How radical feminists are using the autogynephilia theory to persecute trangender people

The new year started with a storm of radfem controversy. Radical feminists was again on the warpath using any weapon available to stigmatize trans women. And now they were using the autogynephilia theory to tell the world that transsexual women are not real women.

"Contrasted Faces" in Samuel R. Wells, New Physognomy, or Signs of
Character, Manifested through Temperament and External Forms (1871)
The drawings illustrates the superiority of the English race over the Irish.
Similar tactics are now used to stigmatize gynephilic trans women.

"Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words can never hurt you."

There are those who believe in this maxim.

There are also those who believe that any presumably "scientific" theory is objective and neutral and therefore removed from the messy and emotional thing called life.

In this context the "autogynephilia" theory of Ray Blanchard -- which argues that androphilic (men-loving) trans women are effeminate men , and gynephilic(woman-loving)  trans women are "paraphilic" heterosexual men -- cannot hurt you either.

WHAT IS PARAPHILIA?  As many of the readers of this blog will know, Ray Blanchard believes all male bodies persons who get aroused by the idea of being the opposite sex are "autogynephiles", whether they are transsexual or not.  This means that all male to female (MTF) crossdreamers are classified as "paraphilic". If the crossdreamer is bothered by this paraphilia, he/she is considered to be suffering from a psychiatric or mental disorder.  Note that Blanchard defines paraphilia as "any intense and persistent sexual interest other than sexual interest in genital stimulation or preparatory fondling with phenotypically, consenting adult human partners."  Basically this means that anyone who do not follow his personal understanding of correct homosexual or heterosexual love making is paraphilic.

Scientific bullying

Those who know the realities of school yard bullying know better, however. As do those who have read their history books know that "neutral", "disinterested" and "objective" studies have been used to systematically to confirm stereotypes and suppress marginalized groups, being those women, black people, Romani, Jews or homosexuals.

Members of these groups have been hospitalized, sterilized, lobotomized and gassed in the name of science.

The autogynephilia out of jail card 

I see that some of my fellow crossdreamers believe that this does not apply to them, or -- at least -- that it is possible, somehow, to stand outside this flow of history and establish some kind of safe haven where they can be what they are, without caring about what others think, say or do.

Since they are not transsexual they believe the autogynephilia narrative  may help them stay outside the fray.

Well, the radical feminists have now thoroughly debunked that illusion.

They are now actively using the autogynephilia theory to label all gynephilic male to female crossdreamers and transsexuals (called "heterosexual men" by Blanchard and the radfems) as homophobic and misogynistic perverts.

A young transsexual speaks out

There is a new generation of transsexuals out there. Many of them are young lesbian or bisexual transwomen, exactly the kind of transwomen Ray Blanchard called "autogynephiles".

Unfortunately for Blanchard the new generation does not live up to any of the sexist stereotypes of his theory.

They report early childhood memories of gender dysphoria. They transition young. And for those of you who find this important: They also look feminine.

All of this confirms what I have said for a long time: The reason gynephilic transwomen used to transition later than androphilic transwomen, was that they could not use the gay and lesbian culture for support and as a door opener.

Instead they have desperately clung to the identity of their birth sex, as this has seem to be the only way to find someone to love in particular and respect in general.

Thanks to the Internet this is changing. They now find the support of others facing the same challenges as themselves online.  There are also developing their own language and their own narratives to make sense of themselves.

This development goes hand in hand with a trend towards more tolerance in general, as reflected in the increasing number of countries and states accepting gay marriage and ending the pathologization of trans people.

Below find a video made by one of the many new transbloggers, namely Kristin, who blogs as casey4441 at YouTube, and who writes under the name of Krista444 over at Crossdream Life.

Notice how she has liberated herself from the traditional narratives of what it means to be trans. She stands firmly on her own two feet. God bless her!

You can see more of her vlog-posts over at her YouTube blog: Life of a Transgender Twin.

By the way, she is working on an ebook on transitioning. You can sign up to be notified when the book is ready here!

In Memory of Those We Lost

Suicide is the greatest threat crossdreamers face. What can we do about it?

Last summer there appeared a heart breaking post on one of the male to female transgender/crossdreamer caption blogs: Yvonne's Caption World.

The message read:

"My name is Mark. I am Yvonne's brother.

I am afraid I have to bring you the sad news that three weeks ago Yvonne decided to take her life

She left a note saying that she felt she could no longer go on living (in her words); 'in between two genders, dysfunctional in one and unable to become the other.'

She did not feel she had anyone to turn to. I wish she had given me a call."

Her site is full of captions and stories reflecting the dreams of a gender dysphoric crossdreamer. And yes, it seems obvious to me that Yvonne was a transsexual woman. In the upper right corner of her blog you will find a request for support for her transition.

Suicide among crossdreamers and transgender

We have actually no idea of how many crossdreamers take their life every year. The reason for this is that most crossdreamers are invisible, not only to health personnel  but often also to their loved ones. Often those left behind do not know what really caused their family member to chose this option.

We do have statistics for registered transgender, however, and I have reason to believe that great many of those registered as such are crossdreamers (transgender is here an umbrella term including a wide variety of gender variant people).