Child’s body, adult’s body: a look at the diagnostic reviews that make up boundaries between trans people

Abstract

The category “trans children” has appeared more frequently in diagnostic manuals over the past eight years. Although transsexuality was once understood as a general issue that could be found at different stages of life, this identity has come to be described as a gender specifically for boys and girls. Thus, transsexuality “in” childhood was understood as being “of” childhood, displacement responsible for producing expressive effects. While the trans child was recorded in the medical literature as a subject that required mental health treatments, this movement led to the establishment of certain boundaries between childhood and adulthood. This article’s purpose is to follow some paths that illustrate how age stratification of transsexuality resorted to gender crystallization