autogynephilia

The behavioral model of autogynephilia (from Greek auto - self, gyno - woman and philia - love - "love of oneself as a woman") was first proposed in 1989 by Ray Blanchard, as an attempt to explain transsexual women (male-to-female transsexuals) who are sexually attracted to women.

Introduction

The theory claims that transwomen, whom Blanchard calles "gender dysphoric males", who are not sexually oriented toward men are instead sexually oriented toward the thought or image of themselves as women. This includes all transwomen who are not exclusively attracted to men, including asexual transwomen. Blanchard argues that in these cases the transsexual feelings have its origins in this paraphilia. Most of Blanchard's work on gender dysphoria focuses on what he calls "autogynephilic transsexuals." Those transwomen who are exclusively attracted to males he calls "androphiliac" or "homosexual" transsexuals. This model does not agree with the more widespread and far wider accepted theory of Gender identity disorder.

Controversy

This theory is highly controversial. Blanchard's theory has been questioned on the grounds that it does not account for the behavior and self-identification of a great many transsexual and transgender women, who are presumed under the theory to be mistaken about themselves - or, as it is often stated, lying. Some suggest that, since correlations do not establish causality, Blanchard may be mistaking a symptom of gender dysphoria for its primary cause. A lack of control groups in Blanchard's work lead some to wonder how different bisexual, lesbian and asexual transsexual women are from bisexual, lesbian and asexual cisgender women. Some critics also regard the theory as unscientific, because Blanchard and other proponents of this theory claim that every transperson who does not admitt fitting into these categories are lying. This, in their view, makes the theory unfalisfiable and therefore unscientifc.

Also highly controversial is the claim that "autogynophliac" transwomen are usually "older and uglier" than "homosexual" transwomen, a claim that has, among with many equally problematic ones, been greatly emphasized in Michael Bailey's "The Man Who Would Be Queen" (2003).

Transmen, that is female-to-male transgender persons, are only briefly mentioned by Blanchard. According to him, all transmen are of the "homosexual" type, that is attracted to women, since, according to him, women never have paraphilias. However, most transmen groups report that at least one third of transmen are exclusively attracted to men, and that many consider themselfes bisexual or similar. That obviously contradicts this theory.

Less controversial than Blanchard's theory is the recognition that some people sometimes have sexual fantasies about being the other sex. These people may or may not also be transgendered. When viewed as a psychopathology, these fantasies may be thought of as a type of paraphilia. The pathologization of socially unacceptable erotic interests has a long history, and recent clinical diagnoses such as "ego-dystonic homosexuality" and "nymphomania" have fallen into disrepute. Many expect "autogynephilia" will be similarly discredited as a diagnosis in time.

See Also

• Other Terms...

References

• Blanchard, R. (1989). The Concept of Autogynephilia and the Typology of Male Gender Dysphoria. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 177(10), 616-623, from Psychology of Gender Identity & Transgenderism.
• Blanchard, R. (1989). The Classification and Labeling of Non-homosexual Gender Dysphorias, Archives of Sexual Behavior, 18(4), 315-334.
• Blanchard, R. (2004). The Origins of the Concept of Autogynephilia
• Wyndzen, M. H. (2003). Autogynephilia & Ray Blanchard’s Mis-Directed Sex-Drive Model of Transsexuality, from Psychology of Gender Identity & Transgenderism

External links

• Bland, J. (2003). The 'Science' Behind Autogynephilia

• James, A.J. (2004). "Autogynephilia": A disputed diagnosis
• Lawrence, A.A. (2000). A New Introduction to Autogynephilia.
• Wilson, K.K. (2000). Autogynephilia: New Medical Thinking or Old Stereotype?
• Wyndzen, M.H. (2004). Everything You Never Wanted to Know About Autogynephilia (but Were Afraid You had to Ask)
• TSRoadmap: Categorically Wrong? A Bailey-Blanchard-Lawrence Clearinghouse

This article contains content from Wikipedia. Current versions of the GNU FDL article Autogynephilia on WP may contain information useful to the improvement of this article

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This article is based on a GNU FDL Susan's Place Transgender Wiki article: Autogynephilia

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