The female-impersonators: $b A sequel to the autobiography of an androgyne and an account of some of the author's experiences during his six years' career as instinctive female-impersonator in New York's underworld; together with the life stories of androgyne associates and an outline of his subsequently acquired knowledge of kindred phenomena of human character and psychologyWerther, Ralph
History
The female-impersonators: $b A sequel to the autobiography of an androgyne and an account of some of the author's experiences during his six years' career as instinctive female-impersonator in New York's underworld; together with the life stories of androgyne associates and an outline of his subsequently acquired knowledge of kindred phenomena of human character and psychology
Werther, Ralph
Cross-dressing -- United States -- History; Gay men -- United States -- Biography; Transgender people -- United States -- Biography; Werther, Ralph, 1874-
Unless otherwise indicated I shall use the terms “androgyne” and
“pseudo-man” only in reference to the ultra-androgynous. All my
androgyne associates whom I shall portray in this book belong to
this class, because with a few exceptions they alone are
FEMALE-IMPERSONATORS. In my RIDDLE OF THE UNDERWORLD I describe some
mild androgynes.
There exists vast diversity in the anatomy and psyche of androgynes—just
as, from the standpoint of size and shape of the genitalia and sexual
tastes, any two full-fledged males or any two full-fledged females
differ more or less. In one androgyne, the only conspicuous external
feminine stigma may be absence of beardal growth; in another, mammary
glands; in another, the complete skeleton or the complete muscular
system of the female. The one physical feminine stigma that is
indispensable to the possession of a decidedly feminine psyche and the
quasi-female method of sexual expression is the female variety of brain
protoplasm. For there have probably lived naturally beardless men, males
possessing milk glands or sissie voices, etc., who have nevertheless not
been at all homosexual. But such are exceptions to the rule.
[Sidenote: _A Medical Superstition._]
While an earmark of ultra-androgynism is sexual passivity, the mildly
androgynous may be active pederasts or mutual onanists. Only in the case
of ultra-androgynes are the individual’s genitalia entirely divorced—as
a rule—from the sexual life. For them, Nature has substituted other
organs.
Ultra-androgynes are, by birth, practically identical with males
castrated in early childhood, except that adult artificial eunuchs are
usually overlarge. Adult ultra-androgynes tend merely to plumpness as a
result of their dwarfed genitalia.
I have heard of ultra-androgynes, who, in their early twenties, on their
physician’s advice, married a _woman_, when Nature intended they should
marry a man. All high-minded “homosexualists,” soon after arrival at
puberty, consult a medical man for a cure. From time immemorial it has
been one of the profession’s superstitions that marriage would cure
homosexual tendencies. Some unsophisticated adolescent androgynes put
faith in their physician’s positive assurance that _marriage is a sure
cure_. If, as a matter of conscience alone, the androgyne promises the
physician to marry, he sometimes goes insane over the dread of it, or
else commits suicide, either on the eve of marriage, or a few days
afterward. But even if the marriage ceremony is performed, the
consummation never takes place in the case of ultra-androgynes, and the
wedded state proves very unhappy for both parties. At least in the case
of the ultra-androgynes, such marriage possesses no curative value.
Chronic and extreme homosexuality is congenital and incurable. It is
monstrous to advise even a mild androgyne to marry, and thus contribute
to propagating a line of [Sidenote: _Hermaphrodites._] unhappy and
unwelcome bisexuals down through the centuries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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