Autogynephilic and HomoSexual MtF in Asia

Originally posted 2017-10-16 15:39:20.

Most male-to-feminine (MtF) transitioners  are EITHER homosexual (exclusively attracted to men from childhood) or non-homosexual (not exclusively attracted to men from childhood.) The latter are commonly known as Autogynephilic. This distinction is obvious and has been observed since the 19th century. It is recognised as fundamental by all serious scientists working in the field.

Transsexual Homosexuals (formerly HSTS) exhibit a cluster of trait characteristics in addition to their sexual desire for men. They tend to be small, delicately built, light for their height, naturally feminine and neotenous. They have intense difficulty learning to be masculine, if they ever do and will naturally perform femininity. All transsexuals, everywhere in the world, conform to this model; they are remarkably homogeneous.

Non-homosexuals exhibit no such clustering; in fact they conform to the averages for men of their ethnicity and are attracted to women. Essentially they are transvestites but their condition, Autogynephilia, is complex, with five recognised forms and three Sexualities; they are remarkably disparate.

The explanation for Transsexuals is easy and has never been disputed: they desire men and are naturally feminine, so to attract men, whom they know to be attracted to femininity, they make themselves more feminine. They find pleasure in anal stimulation from a young age, often long before puberty. If non-homosexuals do learn to enjoy anal stimulation, it is invariably later and many never do.  Many remain gynephilic, that is, attracted to femininity. So why on earth might it be that a man, who is not attracted to or seeking to attract men, would want to appear to be feminine?

 

The great discovery of Dr Ray Blanchard, which solved a mystery that had eluded scientists for a century, was in showing that the stimulus for non-homosexual male transition desire is attraction to the idea of being a woman. He coined the term ‘Autogynephilia’ to describe this: ‘a man’s propensity to be sexually aroused by the thought or image of himself as a woman.’

All expressions of non-homosexual male transition desire are driven by autogynephilia (AGP). However, since the use of the term ‘non-homosexual’ is often misunderstood by the public and routinely misrepresented by activists, I use the Blanchard term, Autogynephile.

Age of presentation

Many Autogynephilic activists make much of the fact that, in Blanchard’s sample, there was a marked difference in age of presentation between Transsexuals and Autogynephiles. His HSTS rarely transitioned after the age of 23, Autogynephiles rarely before 30. This has allowed Autogynephilic activists, whose powers of equivocation are highly refined, to suggest that the differences are only in age of transition; but we are already seeing the lie of this as Autogynephiles are appearing younger in the West and remain recognisable as such.

Still, there is a marked preponderance towards elderly transition in the West; so is this a general rule or is it particular to the West? Answering that question is something I have spent a lot of time and effort attempting to do in my travels in Southeast Asia. The fact that here, Transsexuals and Autogynephiles do not show the same differences in age of presentation, as we see in the West, made this at first difficult. This was compounded because Asians do not see the distinctions between groups in the same way that a Westerner might. However, when I was finally able to pick apart the social structure within which it was all happening, it became quite clear.

Before continuing I should explain why I use the terms I do. In the first place, it is impossible for a human to change sex. In the past, the term transsexual has been associated with those who have had Cosmetic Genital Reconstruction Surgery, or CGRS. This is nonsensical; if I have an old Ford and paint it up like a Ferrari, add a few panels and so on, does that Ford become a Ferrari? Of course not, only a fool would believe that. So why would the equivalent intervention turn a man into a woman? It’s risible.

In fact, all Transsexuals are Homosexual. Homosexuality, like all biological characteristics, is actually an aetiology, that is,  a scale of variation. It goes from ‘Bi-curious,’ through ‘bisexualism’ to Homosexuality, which appears in two forms, sex-typical and sex-atypical or gender-inverted. These last perform feminine gender as a part of their Homosexuality; in other words, the motivation is desire for sex with men and the cross-sex identification follows naturally from that. As Dr James Cantor said, ‘Either Homosexuals are not fully formed Transsexuals or Transsexuals are fully formed Homosexuals.’

