- autogynephilia is the erotics of manifesting the feminine social imaginary
- I view autogynephilia in a sex-positive manner.
- autogynephilia is a relation-to-the self through the feminine social imaginary
- autoandrophilia is a relation-to-self through the masculine social imaginary
- these autophilias give crossdressers like me an emancipatory frame for ourselves
- Blanchard’s version of autogynephilia arbitrarily excludes gay men. In Blanchard’s bizarre universe gay male femininity is wholly unrelated to a bisexual or straight man’s femininity.
- I have queered the DSM model of autogynephilia by removing birth sex out.
- I hypothesize that Male & Female autogynephilias are ‘One’ as a relationship to the self (abstract diagram), but are an infinite multiplicity in material expression (phenotype) .
- Erotic subjectivity manifests only through the locally-situated, social imaginaries
- Institutionalized rationality alway imposes a gender-dimorphism onto Socially-Situated Imaginaries of Selfhood.
- I am following both Louse J. Kaplan and Deleuze and Guatarri in declaring all erotic desire as essentially a fetish. Desire can briefly break out into a line-of-flight, but these flows eventually come to rest in a reterritorialization, a fetish.
- I am also following Judith Butler’s critique of gender dimorphism in Freud and Lacan. The Psychiatric DSM model of kinky sexuality always introduces the construct of two genders before analyzing desire. First we as ask “is it a boy or a girl?” and “is the object of desire a boy or a girl?”. Gender Subject, Gender Object, these are the inputs to our reductionist psychiatric models. Real World Desire is immanent to every aspect of life.
Autogynephilia, Fetish & Femininity: Post-Gendered Erotic Subjectivity
Posted: November 13, 2010 in 2010Comments
Jasper's Wardrobe 
My only confusion, Jasper with your definitions, is to do with how I have seen ‘autogynophilia’ for example, related to ‘cross-dreamers’ in a very biological-determinist way.
eg here: http://www.crossdreamers.com/
But you seem to be suggesting a more ‘performative’ social constructionist approach. It’s just some of the terminology sounds a bit ‘essentialist’ to me.
QRG, A number of Cross-Dreamers have linked to the above video as the ‘best’ explanation of autogynephilia. So there is a constructionist contingent within Autogynephilia. The other main component is Charles Moser’s investigations. I need to find some links for you.
QRG, Take a look at this one.
http://jasperswardrobe.com/2010/11/20/homosocial-erotics-female-autogynephilia-and-the-transsexual-crusade-against-autogynephilia-2/
thanks – that post might explain the concepts better to Mark S as it mentions ‘homoeovestism’ which he also referred to.
It’s fascinating. I don’t have a definite comment just ruminations.
My own sense of ‘masculine’ identity and homosociality with men has nothing to do with dressing up or down. But sometimes my alienation from a ‘femme’ or ‘female’ identity/homosociality has a lot to do with not enjoying putting on make-up etc in groups of women.
I have to say that I my views on Feminine Homosociality have complicated. Femme Homosociality has many dark sides too. Growing up a girl sucks just as bad as growing up a boy.
Just watching the video it’s really great.
My query is – isn’t ‘self-love’ in terms of narcissism and eroticising the body and clothes and feeling ‘sexy’ seen as ‘feminine’ in our culture? I think Mark Simpson’s work on metrosexuality suggests it is. And a tension in matrosexual masculinity is that men are now loving themselves ‘as women’ but most of them are in denial about the feminine aspects of that self-love. Hence the ‘gay beard’ fetish and ‘retrosexual’ style.
By way of illustration- the video here shows men being very ‘feminine’ in their self-love
http://www.marksimpson.com/blog/2010/12/20/mens-health-staff-celebrate-news-that-narcissism-is-no-longer-an-illness/
I definitely see the connection between metrosexuality and male gender-bending and crossdreaming. I as a male want am rebelling against the intense constraints on male behavior and relation-to-the-self. The metrosexuals have the handicap that they have to reaffirm their man-ness all the time, but you see a similar thing with the MTF transgenders where they have to constantly reaffirm their woman-ness. Both sides run from male femininity..
Mark’s article is amazing as always.
[…] has a very interesting alternative theory of autogynephilia. For him autogynephilia or crossdreaming is “the erotics of manifesting the feminine […]
[…] has a very interesting alternative theory of autogynephilia. For him autogynephilia or crossdreaming is “the erotics of manifesting the feminine […]
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