Originally posted 2021-03-25 17:03:10.
Several scales have been devised to categorise sexuality, transition desire and its effects. Here are several.
Alfred Kinsey was one of the 20th century’s most important sex researchers. Kinsey was a biologist and, as such, knew that all biological phenomena exhibit scales of variation. Kinsey’s original scale referenced male homosexuality.
Kinsey’s sexual orientation scale:
0 Exclusively heterosexual with no homosexual experience
1 Predominantly heterosexual, only incidentally homosexual
2 Predominantly heterosexual, but more than incidentally homosexual
3 Equally heterosexual and homosexual
4 Predominantly homosexual, but more than incidentally heterosexual
5 Predominantly homosexual, but incidentally heterosexual
6 Exclusively homosexual, with no heterosexual experience
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Benjamin
During the 1960s and borrowing from Kinsey, Dr Harry Benjamin developed another, which was the first of these scales intended to attempt give an insight into transsexualism. Unfortunately it failed.
Type One: Transvestite (Pseudo)
Gender Feeling: Masculine
Dressing Habits and Social Life: Lives as a man. Could get occasional kick out of dressing. Normal male life.
Sex Object Choice and Sex Life: Hetero, bi, or homosexual. Dressing and — more –exchange may occur in masturbation fantasies mainly. May enjoy TV literature only.
Kinsey Scale: 0-6
Conversion Operation: Not considered in reality.
Estrogen Medication: Not interested or indicated.
Psychotherapy: Not wanted and unnecessary.
Remarks: Interests in dressing is only sporadic.bbbGender Feeling: Masculine
Dressing Habits and Social Life: Lives as a man. Dressing periodically or part of the time. Dresses underneath male clothes.
Sex Object Choice and Sex Life: Heterosexual. Rarely bisexual. Masturbation with fetish. Guilt feelings. Purges and relapses.
Kinsey Scale: 0-2
Conversion Operation: Rejected
Estrogen Medication: Rarely interested. Occasionally useful to reduce libido.
Psychotherapy: May be successful (in a favorable environment.)
Remarks: May imitate double (masculine and feminine) personality with male and female names.
Type Two: Transvestism (Fetishistic)
Gender Feeling: Masculine
Dressing Habits and Social Life: Lives as a man. Dressing periodically or part of the time. Dresses underneath male clothes.
Sex Object Choice and Sex Life: Heterosexual. Rarely bisexual. Masturbation with fetish. Guilt feelings. Purges and relapses.
Kinsey Scale: 0-2
Conversion Operation: Rejected
Estrogen Medication: Rarely interested. Occasionally useful to reduce libido.
Psychotherapy: May be successful (in a favorable environment.)
Remarks: May imitate double (masculine and feminine) personality with male and female names.
Type Three: Transvestism (True)
Gender Feeling: Masculine (but with less conviction.)
Dressing Habits and Social Life: Dresses constantly or as often as possible. May live and be accepted as woman. May dress underneath male clothes, if no other chance.
Sex Object Choice and Sex Life: Heterosexual, except when dressed. Dressing gives sexual satisfaction with relief of gender discomfort. May purge and relapse.
Kinsey Scale: 0-2
Conversion Operation: Actually rejected, but idea can be attractive.
Estrogen Medication: Attractive as an experiment. Can be helpful emotionally
Psychotherapy: If attempted is usually not successful as to cure.
Remarks: May assume double personality. Trend toward transsexualism.
Type Four: Transsexual (Nonsurgical)
Gender Feeling: Undecided. Wavering between TV and TS.
Dressing Habits and Social Life: Dresses as often as possible with insufficient relief of his gender discomfort. May live as a man or woman; sometimes alternating.
Sex Object Choice and Sex Life: Libido often low. Asexual or auto-erotic. Could be bisexual. Could also be married and have children.
Kinsey Scale: 1-4
Conversion Operation: Attractive but not requested or attraction not admitted.
Estrogen Medication: Needed for comfort and emotional balance.
Psychotherapy: Only as guidance; otherwise refused or unsuccessful.
Remarks: Social life dependent upon circumstances.
