Autogynephilia Quotes

“It seemed evident to me that this client was not genuinely androphilic: He was
clearly an autogynephilic man whose most intense source of erotic arousal involved
the most common type of behavioral autogynephilia, autogynephilic interpersonal
fantasy involving a male partner. But what was evident to me was not at all evident
to this client, even though he was probably more intelligent than 99.9% of the population and had read more about autogynephilia than most psychologists and psychiatrists who specialize in the treatment of gender dysphoria. The most intense and
rewarding sexual experiences of this man’s life had involved sex with male partners.
How could he not wonder whether his real sexual attraction was toward men? His
uncertainty about an issue that seemed so straightforward to me was a reminder of
how profoundly confusing this type of behavioral autogynephilia can be, even to
highly intelligent, well-informed people. Eventually, this client recognized that he
was not genuinely androphilic, but this realization occurred only gradually.”
― Anne A. Lawrence, Men Trapped in Men's Bodies

“Interestingly, forced feminization fantasies are also symbolic representations of
our actual life experiences. Because we fi nd the prospect of becoming women so
shameful and humiliating, we really do have to be forced into it. We are forced by
our unremitting gender dysphoria, by our powerful erotic desires, by our love and
admiration for women’s bodies and our wishes to turn our bodies into facsimiles of
them, and by our need to honor our strongly held cross-gender identities in order to
give meaning and vitality to our lives. If we are prudent, we autogynephilic transsexuals undergo sex reassignment only if we feel we have no other viable alternative: We transition because we feel forced to do so. Forced feminization is, in a very
real sense, the story of our lives.”
― Anne A. Lawrence, Men Trapped in Men's Bodies

“In 2010, I published a study of the relative prevalence of nonhomosexual and
homosexual MtF transsexualism across national cultures (Lawrence, 2010c )
that had implications for understanding the phenomenon of autogynephilic transsexualism. In this article, I attempted to explain the observation that nearly all MtF
transsexuals in Asian cultures are homosexual, whereas most MtF transsexuals in
the USA, Canada, and the UK are nonhomosexual. I demonstrated that differences
in a measure of societal individualism —the degree to which a culture condones its
members pursuing personal happiness and self-expression, regardless of the opinions of others—accounted for most of the differences in the relative prevalence of
nonhomosexual MtF transsexualism. If one assumes that nonhomosexual MtF
transsexualism is equivalent to autogynephilic transsexualism—a justi fi able
assumption, in my opinion—these results suggest the hypothesis that the permissible expression of autogynephilia , rather than the prevalence or severity of autogynephilia, primarily accounts for these cross-cultural differences. Undergoing MtF
sex reassignment probably feels far more permissible to autogynephilic men living
in individualistic Western cultures than to their counterparts in cultures in which
individual self-expression is discouraged.”
― Anne A. Lawrence, Men Trapped in Men's Bodies

“Autogynephilia has long been conceptualized as a sexual orientation...but its advocates, myself among them, have not
sufficiently emphasized this point. We should arguably use every opportunity to do
so. Autogynephilia, we should explain, is another variety of sexual orientation: It is
an unusual variant form of heterosexuality. Like other sexual orientations, it is
something we autogynephilic transsexuals did not choose and something we cannot
change. It certainly determines what we lust after, but it also determines what we
love and want to unite with. And we autogynephilic transsexuals understandably
feel strong pressure to express and act on our autogynephilic sexual orientations.”
― Anne A. Lawrence, Men Trapped in Men's Bodies

“We autogynephilic transsexuals strive to become womanly in our bodies, but
we can also strive to become womanly in our personalities. The feminine personas
we create in the process of sex reassignment function as integral elements of the
extended works of performance art that are our lives. We create our feminine personas by trying to express and embody the feminine virtues, whatever we think these
are. For me, they include gentleness, nurturance, empathy, agreeableness, cooperation, friendliness, and grace. These qualities do not describe how I am naturally, but
they describe the way I want to be and try to be; as such, they de fi ne a spiritual path
that I attempt to follow. To try to express and embody these feminine virtues in our
everyday lives makes us better people—especially if we have spent most of our
lives expressing the kind of nerdy masculinity that values things over people,
emphasizes competition over cooperation, and sometimes alienates us from our
emotions and from other people. The transsexual journey is, in this case, less about
finding our “true selves” than our best selves. Autogynephilia is a paraphilic sexual
orientation, but it is possible to build a satisfying, passionate, spiritually fulfilling
life around it—a life very much worth living.”
― Anne A. Lawrence, Men Trapped in Men's Bodies

“The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.”
― Anonymous, The Bible: Authorized King James Version with Apocrypha