There have been a lot of stories in the news for quite some time about transgender individuals, from Lia Thomas to Chris Beck to Caitlyn Jenner.
For the most part, the media focuses on transgender women, a.k.a. male-to-female (MTF) individuals when it comes to transgender.
There have been a few stories regarding female-to-male (FTM) individuals, such as Ellen Page/Elliot Page, who was a lesbian but now plans to be a man. Or the story of Elliott Sailors, a female model who later posed as a male model. Sailors was also bisexual, then divorced her husband and became a lesbian.
Recently, there has been another FTM individual who has made headlines. This person is Iszac Henig, who was originally a biological female but then transitioned into a male. Henig is on the men’s swim team at Yale University, and even defeated Lia Thomas in a meet.
Other FTM people include Ashlynn Harris, a soccer player who became a lesbian and married fellow soccer player Alexandra “Ali” Krieger, and Sonya Deville, a female wrestler who became a lesbian and is usually in menswear when she isn’t competing.
Sometimes, FTM consists of cross-dressing, which is nothing new. Examples include Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Victor/Victoria, and Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil, who not only took the pen name George Sand to become a writer in France during the early 1800s but also wore men’s clothes (hence she became one of the guys in order to make it in a man’s world since the writing profession was limited to men at the time). And, of course, there was Deborah Sampson, who disguised herself as a man and took the name Robert Shirtliff to serve in the Continental Army during the American Revolution.
Various female celebrities have also engaged in cross-dressing, regardless of their sexual orientation. They include Annie Lennox, Dita Von Teese, Emily Hampshire, Geri Halliwell, Janelle Monae, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, Rita Ora, Salma Hayek, and Tessa Thompson.
It should be noted that not all women who engage in cross-dressing (i.e. wearing a suit and tie) are lesbians or bisexual. Some do it because it is part of the wardrobe for a certain film or television series (especially if the role involves them being disguised as men). Some do it as part of a photoshoot. And some do it because they consider it to be feminine.
So, is it safe to say that FTM (whether it be gender reassignment surgery, cross-dressing, etc.) is probably more complicated than MTF?
