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Ellis, Havelock, 1859-1939

"Sexual Inversion"

I always
wanted love and friendship first; later I should have been glad
of something to satisfy my sex hunger too, but by that time I
could have done without it, or I thought so."
At a period rather later than that dealt with in this narrative,
the subject of it became strongly attracted to a man who was of
somewhat feminine and abnormal disposition. But on consideration
she decided that it would not be wise to marry him.
The commonest characteristic of the sexually inverted woman is a certain
degree of masculinity or boyishness. As I have already pointed out,
transvestism in either women or men by no means necessarily involves
inversion. In the volume of _Women Adventurers_, edited by Mrs. Norman for
the Adventure Series, there is no trace of inversion; in most of these
cases, indeed, love for a man was precisely the motive for adopting male
garments and manners. Again, Colley Cibber's daughter, Charlotte Charke, a
boyish and vivacious woman, who spent much of her life in men's clothes,
and ultimately wrote a lively volume of memoirs, appears never to have
been attracted to women, though women were often attracted to her,
believing her to be a man; it is, indeed, noteworthy that women seem, with
special frequency, to fall in love with disguised persons of their own
sex.


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