Type Five: True Transsexual (moderate intensity)
Gender Feeling: Feminine (trapped in male body)
Dressing Habits and Social Life: Lives and works as woman if possible. Insufficient relief from dressing.
Sex Object Choice and Sex Life: Libido low. Asexual auto-erotic, or passive homosexual activity. May have been married and have children.
Kinsey Scale: 4-6
Conversion Operation: Requested and usually indicated.
Estrogen Medication: Needed as substitute for or preliminary to operation.
Psychotherapy: Rejected. Useless as to cure. Permissive psychological guidance.
Remarks: Operation hoped for and worked for. Often attained.
Type Six: True Transsexual (high intensity)
Gender Feeling: Feminine. Total psycho-sexual inversion.
Dressing Habits and Social Life: May live and work as a woman. Dressing gives insufficient relief. Gender discomfort intense.
Sex Object Choice and Sex Life: Intensely desires relations with normal male as female if young. May have been married and have children, by using fantasies in intercourse.
Kinsey Scale: 6
Conversion Operation: Urgently requested and usually attained. Indicated.
Estrogen Medication: Required for partial relief.
Psychotherapy: Psychological guidance or psychotherapy for symptomatic relief only.
Remarks: Despises his male sex organs. Danger of suicide or self-mutilation, if too long frustrated.
Benjamin’s and other scales like it, failed to understand that there are two separate types of MtF. This leads him to conflate them and to erase one, Sexual Inversion. This basic mistake renders his and other such scales meaningless, though it is still often referred to.
Another of these scales was Dr Watson’s
These are Dr Watson’s gender disorientation and indecision scales applied to biological males. It’s interesting to compare this table to Kinsey’s Gender Disorientation Scale. Like Benjamin’s, it fails to distinguish between transsexuals and transvestites
Group One: Low Intensity Transvestite
Gender Identity: Feminine identification only with acting out sexual fantasies.
Gender Role: Normal Male. Cross-dressing intermittent and private.
Eroticism: Genital-heightened arousal when cross-dressed.
Biological Feminization: No desire.
Conflicts: Guilt over normalcy, spousal disapproval.
Desire for Re-assignment: Not considered.
Treatment: Provide information and reassurance. Couples therapy. If impulses are ego-alien use behaviour modification, setting limits on cross-dressing sufficient to control guilt but enough to allow emotional relief.
Group Two: Medium Intensity Transvestite
Gender Identity: Appeal for Femininity may spill over into non-sexual life.
Gender Role: Cross-dressing more pressured, fetishistic and exhibitionistic. Intermittent relapse of intense need to act on feminine impulses related to stress alternating with reduced desire.
Eroticism: Genital-some breast.
Biological Feminization: If impulses ego-alien may use spironolactone to reduce libido.
Conflicts: Guilt and sexual performance anxiety, threatened masculinity fear of ageing.
Desire for Re-assignment: Fleeting under stress.
Treatment: Insight-oriented psychotherapy to identify and modify sources of stress. Negotiate compromise in transvestitic behaviour such as dressing under male clothing.
Group Three: Transvestitic Transsexual
Gender Identity: Ambivalent gender identity. Value male sex organs but feel feminine. “She-Male”
Gender Role: Dresses as much as possible depending on life circumstances. Dressing not necessarily sexual. Impulses often intensify with age and may crystalize into a transsexual picture.
Eroticism: Genital and breast.
Biological Feminization: Spironolactone for demasculinization + gynecomastia. Some may need hormones for emotional balance.
Conflicts: Confusion and personality disorganization, dual personality with male and female names and disassociated personality components.
Desire for Re-assignment: May consider late if very inadequate as males, dependent on commitments.
Treatment: Integrative psychotherapy to stabilize androgeny. Support for re-assignment if appropriate.
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Group Four: Moderate Intensity Transsexual
Gender Identity: Feel female but able to suppress until age 30-50. Increasing dichotomy with age.
Gender Role: Try macho lifestyle to compensate. Increasing depression and anxiety over time. Never comfortable as males.
Eroticism: Genital if fantasizing self as female. Low libido.
Biological feminization: Requested late or intermittent.