So when I use the term Transsexual I am not referring to cosmetics but to underlying sexuality, in this case Homosexuality. Transsexuals are Homosexuals who perform femininity. This is important because there are some Autogynephilic Transvestites who claim to be ‘transsexual’ or even ‘true transsexuals’ while still being married to women. That is, I’m afraid, an oxymoron.

No distinction

In Asia,  the local population does not generally distinguish between Homosexuals, Transsexuals and Autogynephiles at all. They are all grouped together as ‘gays’. Being ‘gay’ (which there means Sex atypical, born male) is far more important than the subtle differences between the subgroups. Further, the people there always think ‘Autogynephile’ means ‘middle-aged male cross-dresser’ but that is  simplistic. In fact the range of Autogynephilic expressions in the West is changing, becoming more like that elsewhere.

However, under the surface,  Blanchard’s Typology is as accurately descriptive there as in the West. This now makes me postulate that Autogynephilia does indeed occur at roughly similar prevalence everywhere. The crucial difference from the West is the age of presentation and the culture and society within which individuals develop. These have marked effects on how Autogynephiles, and to a lesser extent Transsexuals, devdelop.

Like Transsexuals, most Southeast Asian Autogynephiles transition in youth, usually in their teens. This is the same in South America. This has confused some researchers, eg Lawrence, who does not work in Asia or S America, and places too high a value on age of transition; in fact, the late transition typical of the West appears to be a function of intense homophobia and social intolerance. Further, the different cultures are important. Autogynephiles in the West grow up in a viciously transphobic and homophobic culture and so historically have concealed their Autogynephilia, often for decades. They will be socialised as boys and men.

All Southeast Asian countries have established support systems for feminised boys. For example, in the Philippines this is called Kabaklaan. Within these, sex-atypical boys are socialised as gays, or in other words, as a kind of girls. This is important.

Autogynephilia (everywhere) sets on soon after puberty, although there are claims that subjects had diffuse or confused feelings prior to that. These appear to be analogous to the crushes other children have.

Philippines

In the Philippines, and across the region, the basic social unit is the village — this could be a hamlet or an urban or rural neighbourhood. This is a matriarchy; it is a collection of usually inter-related nuclear families, where the NCOs are first-born sisters, the officers are mothers and the generals are grandmothers. You would see the same in tribal or clan situations all over the world. Dr Peggy Reeves Sanday has described these as Modern Matriarchies or Partnership Societies.

The women are in charge, there is absolutely no doubt about that. You never see the men. They are either away working or hanging out together at the basketball court, or one of the strategically placed benches on the periphery of the village. The group that dominates this, the Home space, I call the Home group, for obvious reasons.

The other group I call the Away group. It comprises men and adolescent boys and it is strictly policed by the members — non-conforming behaviour is not allowed. This rule is so well known and so strictly enforced that any young male who is somewhat ‘different’ is most unlikely to even try to join. Again, Filipinos and other Southeast Asians do not draw any distinction between gay men, Transsexuals or Autogynephiles. They are all ‘gays’, baklas or ‘bekis’; no such person can join the Away group. There are literally dozens of descriptive terms in the Philippines alone, but the all mean the same thing: unmasculine boys and men.

Home and Away

The Home group is centred on women, led by grandmothers, with great-grandmothers as a sort of venerated elders. . It also contains all the young children but also those boys, who grow up to be baklas and the adult baklas.. These last are banned from ever being a part of the Away group, because they are considered to be a form of girl, of Not-man. So if you’re a batang beki, a gay boy, yes, you might just wear a dress and your hair as long as your schoolteacher allow… it doesn’t matter, because as far as the culture is concerned, you’re a girl anyway.

It makes no difference whether you present as a male or a female. You’re still a not-man, a kind of girl, either because you desire men or you like to dress up as a girl. You can never be a part of the Away group and you probably don’t want to be anyway. Whether you present as a girl or a boy largely depends on social situations; if you get a job where they require you not to ‘crossdress’, you’ll cut your hair, if you get fired, you’ll grow it back. In fact the only distinction that Filipino homosexuals draw between the two types is long-hair and short-hair, and long-hairs have higher status, because, obviously, they are more beautiful and feminine — remember, this is happening inside a matriarchy, where the high-status individuals are all women.

