Sissies and Tomboys: Gender Nonconformity and Homosexual Childhood

In 1973, homosexuality was officially depathologized with a revision in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatry. In 1980, a new diagnosis appeared: Gender Identity Disorder of Childhood (GID). The shift separated gender from sexuality, while it simultaneously reinforced traditional concepts of male and female and made it possible for cross-gendered behavior and/or identification to be deemed psychiatric illness.
What is the difference then between a child being called a sissy on the playground and being labeled with a disorder in a psychiatric hospital? Combining theory and personal narrative, this volume interrogates the meaning of the normal that pervades the literature on GID and investigates the theoretical underpinnings of the diagnosis. Sissies and Tomboys considers how the stigma of illness influences a child's development and what homosexual childhood, freed from the constraints of conventionally acceptable gender expression, might look like.

Author: Matthew Rottnek
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 05/01/1999
Pages: 344
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.96h x 5.98w x 0.84d
ISBN: 9780814774847

About the Author
Rottnek, Matthew: - Matthew Rottnek is the former Assistant Director at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) of the City University of New York.