The first hypothesis I intend to review is that of the Berlin sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld which has had more influence on modern thought than any other theory of homosexualism and which unfortunately has been accepted as gospel truth by many homosexuals.
=The Third Sex.= Hirschfeld reminds us in his book "Intermediate Sexual Stages" that during the first eight weeks of its existence, the fetus is neither male nor female. It is only about the eighth week that a differentiation takes place and that the sex of the unborn can be determined.
A thousand physical influences may be at work in fetal life which may cause underdevelopment of the male fetus' organs, which then may resemble a female's in many particulars, or the overdevelopment of a female's clitoris which may make it slightly similar to a man's penis. Thousands of variations can be observed which, in certain cases, have caused the attending physician to declare the child's sex as "doubtful."
According to the degree of development of their sexual organs, Hirschfeld suggests a classification of the intermediates into hermaphrodites, androgynes, transvestites, homosexuals and metatropists.
I shall not touch upon the first two classes, hermaphrodites and androgynes, which are obvious, gross, physical malformations of a congenital character.
Transvestism, homosexualism and metatropism, however, deserve careful consideration.
=The Transvestites= are men who experience a craving to go about dressed as women, women who are anxious to dress themselves as men.
Hirschfeld considers them as closely related to the male androgynes who crave to have breasts like women and are ashamed of facial or bodily hair, and to the female androgynes who are ashamed of their breasts and wish to have a beard and body hair.
Transvestites generally explain that they do not feel free except in the garb of the opposite sex. "In men's clothes," a male transvestite said, "I have the feeling of wearing a uniform." "In feminine clothes," a female transvestite said, "I feel inhibited and hampered. It is only when wearing masculine garments that I feel energetic and efficient."
The late Dr. Mary Walker, the French painter Rosa Bonheur, the French explorer Madame Dieulafoy, were characteristic examples of energetic women who felt compelled to abandon the garb of their sex and to dress themselves as men.