Thread by @hatpinwoman

I’m intending to reread Men Trapped in Men’s Bodies but in the meantime I thought I’d do a thread with some extracts from the narratives of men with autogynephilia from the book

Understanding this paraphilia is imperative for all of us talking about the erosion of women’s rights

I think reading this book means a lot of confusing things fall into place for women

Such as the constant evocations of being a “girl” that we see from transwomen. As well as the surprising desire to have a cervical smear or “gynaecological care” that we have sometimes seen.

Despite the quote attributions, these are the words of anon agp transsexuals, not Lawrence.

This informant explained to me why, perhaps, some transwomen go out in extremely revealing and astonishing outfits. Such as the fishnet, breast revealing, top from yesterday

A not uncommon theme is taking on a role that women have been confined to such as traditional housewife.

This makes sense of why a conflict between women and transwomen was inevitably bound to arise.

Our subjugation is sexually fulfilling to them in many cases.

Even male violence against women becomes constantly sexualised by some.

Understanding that women and Transwomen are different groups of people and that Transwomen have a male sex drive and a male conception of women quickly explains the vast differences between us.

I think it is hard for women to understand that even our very mundane experiences can be sexually arousing with autogynephilia.

Or how much sexism necessarily informs this. Sitting in a “feminine way” for example sounds like something out of the 1950s.

It seems evident that there is a very simple and obvious reason some transwomen are claiming to have periods.

The writer here later adds “I also fantasized myself being a woman&being gang raped”

Part of this paraphilia sees a tendency to conflate male sexual fantasies with what a woman is.Rewriting us as “person who is gang raped” is not a sane,decent,political category to force us into

Slight segue: here is a clinician called Levine highlighting that autogynephilia and cross-dressing i.e transvestic fetishism are just different forms of the same phenomenon.

Many of the transsexuals who contributed narratives to this book also speak about arousal to women’s clothes. Several used to borrow their mothers clothes earlier in life for sexual purposes.

A standard sexualised clothing narrative comes from this writer:

There’s a feminist text somewhere that talks about how women’s clothes have been designed to restrict our movement,or freedom.

Here,restriction&constant awareness of feminine clothes is a fantasy.This may explain why some transwomen fetishise traditional islamic dress as well:

Other writers find the thought of having a female body far more arousing than feminine attire.

The starkly sexist way some of them describe this is confronting

In some cases informants discuss fantasies of female bodily processes such as pregnancy,lactation&menstruation

When TW join menopause forums,wish to breastfeed their children, seek the dream of uterus transplants or claim periods it is necessary to know this is sexual in nature.

4 more relevant quotes from 4 different writers here.

It’s hard, as a woman, to comprehend these kinds of sexual fantasies or the apparently overwhelming nature of them but here even the thought of having a feminine name or tossing one’s hair is sexually arousing.

Even trivial experiences when understood by the informant as “female” can be arousing

When we are discussing women’s spaces, the invasive nature of male people finding sexual satisfaction in being admitted to those spaces seems extremely relevant to me but is so inflammatory for people to hear about that it often gets sidelined entirely.

Some examples:

Here, even visiting a beauty salon takes on an erotic dimension in autogynephilia

While others are aroused by the thought of lesbian relationships (which I believe precisely explains the pressure on lesbians to accept “girldick” that we are currently seeing) even changing sex markers on documentation is an arousing thought to some.

At one point in the book Lawrence remembers how a patient found being treated with sexism arousing.

A theme we have commonly seen with quotes from transwomen about how validating they have found being catcalled or mistreated by men.

There is a lot in the book about the seemingly narcissistic nature of attraction to others in agp. Sexual partners are essentially a kind of prop. Which sounds harrowing for those partners.

Money is also quoted recounting what a patient of his said:

Those with this paraphilia are so clear,here,about their experiences.There are so many narratives in this book and I find them important because reading them feels like a near total explanation of why we’ve reached this cultural moment

It also explains why women are being harmed

Lawrence says, in line with findings by other sexologists, that the vast majority of transwomen in western cultures are autogynephiles

As with all paraphilias, others can co-occur with AGP.

Lawrence explains:

Men’s sexual desires are rewriting women,

Men’s sexual desires are rewriting women’s rights,

Men’s sexual desires are dominating the conversation.

You can read the whole book here: critorix.co.uk/wordpress/wp-c…