Crossdreamer Summer Break

I had great plans about publishing the first post in a new series on the archetypes and dreams of feminization, but I must admit that there is not enough time this side of the summer.

I pride myself in writing blog posts based on research and thorough analysis and that takes time. So instead of beating myself up with not being able to go on as planned, I am going to take a small summer vacation. I'll be back with new posts in the second part of July at the very latest.

In the meantime, I'll try and keep up with the comments.

I have to be frank with you: Writing this blog takes it toll. It may seem academic and intellectual to some of you, but I am constantly challenging my own being and my own self understanding, and that stirs up all kinds of feelings: longing and depression, excitement and despair. This never gets boring, that's for sure!

This is why I am so glad to have active readers commenting and contributing to the discussion. That helps me a lot!

Here are my plans for the fall. If there are any other topics you would like for me to look into, add a comment!

Archetypes and feminization fantasies

Far too often the feminization fantasies of crossdreamers are dismissed as mere fetishes or perversions. Few try to explain why crossdreamers (or "autogynephiliacs" as Blanchards calls men who dream about having a woman's body) have exactly these kinds of fantasies.

I feel great admiration for Carl Gustav Jung and his explorations of the human subconscious, and I believe he has a model and a typology that might help us understand why crossdreamers crossdream the way they do.

I believe the content of these fantasies is the way the subconscious is trying to make sense out of deeper instincts and drives. It is time for an exploration of transgender dreams and archetypes, as they are found in TG fiction, myths and fairytales.

What genetic XX women dream about

The easy dismissal of crossdreamer fantasies as male perversions, is often based on the idea that XX women do not have similar fantasies. Here is the idea -- even half a century after Kinsey and 100 years after Freud -- that women are pure and untainted of kinky erotic fantasies. Some transwomen have adapted this point of view and use it to attack crossdreamers and crossdressers: "Real women do not have such dreams!"

So what did I do? I bought several books with women's erotica: sexual fantasies written by XX women for other women.

I had a pretty good idea that there would be some overlap between these fantasies and the ones found in TG short stories and caps. The fact is that I found that all the major themes found in women's erotica can be found in the fantasies of crossdreamers. All of them!

It is true that most women do not get turned on by transformation fantasies, but then again, they already have the bodies M2F crossdreamers long for.

The quest for the holy grail of femininity

One of the most disturbing part of the online transdebates, is the idea that only transwomen who look and act like feminine women are really worthy of the term "woman".

Some transwomen attack other transwomen by publishing pictures of them online, "proving" once and for all that this person neither looks nor dresses like a woman, and should therefore not be accepted as such.

The fact that many crossdreamers strongly feel and believe that at least parts of them are woman-like, is dismissed with similar arguments. They neither look nor act like women. Whatever they feel inside is irrelevant. They are, at best, men in drag.

I want to look into this idea of passing as a sign of true womanhood, and see if it make as much sense as its proponents believe.

A possible new explanation for autogynephilia

I plan to go back to Blanchard and Bailey and look at their explanation for autogynephilia or crossdreaming.

Blanchard has two unproven theories: the target location error theory (where men internalize the proper love object: women), and the alternative sexuality theory (autogynephilia as a parallel to heterosexuality and homosexuality).

As an experiment I am going to take crossdreamers and transwomen at their word. I am going to see if some kind of true inner "womanness" can explain Blanchard and Bailey's findings. In short: I will see if there is a simpler and more elegant model that can explain the same observations.

How other cultures integrate transpeople

I know I promised you this last fall, but I am going to write about how other cultures treat transpeople. I believe we take far too much for granted as regards our understanding of what is masculine and feminine, and what is the proper behavior of the two genders.

If we can find cultures who have treated transpeople differently, we have also proven that the present rules for proper behavior are not self evident.

I am going to make several approaches:

The first one is to look at pre-patriarchal society. That is a fancy word for the cultural environment found in the Middle East and Europe some five to six thousands years ago, before warriors from Central Asia invaded the area and introduced religions with male war gods at the top. Before that time, religious and culture life was dominated by the mother goddess.

She might not have been as peace loving as some feminists believe, but it is certainly true that cultures like the Minoan one had the deepest respect for women and their role in society. The focus on growth instead of war made a huge difference in the way they understood and appreciated the feminine.

Even after the goddess was dethroned as the leading deity she lived on as a strong player in Sumeria, Egypt, Greece and Rome. I will take a look at the cult of Inanna in Sumeria and the cult of Cybele in Rome. The priestesses of both cults were transwomen. I am also looking into the cult of Dionysus, which also have transgender component.

Given that the cult of the goddess grew out of shamanistic cultures, it will also make sense to see how recent hunter and gatherer cultures look at gender. Shamans ("witchdoctors") in many of these cultures crossed the gender divide, and several of the Native American tribes respected the "two spirited".

I may also look into European renaissance philosophy and see how they integrated the masculine and the feminine in their way of thinking.

