Autogynephilia 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]

That’s quite the mouthful. And in most trans forums, any mention of the topic and you’re likely to get a mouthful of perspectives on the term. Most trans people despise the term, with very good reason. The term focuses on a person’s sexuality, essentially taking our valid gender identities and presenting it solely as a fetish. Now, to be fair, a fetish isn’t a bad thing. The problem here is that the term, when applied to transgender people, invalidates their personal experiences with their lived identities.

Though most don’t, some trans women do feel as if autogynephilia is part of their experience, especially those who are early in their transition. Due to the presence of testosterone in our bodies, it becomes very easy to take the comfort we feel from wearing the clothes of our identified gender, and sexualize it. Our entire society puts such a heavy emphasis on sex, plus often the first image a person has when they hear “transgender” is that of a crossdresser getting off from wearing panties. With this in mind, it’s no wonder those who are still exploring their gender identity learn to sexualize it! However, as the majority of these people start to understand their gender identity better, they realize that their gender identity encompasses so much more than this “fetish.”

Now, let’s look a little bit at the history of the term. As noted in the Wikipedia excerpt above, it was coined in 1989 by the sexologist Ray Blanchard. He did his work from what was then known as the Clarke Institute. It’s now the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health (CAMH). Early on, autogynephilia had two major supporters; J. Michael Bailey and Anne Lawrence. Due to their involvement, autogynephilia is often referred to derogatorily by the trans community as the “BBL theory.”

J. Michael Bailey wrote a book called The Man Who Would Be Queen in 2003. The book presented research that backed Blanchard’s theory, but was discredited in part from members of the trans community who pointed out Bailey’s poor research practices. Essentially, Bailey injected his own biases into his research, and invalidated the lived experiences of his patients by behaving as a classic gatekeeper; he required his patients to present and behave a very specific way matching his own idea of what a transsexual person is, before he would prescribe treatment to his patients.

Anne Lawrence is a trans woman who is a vocal proponent of the autogynephilia theory. She’s also a medical doctor, and has used autogynephilia to proclaim herself to be a “real transsexual,” driven by her mental illness (autogynephilia) to transition. This statement invalidates the identity of the vast array of trans people deemed by her to be “not real” because they don’t fall under this theory or Blanchard’s other theory, the “homosexual transsexual,” which he sees as simply men that are so gay, they need to be a woman to fit into society.

The CAMH is a notorious institute within the trans community; it adheres to archaic ideas of what a trans person must be in order to transition. It is led by Dr. Kenneth Zucker, another autogynephilia supporter. It’s important to note that he also supports reparative therapy for transgender children, a practice that has recently been deemed harmful by the American Psychological Association. Indeed, his critics suggest that by his use of the therapy, he is committing child abuse. Zucker is unfortunately the chair of the group reviewing the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders section of the DSM-V, a publication which is used as the primary guide for psychiatrists to diagnose mental disorders. Bailey is also a member of this group. Zucker is expected to use his position to get autogynephilia added to the DSM-V as a mental disorder.

Question: How does your experience with your gender identity relate to the autogynephilia theory?