspond demographically if the distribution of the two variables was uniform among the population of transgendered males, which I doubt. I suspect the distribution is weighted toward higher libido and greater RCGN (in our culture) which would produce a higher incidence of homosexuals relative to box size.

Type I Transsexual - (Early onset, androphylic) These are moderate to high libido, low RCGN boys. They feel like little girls rather than little boys and they demand to act however they wish, wear the clothes that they like and play with whatever toys and playmates that appeal to them - no matter how inappropriate in the eyes of their parents. I believe most transgendered boys start off in this group. Like Michael Bailey's Ryan, they want to be like Mommy and will imitate her behavior when they can. The boy Ludovic in "Ma Vie en Rose" is another archetype. If parental disapproval is ineffective and if they indeed have a strong libido, they will grow up to be a Type I Transsexual - believing themselves to be girls in a boy's body.

If they have a high libido but are more susceptible to social forces to conform, they will become . .

Homosexual - These are high libido, high RCGN boys. They very much want to express their own (female ) identity - but they also are very conscious of "fitting in" and being a "good boy" in their parent's eyes. They painfully learn to repress their femaleness - often as a result of early punishment. They may even develop a strong disgust of their female nature. So much so, that they may repress any memory of their early childhood female nature.

However, as they approach puberty, their high libido makes itself known and they find themselves attracted to males. They are older now and have the freedom to engage in homosexual liaisons, whereas their earlier cross-gender expression was more easily observed by parents and especially siblings. (Studies have shown that male homosexuality positively correlates with having older brothers.) They learn about the homosexual community and join it, where they remain throughout their lives - loving men - disdaining their own femininity. (Michael Bailey's 100 "bottoms" looking for a "top".)

Type II Transsexual - (Late onset, gynephylic) These are low to moderate libido, high social conscience MtF transgendered boys. These boys feel like girls early on, but are more ready to become the boy their parent's want them to be - or at least give it a good try. They still feel like girls on the inside but they repress those feelings and do the "guy thing" as best they can. They may cross dress when they think they won't get caught. They refuse to allow the idea of sex with a man to exist in their mind - because of society's strongly stated disapproval of homosexuality. They learn to have sex with women - again because that is what is expected of them and they want very much to be accepted as normal. Many marry and have children and seem (to others) to be normal males.

However, later in life, they can become overwhelmed by the enormity of what they have done - lived their lives and shaped their personalities according to what society expected of them rather than by following their own desires and instincts. Many of them will seek some form of life transformation at this time. Some will live part time as women. Some will undergo SRS and live out the rest of their lives completely as women. Probably the majority, sadly, will simply live out their lives keeping their secret and never experiencing their own true personality or sharing it with their friends and loved ones.

Asexual - Low libido persons who have no strong need for sexual expression toward any target. These will conform to gender norms according to how much pressure they feel and how strongly their own social conscience compels them.

Sexuality - I suggest that high sexual libido tends to produce attraction to persons of the opposite (gender) orientation in humans generally. Type I Transsexuals and Homosexuals have a high libido and tend to end up with males as sex partners. The lower sexual libido of the Type II Transsexuals means a weaker sexual object attachment and opens up other possibilities (more in accordance with social expectations). They still have a sexual urge and in most cases it will be expressed in a social conforming way (toward females). They can develop (learn) attraction to persons of the same (gender) orientation as well as to objects and fantasies other than people. There is also a small switched-gender group that reports very low or nonexistent sexual attachment (Asexual).

The strong repression of variant gender and/or sexual roles by transgender males in our culture possibly causes a higher incidence of paraphilic arousal in transgender males of whatever type. For example, this may cause a high incidence of autogynephilia (sexual arousal from thinking of themselves as women or in female roles) in Type II transsexuals or of BDSM activity in homosexuals. Paraphilias seem less prevalent in Type I Transsexuals probably because they did not repress their gender/sexual feelings as did Type II Transsexuals and Homosexuals - which is why they are in the Type I group.

Intelligence - I suspect there is a positive correlation between early childhood social conscience development and intelligence. That would explain why Type II Transsexuals and Homosexuals (who each try to conform to social norms in their own way) seem to be better represented in music, the arts and the intellectual professions - fields where intelligence and motivation for social approval combine. The main difference between Type II Transsexuals and homosexuals is their libido. In Homosexuals, the high libido almost guarantees attraction to men. In Type II Transsexuals the lower libido allows a variety of sexual object attachments to satisfy their need for social acceptance and sex. But they will usually develop a sexual orientation directed toward females.