This is not ‘gender fluidity’ in the sense that it is meant in the West; these girls’ gender never changes. They’re always girls. They just dress differently to suit the situation.

Sex-Atypical behaviour

Back in the village, the batang bekis will probably have begun exhibiting sex-atypical behaviour in childhood. It’s quite clear that  homosexuality is innate, as it occurs in conjunction with other traits, but there is no doubt that these bekis are reinforced in their homosexual identity by the culture around them. Theyform a discrete group, easily recognisable even to an outsider.

The advantages of appearing to be masculine — even if one is not really — are often to do with career. If you’re bright and doing well at school, likely to go on to university and work in a ‘masculine’ career, then there is a pressure to remain masculine-appearing. An example might be if a boy wants to be a dentist or a doctor, he would do better not to transition; but if he wants to be a dental hygienist or a nurse, there’s far less reason to hold back.

Balance

Of course, there is a balance. Any Homosexual, Transsexual or not, desires men. Only a man’s phallus can satisfy her powerful need. As a pseudo-masculine homosexual, she could only have the attentions of other Homosexuals. Yet whereas Transsexuals nearly always find older straight men attractive, they find older Homosexuals repulsive. While a transsexual in Southeast Asia might well have to pay a straight man for sex — that is, for him to penetrate her — she finds this preferable to relationships with other Homosexuals, which she regards as lesbian in nature.

One, perhaps surprising, to Western eyes, benefit of the burgeoning Ladyboy Sex Tourism scene in Southeast Asia is that it makes straight men available who not only want to penetrate our excited Transsexual but might pay her handsomely to do it. It is almost too good to be true and is a rare example of how well an untrammelled free market can work. In addition, amongst this sea of passing faces, the men she attracts to her body, there might just be that one — ‘the one’, the ‘life partner’ who will make her simple, fervent dream come true: to play the woman at the centre of a decent man’s life. That so many of the men she encounters are hopelessly unable to provide this is a bitter pill sweetened only by the status and beauty that their money can buy her.

Unlike Transsexuals, Autogynephiles are not initially attracted to masculinity, but to femininity; they are gynephilic. But these are collectivist societies and, while women have lesbian relationships all the time, the idea of a person with a penis becoming a woman and still wanting to have sex with women is regarded as ridiculous. So an inversion of what we see in the West happens. Whereas, in the West, young Autogynephiles are conditioned by homophobia to suppress their pseudo-bisexual desire for sex ‘as a woman’, the very opposite happens in Asia. Young Autogynephiles are encouraged to seek out boyfriends, because real girls have boyfriends…and Autogynephiles want to be real girls.

This is reinforced by the neurology. There is no difference in this between men who enjoy being anally penetrated and those who do not. The nerves and internal organs are the same. It rather seems to be a matter of conditioning. So something like this happens: the Autogynephile finds herself a man. This is already affirming. She is encouraged to have sex with this man, because after all, that’s what girls do. So she does and if she finds it enjoyable — it might take a couple of tries but she will in the end — then that may become her preferred way to have sex. In effect she has an acquired form of Homosexuality.

The company of women

It’s consistently a part of Autogynephiles’ narratives in the West that they prefer the company of women.  Those in Asia will nearly always talk not of their early crushes on boys but of their preference for the company of girls and how they ‘want to be like girls’. (Homosexuals do not need confirmation; they know what they are. They just want to get on with it.)

Autogynephiles in Asia are not usually able to have sex with girls, for cultural reasons, but they may develop a somewhat unique, protective relationship with them (some do indeed have girlfriends and have sex with them, but most don’t.)

Well, if you prefer the company of girls in this culture, you will be assessed as ‘beki’. Like the Transsexuals, you don’t get into the Away group either, membership of which is competitive, because of your affinity with women and passion for dressing up. (This is probably why male rites of passage exits and are so widespread; they literally separate the girls from the boys.) So you’ll be hanging around the volleyball court with the other bekis and there you learn ‘how to be a girl’ — which includes, seeking and finding boyfriends. Autopgynephiles here are encouraged, indeed conditioned, to pursue men for sex in which they will be recipient; to act on their pursuit of men and to suppress any heteronormative desire for women they may retain.