Dreaming of shemales

Shemale is a derogatory term given by the porn industry to transgenderists and pre op transwomen, i.e. transwomen who for some reason or the other have kept their penis.

I am not going to go into the debate on whether it is OK for transwomen to keep some of their male parts. (As far as I am concerned they should be allowed to do whatever they please). I do not think shemales exist in real life, even if some of these transwomen are willing to play the part, in adult entertainment or as call girls.

No, what I plan to do is to look at shemales as an object of transgender erotic fantasies. Even if there are no shemales in real life, they do exist in transgender dreams and art. If we can explain why some biological men dream about such women, we might get closer to explanation of what crossdreaming is all about.

Harry Benjamin

I have reread Harry Benjamin's book from 1966: The Transsexual Phenomenon, a book that is still very influential and well worth a study. He continues to serve as an alternative to Blanchard and Bailey and their explanation for autogynephilia.

I must admit, though, that one of the reasons I went back to Benjamin, was a meeting with the "Harry Benjamin Syndrome", a theory invented by some extremist transwomen who desperately try to put some distance between themselves and people who are more likely to read this blog. They claim that Benjamin argued there was a fundamental difference between transwomen and "fetishistic" crossdressers, and that the two groups have nothing in common.

Benjamin definitely meant there was a difference, but not a fundamental one. Instead he argued very much in the way I have been doing: That there is some kind of continuum and that the two phenomena are related.

As you can understand I stick to my program of controversial openness. We have to talk about these things if we are to understand them and learn to accept and love ourselves and others.

For those on the Northern Hemisphere: Have a great summer! And to all you southerners in Latin America, Africa, South Asia and Oceania: have a great whatever you do!

Transsexual ad

A few years ago there was a TV ad in my country that caused some fuzz: Two men kissing in a restaurant. The discussion was not about whether TV should be allowed to show men kissing, that was taken as given. No, the point was that the ad represented a new trend in advertising.

Since our culture now seems to accept homosexuality, using gay men in an ad targeting a wide audience was a sign of an important cultural shift -- of acceptance.

The following ad, made in Spain for a well known Swedish brand, may in the same way be a sign of changing attitudes towards transsexuals.

Now you could say that the ad is trivializing an extremely important personal decision by comparing it to redecorating a flat. Fair enough, but the point here is that IKEA is saying that SRS as something positive. They want their brand to be associated with a transsexual woman.

Autoandrophilia makes it into the DSM-5

Well, what do you know!

After considering all the various comments to the DSM-V proposals, the experts have decided to keep the Transvestic Fetishm category. Autogynephilia (being aroused by the idea of being a woman) remains in the next version of the American psychiatric manual -- at least for the time being.

However, the committee has clearly found that having a diagnosis limited to men only, is politically incorrect. So, lo and behold, the experts are now willing to concede that there are also female to male crossdressers. Autoandrophilia (the love of oneself as a man) has been added to the list of transvestic disorders.

In a sick way, I guess you could call this progress. My dear autoandrophile brothers, you are now also to be considered perverts!

In remission

The experts have also added two more modifiers, where the doctor is to specify whether the condition is in remission or in a controlled environment.

ACH over at the Asexual Explorations Blog argues that "paraphilia in remission" could mean that someone need not actually meet criteria A and B to receive one of these diagnoses:

"I suspect that this specifier will encourage people to ignore the actual diagnostic criteria."

Maybe, but it could also mean that you would include people who have displayed signs of crossdreaming before. You could say that this would mean that you would remain a "pervert" even if you no longer display signs of your "perversion", so you would remain a "pervert" in the eyes of the doctors forever.

However, this does not make much of a difference, as there is no cure for crossdreaming. Sure, crossdressers can stop crossdressing, but he or she cannot stop crossdreaming. Hence, a lack of signs and symptoms mean zip, nada, nothing, unless -- of course -- your goal is to suppress behavior and not to help the client live a better life.

I believe the text "in a controlled environment" points to situation where the individual is an environment where he or she cannot express his or her crossdreaming.

It does not say so in the text, but I found the following reference to the phrase from the DSM-IV.

"In a Controlled Environment: This specifier is used if the individual is in an environment where access to alcohol and controlled substances is restricted, and no criteria for Dependence or Abuse have been met for at least the past month. Examples of these environments are closely supervised and substance‐free jails, therapeutic communities, or locked hospital units."

How a crossdresser or crossdreamer ("autogynephiliac/autoandrophiliac" in this terminology) is to live in a controlled environment is beyond me, unless -- of course -- some of these doctors continue to believe that you can cure crossdressing and crossdreaming with aversion therapy and forced isolation.

Crossdreaming cannot be cured. It is part of the hardware, not the software. Blanchard knows this, so it seems to me that he has been run over in the committee by someone who is more conservative than he is.

Crossdressing as top category

The fact that "transvestic disorder" remains the top category, while fetishism, autogynephilia and autoandrophilia are subcategories also shows us that Blanchard has lost his struggle to make autogynephilia (or whatever the new sex neutral term will be) the top category.