Conflicts: Guilt, loss + fear of passing. Fear of rejection. Confused sexual orientation. Desire for
Re-assignment: Re-assignment hoped for, often attained.
Treatment: Supportive psychotherapy for symptomatic relief, family therapy, education group for stabilization of female identity.
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Group Five: High Intensity Transsexual
Gender Identity: Total gender inversion. Never able to supress femininity. Feminine boys.
Gender Role: Dressing insufficient relief. Cross-live early.
Eroticism: Often asexual.
Biological Feminization: Urgent request. Late teens, early 20’s.
Conflicts: Stigma of re-assignment. Family and cultural attitudes.
Desire for Re-assignment: Urgently requested. Self-mutilate if too long frustrated.
Treatment: Education support and family therapy. Assisting process of re-assignment.
As you can see, Watson again conflates the two primary categories, transsexualism and transvestism. Such scales are next to useless, but keep cropping up.
Because of the inadequacy of these scales I created my own, which is below.
Rod Fleming’s Male Sexual Inversion Scale. Homosexual to Homosexual transsexual. (HSTS).
Control
0 Heterosexual: heterosexual orientation/ behaviour.
Feeling masculine.
Activity: only penetrates, repulsed by being penetrated or the idea of it; likely to reject anal penetration of a female partner too.
Kinsey: 0.
Gender Dysphoria in sex-normative roles: Not present.
Bisexuals
1 Bi-curious: passing homosexual attraction alongside heterosexual. Likely to live as a heterosexual and only indulge in same-sex fantasies, although may experiment with real-life homosexual encounters in secret.
Feeling: masculine.
Activity: normally penetrates. May enjoy anal sex as the inserter.
Kinsey:1.
Gender Dysphoria in sex-normative roles: Not present.
2 Bisexual: stronger homosexual attraction, some disinterest in the opposite sex; some liking for feminine roles and activities. In sexual fantasy may tend to imagine himself as submissive. Likely to experiment with real-life homosexual encounters. May identify as bisexual or even, in modern fashion, ‘non-binary’. Broadly masculine, but may affect feminine indicators like wearing hair long, earrings etc.
Feeling: definitely less than fully masculine, though the subject may affect masculinity in public.
Activity: somewhat ambivalent although may be inclined more towards penetration. May enjoy anal sex.
Kinsey: 2-3.
Gender Dysphoria in sex-normative roles: Not present to low.
Feminine gay men
3 Masculine-performing Homosexual male (low intensity): predominantly homosexual attraction, little or no interest in the opposite sex. May enjoy anal penetration as recipient. May appear masculine in public, but may be much less so in private.
Feeling: ambivalent with tendency towards feminine, may ‘identify’ as ‘non-binary’. Activity: ambivalent but inclined towards being penetrated. Likely to enjoy anal sex, but may prefer oral (often because of pain or hygiene issues).
Kinsey: 4.
Gender Dysphoria in sex-normative roles: Medium.
4 Masculine-performing Homosexual male (high intensity): completely homosexual attraction, no interest in opposite sex. Tends to flamboyance in dress and comportment. May fully cross-dress if the situation is suitable. Will rarely accept relationships with feminine males, preferring masculine ones. May take feminising hormones to ‘soften’ features and skin (rather than induce full feminisation) and may remove body hair. May have close women friends but never sees them as sexual targets. Noticeably unmasculine but may be able to appear so when socially convenient.
Feeling: ambivalent to feminine but may disguise this for social reasons.
Activity: prefers to be penetrated and may experiment in solo play. Probably enjoys anal sex, but some do not and prefer oral sex, in which they strongly prefer to be the ‘taker’.
Kinsey: 5-6
Gender Dysphoria in sex-normative roles: Medium to strong.
Complete Sexual Inverts (HSTS)
5 Complete Sexual Invert (intact): completely homosexual, no sexual interest in the opposite sex. Rejects relationships with ‘gay’ men, women or other transwomen (see note iii) and may end a relationship with a man if she discovers he enjoys being penetrated or has had relations with men in the past. Distinctly uncomfortable in masculine roles, appearance and comportment. Likely to ‘pass’ easily as a woman and to live as one full time. Will have close women friends, may identify strongly with the women around her and may be accepted as a woman by them. Never sees them as sexual targets, but may see them as competition. Will take feminising hormones and seek surgeries, especially breast enhancement, to reinforce her natural femininity, but will probably not seek Genital Reconstruction Surgery. Social transition and hormonal therapy is usually enough.
