Originally posted 2021-01-07 14:43:41.
Autogynephilia (AGP) is ‘A man’s propensity to be aroused at the thought or image of himself as a woman’ (Blanchard) and it is the main cause of non-homosexual gender dysphoria in males. But what actually causes it? The key to this lies in first understanding that there is nothing at all unusual about a male with Autogynephilia, other than the Autogynephilia itself.
Autogynephilia appears to hijack the normal male Erotic Target identification system and reverse it so that it reflects onto the self. This means that a man with it will wish to play the role of his own lover in some way. The easiest to understand is sometimes called ‘fetishistic transvestism’ where the man puts on women’s clothes in order to masturbate. There are, however, other forms that it can take.
Autogynephilia has five recognised forms, transvestic, anatomical, physiological, behavioural and interpersonal, and these may occur individually or in combination. All of these facilitate some sense of ‘experiencing being a woman.’ They are all sexualised although as Professor Ray Blanchard, who described the condition, said, ‘Autogynephilia is a propensity.’ So males with it may not constantly engage in sexualised behaviour (though some do) but they always have the propensity to do so.
In addition, those with it have three sexual orientations: they may be gynephilic (heterosexual, attracted to women), annalloerotic (having no sexual relations at all with others) or pseudo-bisexual, (pursuing sex with men but only when in role as a woman). In the last case, where the individual lives full-time as a woman, he may only have relations with men, but these are still considered pseudo-bisexual in Blanchard.
In Blanchard’s testing, the proportions were about 60:20:20, but this may have changed and also appears to be culturally dependent. All forms, however, are principally gynephilic. As Blanchard said, ‘You have to be gynephilic to be Autogynephilic.’
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