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NSFW
AutogynephiliaFetishistic transvestism / Transvestic festihism
Since listening to Gender: A Wider Lens Episode 193, I have been thinking about guest Dr Az Hakeem’s advice to gender critical feminists that we sharpen up our critique by not saying autogynephilia or AGP as shorthand for “transvestic fetishism” and “fetishistic transvestism.”
Just because the phenomenon has been formally depathologized recently doesn’t mean transvestic fetishism does not exist in society and culture.
I think it teases it out from sexual paraphilia, sissification, feminization, and the bodily focus of AGP and opens context for policy discussion of women’s sex-based rights vs transvestic fetishistic claims of “gender identity.”
Transvestism is a useful concept for speaking about the everyday practice of the gendered spectrum of all kinds of fashion, masking, dressing, and appearing. A New Transvestism!?
I’m just spitballing.
I am curious to hear what the circle thinks.
The problem is that there needs to be some recognition of autogynephilia as a concept beyond just “fetishism” or a kind of learned sexual behavior (that theoretically could be unlearned) — these men have a paraphilia and that has meaning. Even if trans ideology completely goes away, autogynephilic men will still exist and their harm doesn’t just exist in the vacuum of crossdressing. Paraphiliac men are deeply ill and for the entirety of their lives they will always need to “fight the urge” / work on de-escalating or coping with their degeneracy. Think of it as like pedophiles — they should be met with wariness and thought of as dangerous for life regardless if they offend or not.
But, I do think there’s usefulness in just conveying to laymen that there’s perverse men who crossdress for sexual pleasure and it’s as simple as that. They are creeps. They are deviants and it’s okay to be skeeved out by weird sexual behavior.
I totally agree. I just finished listening to this interview and thought it was great.
It's still in the DSM-5, but TRAs keep insisting that it isn't a disorder or pathology anymore. And it is true that the emphasis in the field of mental health is now to flip in the DSM-5 to "gender dysphoria" rather than "transvestic fetishism." But it's still in there with terribly accurate symptoms and a description of AGP. It even says that it often will escalate to gender dysphoria.
I’ve been reading in the Az Hakeem-edited volume Trans (2018) and finding it illuminating and useful, so I thought I’d share.
He presents a table of varieties of transvestic fetishism!
https://triggerpublishing.com/trans
I’ve yet to look at his recent monograph, Detrans
I thought that podcast was great. I probably need to listen to it a second time. I think distinguishing the different kinds of fetishes was interesting and important in discussing these issues. Especially bathroom and locker room access, etc