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| Gigi Gorgeous first came out as a gay man, then as a trans woman, and now as a lesbian, falsifying the autogynephilia theory in the process. |
Meet Ekundayo Afolayan, Gigi Gorgeous and Kat Hamilton!
Sexology has caused a lot of suffering in queer and transgender circles.
Since the late 1980s terms like "transvestic fetishism" have been used actively to invalidate the identities of male to female transgender people, mostly by reducing their sense of self to some kind of sexual perversion.
The clearest example is the the autogynephilia theory of Ray Blanchard, which is based on traditional gender stereotypes and a strict binary understanding of sex, sexuality and gender.
He is basically reducing sexuality, gender expression as well as gender identity in male to female trans people to a function of sexual attraction. In other words: Who you are attracted to determines what kind of transgender person you are. And male to female transgender persons are either effeminate gay men or mentally ill straight men, according to this theory.
In real life there is no one to one relationship between sexual orientation on the one hand and masculinity and femininity on the other.
In real life there is no clear boundary between male to female transgender people who love women and those who love men, neither when it comes to appearance, behavior, desires nor when they first become aware of their gender variance.
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| Modern sexology often reduces the identity and sexuality of trans and queer people to "autoeroticism", a strategy used to invalidate gay, lesbian and transgender people for more than a century. (Thinkstock) |
But that is exactly what the theory requires.
"Homosexual transsexuals" (this is what these researchers offensively call straight trans women who love men) are described as effeminate and sexy young transitioners, while "autogynephilic transsexuals" (i.e homosexual and bisexual trans women) are masculine, unattractive, and "late-onset".
Actually, this binary encompasses non-transitioning transgender persons as well, including drag queens and crossdressers.
I am not going to repeat the main arguments against the theory here. You will find ample documentation here and here.
In this post I will present three recent publications made by people who all violate the borders set up by Ray Blanchard.
