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The medical and social construction of transsexuality in Spain (1970-2014)

Abstract:

This article reviews the cultural construction of transsexuality in Spain from the democratic transition to the present. The paper defines three historic periods (pre-gay, gay, and post-gay) and shows how transsexuality and transgender have been construed throughout each of them. The paper aims to analyse the social and identity transformations that unfold in Spain in relation to transgender by focusing on transsexuality. The categories of transvestites and operated transvestites were hegemonic in the pregay period, whereas the category of transsexual was hegemonic over the whole gay period. By contrast, in the current post-gay period, the category of transgender is a conceptual and discursive novelty that includes and, at the same time, goes beyond the previous categories. The article focuses on transsexual women.