Transvestism was a medicalized framework primarily used in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to classify and explain varied forms of gender-variant expression and behavior. Coined by Magnus Hirschfeld in 1910, the term included a diverse range of phenomena that later came to be understood separately as cross-dressing, aspects of homosexuality, eonism, transsexuality, and transgender identity, but was not limited to any single one of these concepts.

During the mid-twentieth century, transvestism was classified as a psychiatric disorder in diagnostic manuals. As medical and social understandings of gender variance and gender identity evolved, the term became increasingly outdated, stigmatized, and largely replaced by other terms. In its place, several more specific terms emerged, including the neutral, non-medicalized term cross-dressing for clothing choice behavior, alongside clinical terms such as transvestic fetishism which were retained for narrowly defined psychiatric diagnoses.

Etymology and usage

Coinage

Magnus Hirschfeld coined the word transvestite (from Latin trans-, "across, over" and vestitus, "dressed") in his 1910 book Die Transvestiten (Transvestites) to refer to the sexual interest in cross-dressing. He used it to describe persons who habitually and voluntarily wore clothes of the opposite sex. Hirschfeld's group of transvestites consisted of both males and females, with heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, and asexual orientations.

Usage

The term transvestite was historically used to diagnose medical disorders, including mental health disorders, and transvestism was viewed as a disorder, while the term cross-dresser was coined by the trans community.

In some cases, the term transvestite is seen as more appropriate for use by members of the trans community instead of by those outside the trans community, and some have reclaimed the word.

The use of the term meaning cross-dresser was already common in French in the early 19th century, from where it was imported into Portuguese, with the same meaning.

Pejoration

Today, the term transvestite is commonly considered outdated and derogatory, with the term cross-dresser used as a more appropriate replacement.

Meanings and definitions

The second half of the 20th century saw a multiplicity of terms and meanings applied to tranvestism as well as the coinage of related terms, many of which did not survive, or whose meanings evolved. In the most general sense, the wearing of clothing primarily associated with another sex is known as "cross-dressing", whereas transvestism is or was generally the term that describes obtaining of erotic arousal from cross-dressing.

Moser gives this definition in 2002: