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Autogynephilia (pronounced /ˌɔːtoʊˌɡaɪnəˈfɪliə/) (from Greek “αὐτό-” (self), “γυνή” (woman, though the stem is actually “γυναικ-”^[1], so that “autogynephilia” is ill-formed^[2]) and “φιλία” (love) — "love of oneself as a woman") is the term coined in 1989 by Ray Blanchard to refer to "a man's paraphilic tendency to be sexually aroused by the thought or image of himself as a woman."^[3] It has been theorized to motivate cross-dressing as a sexual fetish (transvestic fetishism) in biological males and to motivate gender dysphoria in non-homosexual biological males (as compared with people termed homosexual transsexuals by researchers, who are driven by their attraction to men). Autogynephilia has also been suggested to pertain to romantic love as well as to sexual arousal patterns.^[4] Terms that refer to a person's sex-of-birth (such as "homosexual transsexual") have been criticized by theorists such as Harry Benjamin and Bruce Bagemihl for not referring to a person's sex-of-identity.^[5][6]

Autogynephilia is recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association, which indicates that of individuals with gender identity disorder, "[The] adult males who are sexually attracted to females, to both males and females, or to neither sex usually report a history of erotic arousal associated with the thought or image of oneself as a woman (termed autogynephilia)" [emphasis in original].^[7]

Sexual fantasies

Blanchard provides case examples to illustrate the sexual fantasies that people reported:^[8]

Philip was a 38-year-old professional man referred to the author's clinic for assessment....Philip began masturbating at puberty, which occurred at age 12 or 13. The earliest sexual fantasy he could recall was that of having a woman's body. When he masturbated, he would imagine that he was a nude woman lying alone in her bed. His mental imagery would focus on his breasts, his vagina, the softness of his skin, and so on—all the characteristic features of the female physique. This remained his favorite sexual fantasy throughout his life.

According to Blanchard, "An autogynephile does not necessarily become sexually aroused every time he pictures himself as female or engages in feminine behavior, any more than a heterosexual man automatically gets an erection whenever he sees an attractive woman. Thus, the concept of autogynephilia—like that of heterosexuality, homosexuality, or pedophilia—refers to a potential for sexual excitation"^[9] [emphasis in original].

Blanchard classified four subtypes of autogynephilic sexual fantasies, but noted that "All four types of autogynephilia tend to occur in combination with other types rather than alone."^{[9] [10]}

• Transvestic autogynephilia: arousal to the act or fantasy of wearing women's clothing
• Behavioral autogynephilia: arousal to the act or fantasy of doing something regarded as feminine
• Physiologic autogynephilia: arousal to fantasies of female-specific body functions
• Anatomic autogynephilia: arousal to the fantasy of having a woman's body, or parts of one.

Blanchard (2005) also provides other examples of autogynephiles' narratives to illustrate the range of those fantasies in their own words:^[8]

I have been in a steady relationship with a lady some eight years older than me....We regularly have sex and I really enjoy getting her excited and giving her orgasms. She gets to a point where she wants me inside her, and I do this, but I usually have to imagine I am the woman to have an orgasm myself. For some reason she likes to have her legs closed, so I am usually the one with my legs spread, which reinforced my fantasy of being the one who is penetrated. I have not told her what I fantasize about during sex, and have not told her that I have started hormones. (Narrative #54)

An early experience I can still vividly remember of becoming aroused at the thought of becoming female was when I was approximately 9 or 10 years old. I was overweight and I had begun to develop breasts, solely from my weight. I would soap my breasts in the shower and imagine I was really a woman with a real woman's breasts, and I would become extremely aroused....It was until I actually started therapy that I began appearing in public dressed as a female. In the early days I would become aroused whenever anyone, a sales clerk, a casual stranger, would address me as "Ma'am" or perform some courtesy such as holding a door for me. This arousal led to a heightened fear of discovery, i.e., that my erection would give me away. (Narrative #13)

When having sex with women, biological males with autogynephilia (regardless of whether they plan actually to undergo transition) sometimes imagine themselves as women sexually interacting as lesbians.^[11] Blanchard notes that biological males with autogynephilia may also have sex with males: "The effective erotic stimulus in these interactions, however, is not the male physique of the partner, as it is in true homosexual attraction, but rather the thought of being a woman, which is symbolized in the fantasy of being penetrated by a man. For these persons, the male sexual partner serves...to intensify the fantasy of being a woman."^[3] Blanchard (2005) provides an individual's narrative illustrating the phenomenon:^[8]

I have also had sexual enounters with eight men.... I found I enjoyed the physical aspects of this type of sex and felt I was confirming my womanhood by being a passive partner. All these encounters occurred while I was [cross-]dressed and were all one night stands. I have never been interested in sex with a man when I was presenting as a man myself. (Narrative #54)

There also exist biological males who report being sexually aroused by the image or idea of having some but not all female anatomy, such as having female breasts but retaining their male genitalia; Blanchard referred to this phenomenon as partial autogynephilia.^[12][13]

Origin of the concept

Blanchard has recounted how he came to recognize the phenomenon of autogynephilia and to coin the term describing it.^[8] Although Blanchard provided autogynephilia with a precise definition, some earlier authors described the same idea, describing the sexuality of transsexual people as fetishism:

• Fenichel (1930) observed in some of his patients that "Love for the subject's own self—phantasies that the masculine element in his nature can have intercourse with the feminine (i.e., with himself) are not uncommon."^[14](p. 214)
• Havelock Ellis (1935) variously used the term sexo-aethetic inversion and Eonism to refer to cross-gender behavior and feelings, writing that "The Eonist is embodying, in an extreme degree, the aesthetic attribute of imitation of, and identification with, the admired object. It is normal for a man to identify himself with the woman he loves. The Eonist carries that identification too far" (p. 244).^[15]
• Magnus Hirschfeld (1948) used the term automonosexuals, indicating that "We are almost tempted to believe that we are here faced with a splitting of the personality in the sense that the masculine component in the psyche of these men is sexually stimulated by the feminine component that that they feel attracted not by the women outside them, but by the woman inside them" (p. 167).^[16]
• Kurt Freund (1982) coined the term cross-gender fetishism to refer to "the subject's fantasizing, during fetishistic activity, that she or he belong to the opposite sex...the fetish, in such cases always an object characteristic of the opposite sex, is used to induce or enhance cross-gender identity" (p. 50).^[17]

See also

• Autosexuality
• Classification of transsexuals
• Blanchard, Bailey, and Lawrence theory
• List of transgender-related topics

References

External links

• Transsexual women's resources, by Dr. Anne Lawrence
• The autogynephilia resource