invertidos

Invertidos is a historical term that appeared in some Spanish-speaking contexts to refer to people whose sexual orientation or gender identity was believed to be inverted relative to social expectations. The concept derives from the idea of inversion, a notion used in 19th- and early 20th-century sexology to describe what was considered a natural variation in which traits associated with one sex appeared in individuals of the opposite sex.

In practice, the term was applied to gay men and women and, at times, to people whose gender expression differed from their assigned sex at birth, including cross-dressers and, to varying degrees, transgender individuals. It appeared in medical writings, police and legal discourse, and popular culture of the period, often carrying stigmatizing and pathologizing implications.

As theories of sexuality and gender evolved, the use of invertidos declined. Contemporary scholarship treats the term as antiquated and pejorative, appropriate mainly for analyzing historical texts or the history of sexuality and gender discourse.

Today, language about sexual orientation and gender identity favors specific and self-identified terms, such as gay, lesbian, and bisexual for orientation; transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming for identity. The term invertido is generally avoided in modern clinical or academic contexts and is encountered mainly in discussions of historical attitudes toward sexuality and gender.

See also: History of homosexuality, Sexology, LGBTQ+ history, Gender studies.