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Physical attractiveness of boys with gender identity disorder

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Abstract

University students blind to group status rated boys with gender identity disorder and clinical control boys regarding their physical attractiveness. Ratings were made of the face and upper torso from photographs taken at the time of clinical assessment (\(\bar x\) age, 8.1 years). On all five adjectives (attractive, beautiful, cute, handsome, and pretty), boys with gender identity disorder were judged to be more attractive than were the clinical control boys. Attractiveness correlated with extent of behavioral femininity in the clinical control group, but not in the group of boys with gender identity disorder. The extent to which the group differences in attractiveness were due to objective, structural differences in facial attractiveness vs. socially created, or subjective, processes is discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Child and Adolescent Gender Identity Clinic, Child and Family Studies Centre, Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, 250 College Street, M5T 1R8, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Kenneth J. Zucker Ph.D., Jennifer Wild B.Sc., Susan J. Bradley M.D. & Claire B. Lowry Ph.D.

  2. Child and Family Centre, Kitchener-Waterloo Hospital, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

    Claire B. Lowry Ph.D.

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  1. Kenneth J. Zucker Ph.D.
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  2. Jennifer Wild B.Sc.
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  3. Susan J. Bradley M.D.
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  4. Claire B. Lowry Ph.D.
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Zucker, K.J., Wild, J., Bradley, S.J. et al. Physical attractiveness of boys with gender identity disorder. Arch Sex Behav 22, 23–36 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01552910

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