Now this preference is noted by the members of the Away group, especially the young males who are grooming themselves for entry. They do not hang out at the volleyball court, they hang out at the basketball court; basketball is a masculine contact sport while volleyball is not. In cities, the courts might be in the same building or even be the same court, but the social division is just as rigid.

(Interestingly, in Brazil the difference is between football and volleyball.)

So a young Autogynephile finds herself attracted to the company of women and is accepted into that group as long as she behaves in a feminine manner; and she is rejected by the boys because of her own femininity. So she becomes more intensely feminine. At some stage, usually around fourteen in Thailand, a little later in the Philippines, she will likely begin to take hormones and dress, whenever she can, as a girl. Unlike her Western counterpart, she is under little compulsion to be masculine, since she is already known to her peers as beki, and she is most unlikely to ‘hyper-masculinise’, get married young or any of the things typical of the Western profile, since, if she is going to be a girl, she intends to be a beautiful one. And remember, the authority figure in her life is her mother, and usually, mothers are tolerant of beki children.

Autogynephile and Transsexual: A similar path

Transsexuals  follow a similar path, for totally different reasons. They physically want men (and how,) and they desperately want to be penetrated. That immediately bars them from the Away group. (Most Transsexuals actually prefer the company of men; they are then surrounded by their own sexual targets.) Since they know themselves to be girls (because they want to be penetrated by big hairy men) and they are in competition with real girls, they do exactly what all the girls do; make themselves as beautiful as they can — something which they are surpassingly good at.

So Transsexuals and Autogynephiles, along with the gay boys, are thrown together in the beki group, which is a subset of the matriarchal Home group. They learn about life from each other; hormones, how to make up, how to dress hair, sewing, etc — and also about boys and sex. Autogynephiles’ natural tendency towards bisexualism — because ‘sex as a woman’ affirms them as girls — is emphasised. (A good many remain analloerotic, however; they never actually have boyfriends, they just talk about having them.)

Glamorous creatures

If you take a boy, just any boy but especially one from an ethnicity where males are somewhat gracile, not very craggy-looking and tend to be small, isolate him from the company of other males, in a space where the authority figures are all women, teach him to dress and make up and stick him on hormones at age fourteen, you should not really be surprised if, by the time he is twenty-one, he is a pretty glamorous creature. Set beside a Transsexual the difference might be obvious, but still. The Autogynephiles might not have the natural delicacy of features or the fine bones, the naturally feminine comportment or neoteny of a Transsexual — but they are smart and they can learn tricks that minimise most disadvantages, except, of course, size. (They actually use height to advantage in the beauty pageants they’re forever competing in — the judges like tall girls and five-foot-zip Transsexuals tend to be somewhat overlooked.)

However, from Autogynephile, Transsexual and gay points of view, they are all bekis together and they do not draw distinctions. They have been friends together since childhood and have helped each other through the travails that exist for any sex-atypical person, even in a society like those in Southeast Asia, where homosexuality is much better tolerated.

The Western mistake

Individuals conforming to the Western profile of Autogynephilia do  appear in the Philippines but they are rare. The social setup described above is very good at filtering them out and in fact, in the Phils anyway, most late-trans Autogynephiles I know of are actually from ‘Phil-Am’ families; they did not grow up in  traditional environments. This tends to support the idea that late transition in the West is the cultural artefact, not the Autogynephilia itself. On the other hand there is a group of unknown size often called silahis. These are males who are partially Transvestite, that is they are covert and secretive, but do sometimes appear in society. These seem similar to the older form of Autogynephile in the West, but there is little information about them.

One mistake USAmerican researchers often make is in thinking that white US culture is normal; it certainly is not. Most of the world lives by other rules. It may be this assumption that caused them to make the mistake of thinking there were few Autogynephiles in the rest of the world. And to be fair, until about four years ago I was with them. But when you see it all happening before your own eyes, you have to change your opinions to fit the facts.