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/ˈi.əˌnɪzəm/ · noun
(sexology) The pretence of being the opposite sex, especially that by a man of being a woman; transvestism..
2013, C. N. Armstrong, 12: Transvestism, D. Robertson Smith, William M. Davidson (editors), Symposium on Nuclear Sex, Elsevier (Butterworth-Heinemann), page 88, Homosexuals do not as a rule want to change their sex and identity. This is the fundamental anomaly in eonism.
The chief of these intermediate sexual anomalies are: (1) physical hermaphroditism in its various stages; (2) gynandromorphism, or eunuchoidism, in which men possess characters resembling those of males who have been early castrated and women possess similarly masculine characters; (3) sexo-esthetic inversion, or Eonism (Hirschfeld's transvestism or cross-dressing), in which, outside the specifically sexual emotions, men possess the tastes of women and women those of men.
Ellis seems, however, to regard this 'less common but more complete' type as embodying the essence of eonism, and he objected to the term transvestism because it focused attention solely on the element of cross-dressing.
Use eonism when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.
Eonism means (sexology) The pretence of being the opposite sex, especially that by a man of being a woman; transvestism..
The closest synonym depends on the sentence and intended sense.
The opposite depends on the specific sense.
2013, C. N. Armstrong, 12: Transvestism, D. Robertson Smith, William M. Davidson (editors), Symposium on Nuclear Sex, Elsevier (Butterworth-Heinemann), page 88, Homosexuals do not as a rule want to change their sex and identity. This is the fundamental anomaly in eonism.
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