SOC 445 Chapter Reading #6 pt 2/2: Krafft-Ebing - Female Invert (Notes from P.J. McGann, 2018)

• School: U of M
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 445
• Professor: Professor PJ McGann

Document Summary

Note: these passages illustrate the emerging idea that there are sexual types of people, what foucault referred to as a case study, a morphology, a life form. Psychopathia sexualis, first published in 1886, went through 12 editions. The first symptom of sexual inversion typically involved rejection of conventional femininity in childhood: Even in her earliest childhood she preferred playing at soldiers and other boys" games; she was bold and tom-boyish and tried even to excel her little companions of the other sex. She never had a liking for dolls, needlework or domestic duties (krafft-ebing 1889: 333) The invert"s cross-gender behavior was not limited to childhood. She is the rival of their play, preferring the rocking-horse, playing at soldiers, etc. , to dolls and other girlish occupations. The toilet is neglected, and rough boyish manners affected. Love for art finds a substitute in the pursuits of the sciences