I also suspect a physiological difference in the brains of Type II transsexuals that makes them particularly efficient at "systems level" thinking and multi-processing tasks that require both a logical and an artistic approach. They are good at looking at problems through several different levels of abstraction at the same time. For example, they seem to be especially adept at computer systems design and programming as well as playing music, especially stringed instruments.

Culture - Also, much of this grouping is probably due to culture. For example, native American cultures seem to have allowed all these variations in libido and social conscience to comfortably assume whatever balance of male / female characteristics they wish and simply treats them as "two spirit" persons. Our transphobic culture, on the other hand, seems to force transgender expression into a few persistent easily identified categories where they are grudgingly "tolerated" by society. Much violence is directed at gender variant males who violate those categories. Many notable murders have been committed where the killer justifies the act based on their belief that the victim tried to deceive them - and appear as a true female rather than as a MtF transsexual, for example.

Older Type II Transsexuals today were children when social pressures to conform to rigid gender models were very high in this country (during and post WWII). This has lessened since the gender and sexually permissive sixties. As time goes by I expect Type II Transsexuals to "come out" at progressively younger ages - and that already appears to be happening. I see that as positive and would hope to see our culture approach that of the older native American (Two Spirit) accommodation to transgender males some day.

Autogynephilia Motivated Transition

Of course, these groups are not exclusively distinct - and characteristics of any one of these groups could be seen in some members of the other groups. For example, some Type II Transsexuals may have a strong RCGN (like homosexuals) and may also develop a similar disgust of their own female gender feelings. Later in life, as the need to express their true gender identity becomes stronger, they may even undergo SRS and take on a completely female persona. At the same time, like homosexuals, they might strongly deny that female gender identity - but admit to having autogynephilic arousal - which they blame for their desire to transition and live in a female role. Michael Bailey's book "The Man Who Would Be Queen" provides an explanation for this phenomena. I am skeptical that a form of sexual arousal could provide a sufficient motivation to radically change one's anatomy through surgery and take on a radically different life role as a female. However, some Type II transsexuals who have an aversion to "female gender identity" explanations for their transsexuality are strong emotional supporters of that theory.

Note: My skepticism could well be the result of my weaker libido (as a Type II Transsexual) which makes it difficult for me to imagine a sexual urge as having that much control over one's life. Alternatively, those Type II transsexuals who subscribe to the autogynephilic theory of motivation probably have stronger libidos and have trouble imagining how merely "feeling female" could account for anyone's desire to transition.

To summarize, according to this hypothesis, all MtF transgenders were born with a gender switch that was thrown in the opposite direction from their anatomy. They all experience early female-appropriate gender feelings and through imitation and encouragement would ordinarily learn female appropriate behaviors and become attracted to males sexually. Instead, as they undergo development into adults they evolve into the following typical categories depending on libido, social pressure, social conscience and other factors in their environment.

Type I Transsexuals identify as female from an early age. They never feel male and resent that they have been born into such a body. They will do whatever it takes to get rid of their male anatomy if they can afford to. They will live their lives as the females they are in their minds - even taking on a life of crime or prostittution in order to live their life as a woman. Because they start so early their emotional transformation is very complete (they spend little or none of their lives trying to conform to male behavior models).

Homosexuals are female on the inside but learn to totally repress their gender feelings and some or most of the behaviors. Their high libido (sexual energy) causes them to experience strong attraction to males as they approach puberty. The homosexual lifestyle is the obvious place for these folks in our society where they can express their female sexuality while maximizing their self-esteem.

Type II Transsexuals also identify early-on as female. But these persons, with a less active libido, are more willing to repress their feelings, behavior and especially their sexuality. Aware of their forbidden female feelings, they may develop an actual fear of becoming homosexual before puberty. Their repressed female self often "comes out" later in life when some of them will make painful and difficult adjustments to live out the rest of their lives at least partially as a female. I suspect part of this "later in life" aspect of Type II Transsexuals is due to reduced social pressures to conform over the last fifteen years or so.

I suspect that the strong differentiation of MtF transgender types is primarily cultural - where we strongly stigmatize any gender variant behavior in males. Without that social pressure, that starts as early as 18 months of age and continues throughout life, transgendered bio-males would ordinarily assume less distinct gender and sexual orientation appearance and behaviors. They would assume the roles that were most comfortable for them emotionally and intellectually and that were appropriate to their libido and their natural desire to express their internal gender/sex feelings at various times in their lives. They would probably assume a similar role as the "Two Spirit" persons of Native American cultures.