May 6, 2019

Autoandrophilia Defined

"Autoandrophilia" has been defined as "the paraphilic tendency of a biological female to be sexually aroused by the thought of becoming a male."

A lot of women have fantasies about being a man, but
 "autoandrophilia" is not a scientific term, and it does not
capture what this gender-crossing crossdreaming about.

This  is in the mirror term of Ray Blanchard's concept of "autogynephilia", where male to female crossdreamers and transgender women who are attracted to women are believed to be suffering from some kind of "erotic target location error". They are,  according to this theory, attracted to their "inner woman" as opposed to real women "out there".

So "auto-andro-philia" would translate into "self-man-love".

Autoandrophilia is not a thing

If you are a woman having fantasies of being a man, and who has found this article by searching for "autoandrophilia", there are a few things you should know:

1. Your feelings are real. You are not alone. There are many people assigned female who have such fantasies. Some of them identify as trans. Others identify as qenderqueer or nonbinary. Many identify as cis (non-transgender). Regardless: You are a natural part of the wonderful spectrum of sexuality and gender. This is not a sexual perversion.

2. "Autoandrophilia" is not a thing. It is a made up and misleading pseudo-scientific term, referring to an explanation for crossdreaming for which there is no proof, and which has not been accepted by the broad medical community.

3.  Ray Blanchard, the  man who proposed top include "autoandrophilia"  in the American psychiatric manual, the DSM-5, has stated that this  was in order to placate feminists. He does not actually believe that people like you exist.

This diagnosis was not included in the DSM-5 and nothing like it is listed in the new edition of the WHO ICD health manual.

There are people assigned female at birth who dream about being a man, though. They are all some shade of trans or nonbinary, and their dreams are most likely an expression of some kind of transgender identity.

More about FTM crossdreaming and the concept of "autoandrophilia"

This site has several articles that discuss the lives and sexual fantasies of women who (sometimes) dream about being men. Here are a few to get you going:
Photo: Carlos David

EDIT May 6 2019: Adjusted bullet point #2 to clarify that even if female to male crossdreaming is a thing, the "autoandrophilia" presentation and explanation of it is unscientific and misleading.

5 comments:

  1. Bly Rede asks over at twitter:

    "I'm slightly struggling to understand the import of this article.

    You seem to say that yes, some women (or afab ppl) have the "being a man" sexual fantasy but also that "autoandrophilia" isn't a thing.

    Why's that?"

    My answer:

    "Two things:

    1. The autoandrophilia concept is linked to sexual orientation (loving men). In real life FTM crossdreaming is not restricted to one sexual orientation.

    2. "Autoandrophilia" refers to a specific explanation (erotic target location error) for which there is no proof."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Seems that proof has always been the sticking point for Mr. Blanchard :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. All I can say is I believe that I've had autogynephilia since the fifth grade in 1978.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Amanda!

    I guess that is around the time when we awaken to our roles as men and women. Even though crossdreaming is not necessarily sexual in nature, there is no doubt in my mind that our libido acts as a powerful fuel. I dreamed about being a girl before puberty, but puberty made the crossdreaming stronger.

    ReplyDelete
  5. But you could write the exact same article and swap trans and auto-whatever.

    ReplyDelete

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