Physical attractiveness of boys with gender identity disorder

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 ( 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.A version of this article was presented at the meeting of the International Academy of Sex Research, Sigtuna, Sweden, August 1990.