Agnes Torres is a

transgender woman A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and som ...

who participated in Harold Garfinkel's research in the early 1960s, making her the first subject of an in-depth discussion of

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

identity in sociology. She is the subject of a 2018

documentary short A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

Early life

Torres was born in 1939 and

assigned male at birth Sex assignment (sometimes known as gender assignment) is the discernment of an infant's sex at or before birth. A relative, midwife, nurse or physician inspects the external genitalia when the baby is delivered and, in more than 99.95% of birt ...

. She was the youngest of four children. Her mother worked in an aircraft plant; her machinist father died when she was eight. Torres was raised Catholic, but stopped believing in God when she was older.From the age of twelve, Torres took her mother's post-

hysterectomy Hysterectomy is the surgical removal of the uterus. It may also involve removal of the cervix, ovaries (oophorectomy), Fallopian tubes (salpingectomy), and other surrounding structures. Usually performed by a gynecologist, a hysterectomy may b ...

estrogen pills and feminized her body. At seventeen, she began dressing and acting in a feminine manner. In 1958 she was working as a typist for an insurance company, and had a boyfriend. She resisted his desire for intercourse and marriage, leading to a series of quarrels before she disclosed her details to him. Their relationship continued.

Appearance

When Garfinkel first met Torres, she possessed

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

typically associated with the social categories of "male" and "female" at the same time. She had a penis and testicles as well as secondary female characteristics such as breasts. Garfinkel stated:

Medical history

Torres was found to have XY chromosomes, and neither a uterus nor the hypothesized tumor that might produce estrogen. She was referred to Dr.

Robert Stoller Robert Jesse Stoller (December 15, 1924 – September 6, 1991), was an American Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA Medical School and a researcher at the UCLA Gender Identity Clinic. He was born in Crestwood, Yonkers, New York, Crestwood, New York, ...

, and was interviewed by him; Dr.Alexander Rosen, a psychologist; and Harold Garfinkel, a sociologist interested in the way sex works in society. Torres was taken to be an example of testicular feminization syndrome. She refused to meet or be classified with any other transgender people or homosexuals. She was recommended for surgery as an intersex patient, at a time when such surgery was regularly denied to transgender people. Surgery was done in 1959 by a team of doctors including

Elmer Belt Elmer Belt (April 10, 1893 – May 17, 1980) was an internationally recognized urologist, a pioneer in sex-change surgery, an important mover in the founding of the UCLA School of Medicine, and a book collector known for assembling a library o ...

. Stoller presented his findings at the 1963 International Psychoanalytic Congress in Stockholm; Garfinkel included an extensive chapter on Agnes in his pioneering 1967 book on ethnomethodology. Post-operative infection and partial closure of her

neovagina Vaginoplasty is any surgical procedure that results in the construction or reconstruction of the vagina. It is a type of genitoplasty. Pelvic organ prolapse is often treated with one or more surgeries to repair the vagina. Sometimes a vaginoplas ...

, weight loss that led to a reduction in breast size, and unpredictable mood changes led to problems with her boyfriend. In 1966 Torres confessed to Stoller that she had indeed taken external estrogens, causing Stoller to doubt his own theories. He retracted his earlier findings at the 1968 International Psychoanalytic Congress in Copenhagen.

Early life

Appearance

Medical history

References

Further reading