transvestism: cross-dressing, either as an act or a syndrome (
transvestophilia) of episodic and partial gender transposition. The syndrome of transvestism is also a paraphilia of the fetishistic/talismanic type in which sexuoerotic arousal and facilitation or attainment of orgasm are responsive to, and dependent upon wearing clothing, especially underwear, of the other sex [from Latin,
trans,
across +
vestis,
garment]. The syndrome is believed to occur predominantly in men, and seldom, if ever, in women . There is no technical term for the reciprocal paraphilic condition, namely being sexuoerotically dependent on a cross-dressed partner. (
adjective,
transvestic, transvestitic): behaviorally, the act of dressing in the clothes of the opposite sex; psychically, the condition of feeling compelled to cross-dress, often in relation to sexual arousal and attainment of orgasm.
See also gynemimesis;
gynemimetophila;
transexualism;
transvestophilia.
Dictionary of Sexology Project: Main Index