There is even a new tab with a questionnaire helping the doctor to determine the severity of the condition. They are all about crossdressing.

As I have said before, the current text means that people like me -- crossdreamers who do not crossdress -- are not covered by the text. That is plain out silly, and makes no sense scientifically.

I am unhappy about much of what Blanchard has written, but what is really valuable in his research is the fact that he has been able to show that crossdressing is just one of many expressions of an underlying condition. This underlying condition -- which I call crossdreaming -- does not alway lead to crossdressing.

What is clear from all of this is that we have a committee where several members do not understand the complexity of the issue at hand. If they had followed Blanchard's lead the text would at least have been coherent. Now it reflects an insane mix of various view points and approaches.

Even if you do believe that crossdressing and crossdreaming are categories that should be included in such a manual (which I don't) you should at least expect that the experts who write the criteria to be able to deconstruct their own text and make it logical.

What a mess!

Here is the text as it stands now.

A. Over a period of at least six months, recurrent and intense sexual fantasies, sexual urges, or sexual behaviors involving cross‑dressing.

B. The fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Specify if:

With Fetishism (Sexually Aroused by Fabrics, Materials, or Garments)

With Autogynephilia (Sexually Aroused by Thought or Image of Self as Female)

With Autoandrophilia (Sexually Aroused by Thought or Image of Self as Male)

Specify if:

In Remission (During the Past Six Months, No Signs or Symptoms of the Disorder Were Present)

In a Controlled Environment

Click here for more posts about the DSM!

On transgender embarrassment

Shame and embarrassment

This is a blog that boldly goes where even angels fear to thread. I have decided to cover controversial and "embarrassing" topics, simply because I believe that knowledge sets us free.

I also believe that ethics is not about following rules, regulations and inherited customs. Being a good person is about being able to love others and help them get a good life where they can be whoever Nature or God meant them to be.

This is not about whether women should be allowed to wear miniskirts or burkas or whether it is OK for a grown man to play with model trains. This is also why I believe we have to go into the fantasy life of crossdreamers in order to understand what makes us feel the way we do.

Kinky sex is OK

It is interesting to note that even if we live in a society where psychologists and psychiatrists consider a rich sexual fantasy life healthy and enriching, and where most forms of consensual sex are considered acceptable, crossdreamer fantasies continues to be problematic.

One of the reason the more militant "classical transsexuals" try to distance themselves from crossdressers is partly this: They do not want to be associated with men that get turned on by dressing up as women. They believe the very existence of "the transgendered" stigmatizes them as freaks. In order to avoid that stigmatization they would like crossdressers and crossdreamers to climb back into their closets and suffer in silence.

Stigmatized

This is of course exactly what society has told both gays and transsexual for ages. My old aunt used to say to me that she had nothing against gay people -- after all, uncle "Freddy" was clearly gay, and he was such a nice man who shared her love of orchids -- but why did they have to talk about it! It was embarrassing to talk about men doing unspeakable acts in polite conversations. 60 years of cultural conditioning had made an otherwise tolerant lady homophobic.

The post I wrote about the Norwegian politician Carl I. Hagen attacking his former son-in-law, now a woman, for causing his grandchildren pain by coming out as a transwoman is another example.

I believe Hagen when he says that he accepts that transwomen cannot be blamed for who they are and deserve our respect. But he is not willing to help change a society that makes the children of a transwoman despise "a man" that dresses up as a woman -- even if he acknowledges that this "man" is in fact a woman!

Abstruse Goose

I found this one over at Abstruse Goose. Some of you may like it!

Click on image to see the original!


Thanks to Lilith!

Master thesis on transgender narratives, including autogynephilia

I have found a very interesting paper for you. It is a master thesis called They Need Labels: Contemporary Institutional and Popular Frameworks for Gender Variance, written by Ophelia Bradley.

Ms. Bradley manages to give a very intelligent and insightful analysis of both the socio-cultural aspects of transgender issues, as well as the different types of research done in this area. And she does so without becoming too politicized or partial.

The review of current biological research on sex, gender and transsexuals is very useful, and her handling of the current transgender controversy ("classic transsexuals" vs. "transgender") is interesting.

Here is the abstract:

"This study addresses the complex issues of etiology and conceptualization of gender variance in the modern West. By analyzing medical, psychological, and popular approaches to gender variance, I demonstrate the highly political nature of each of these paradigms and how gender variant individuals engage with these discourses in the elaboration of their own gender identities.

I focus on the role of institutional authority in shaping popular ideas about gender variance and the relationship of gender variant individuals who seek medical intervention towards the systems that regulate their care.

Also relevant are the tensions between those who view gender variance as an expression of an essential cross-sex gender (as in traditional transsexual narrative) and those who believe that gender is socially constructed and non-binary. I finally argue that the standards of treatment for gender variant individuals pertains more to the medical legitimization of their identities than with necessarily improving outcomes."

You can download it here.