eonism

Noun

eonism (uncountable)

1. The pretence of being the opposite sex, especially that by a man of being a woman; transvestism.
   • The chief of these intermediate sexual anomalies are: (1) physical hermaphroditism in its various stages; (2) gynandromorphism, or eunuchoidism, in which men possess characters resembling those of males who have been early castrated and women possess similarly masculine characters; (3)...1927, Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 (of 6)
   • Ellis seems, however, to regard this 'less common but more complete' type as embodying the essence of eonism, and he objected to the term transvestism because it focused attention solely on the element of cross-dressing.2006, Richard Ekins, Dave King, The Transgender Phenomenon, SAGE Publishing, page 63