Feeling: completely feminine.
Activity: strong preference to exclusive desire to be penetrated; will experiment in solo play. Enjoys anal sex, mainly as recipient and suffers no cognitive dissonance at this.
Kinsey: 6.
Gender Dysphoria in sex-normative roles: Strong to very strong.
6 Complete Sexual Invert (post-op): largely as above but in addition, strongly inclined to seek and obtain GRS. May live in total ‘stealth’, in which nobody knows her history, especially in intolerant cultures. Completely rejects relationships with either homosexual men or women. Likely to avoid ‘LGB’ etc groups where her status might be discovered. Likely to marry (even if informally) if possible, but only to a conventionally heterosexual, masculine man. May well be the ‘stepmother’ of such a man’s natural children and will both delight in this role and be good at it.
Feeling: completely feminine.
Activity: exclusive desire to be penetrated. May feel cognitive dissonance at being anally penetrated, even if she physically enjoys it; this is a stimulus towards GRS.
Kinsey: 6.
Gender Dysphoria in sex-normative roles: Strong to extreme.
Notes:
i These scales and gradations do not constitute hard boundaries but shades on a number of related scales. A person could be a 5 but still enjoy penetrating (though this is uncommon outside sex work.)
ii Many Sexual Inverts across the planet engage in professional sex work either full or part time. Their sexual appetites and habits are conditioned by it and this may affect their responses markedly. Caution is required when discussing sexual preferences with someone who thinks she might be able to sell you some, if she gives the ‘right’ answers. In particular, this results in many claiming to be happy to penetrate when in fact, they only do it for the money.
iii Inverts in Grades 5 and 6 may live as ‘sugar babies’ in which they enter into relationships that they otherwise would not, for financial reasons. This explains why they may be in liaisons with non-homosexual, Autogynephilic transvestites or sexually submissive males. Usually, somewhere in the background, the Invert in these cases will have a man who fits her romantic and sexual requirements, but who lacks money.
iv Culture matters. A person who may appear as a 5 in a tolerant culture may only appear to be a 3 in an intolerant one and in extreme cultures may completely hide her sexual orientation and repress her Gender Dysphoria. Presentations in tolerant cultures like southeast Asia are different from the highly intolerant West for this reason, although the comparison remains useful.
v Because Gender Dysphoria in Sexual Inverts is largely social, desire for GRS is also partly socially conditioned. In other words, where Complete Inverts are ‘expected’ to have this surgery, more are likely to.
vi Hormones seem to play a role in sex, as well as feminising/masculinising the individual’s appearance. It seems, from anecdotal evidence, that Inverts in grade 5 (ie, intact) are markedly more responsive to anal penetration and enjoy it more on certain hormone regimes (HRT) than others. This may be related to testosterone inhibition.
vii Intact Sexual Inverts (5) have no serious desire to have GRS if social and hormonal transition allows them to live full and satisfied lives. Indeed, many operated Inverts claim to continue using their anuses for sex either because they prefer it or because the neovagina is uncomfortable or less stimulating. These individuals should never be guided towards GRS.
viii This applies ONLY to genuine Sexual Inverts, which the other scales do not. The other form of MtF trans, non-homosexual or Autogynephilic, is never, by definition, either homosexual or transsexual. They are transvestites and remain so, even after GRS. Such individuals often reject the correlation between sexual orientation and gender, partly because of the auto-erotic nature of their condition and partly out of homophobia.
The narcissistic or ‘clone’ homosexual profile, the New Gay Man, which, in men, is characterised by an obsessive pursuit of masculinity in the self and in others, is also a function of Sexual Inversion but in these cases the Erotic Target is a masculine man. This causes Autoandrophilia, which is related to Autogynephilia, in that both are based on an Erotic Target Location Error. These are also subject to scales of variation.