Androphilia and gynephilia are terms used in
behavioral science
Behavioral sciences explore the cognitive processes within organisms and the behavioral interactions between organisms in the natural world. It involves the systematic analysis and investigation of human and animal behavior through naturalistic o ...
to describe
sexual orientation
Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generall ...
, as an alternative to a
gender binary
The gender binary (also known as gender binarism) is the classification of gender into two distinct, opposite forms of masculine and feminine, whether by social system, cultural belief, or both simultaneously. Most cultures use a gender bina ...
homosexual
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...
and
heterosexual
Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to ...
conceptualization. Androphilia describes sexual attraction to
men
A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chro ...
or
masculinity
Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some behaviors con ...
; gynephilia describes the sexual attraction to
women
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...
or
femininity
Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered fe ...
.
Ambiphilia describes the combination of both androphilia and gynephilia in a given individual, or
bisexuality
Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whic ...
.
[Diamond M (2010). Sexual orientation and gender identity. In Weiner IB, Craighead EW eds. The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology, Volume 4. p. 1578. John Wiley and Sons, ]
The terms are used for identifying a person's objects of attraction without attributing a
sex assignment
Sex assignment (sometimes known as gender assignment) is the discernment of an infant's sex at or before birth. A relative, midwife, nurse or physician inspects the external genitalia when the baby is delivered and, in more than 99.95% of birt ...
or
gender identity
Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...
to the person. It may be used when describing
intersex
Intersex people are individuals born with any of several sex characteristics including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical bina ...
and
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
people, especially those who are
nonbinary
Non-binary and genderqueer are umbrella terms for gender identities that are not solely male or femaleidentities that are outside the gender binary. Non-binary identities fall under the transgender umbrella, since non-binary people typicall ...
.
Historical use
Androphilia
Magnus Hirschfeld
Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) was a German physician and sexologist.
Hirschfeld was educated in philosophy, philology and medicine. An outspoken advocate for sexual minorities, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Com ...
, an early-20th century German sexologist and physician, divided homosexual men into four groups:
paedophiles
Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty a ...
, who are most attracted to prepubescent youth,
ephebophiles
Ephebophilia is the primary sexual interest in mid-to-late adolescents, generally ages 15 to 19. The term was originally used in the late 19th to mid-20th century. It is one of a number of sexual preferences across age groups subsumed under the t ...
, who are most attracted to youths from puberty up to the early twenties; androphiles, who are most attracted to persons between the early twenties and fifty; and
gerontophiles
Gerontophilia is the primary sexual attraction to the elderly. A person with such a sexual preference is a gerontophile or gerontosexual.
The word ''gerontophilia'' was coined in 1901 by psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing. It derives from Gree ...
, who are most attracted to older men, up to senile old age. According to
Karen Franklin
Karen Franklin is an American forensic psychologist. For her doctoral dissertation, she conducted research on anti-gay violence.James Brooke, October 14, 1998, The New York TimesHomophobia Often Found In Schools, Data Show Accessed July 26, 2014 ...
, Hirschfeld considered ephebophilia "common and nonpathological, with ephebophiles and androphiles each making up about 45% of the homosexual population."
The term ''androsexuality'' is occasionally used as a synonym for ''androphilia''.
[Tucker N (1995). Bisexual politics: theories, queries, and visions. Psychology Press, ]
;Alternate uses in biology and medicine
In
biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
, ''androphilic'' is sometimes used as a synonym for ''
anthropophilic
In parasitology, anthropophilia, from the Greek ἅνθρωπος (anthrōpos, "human being") and φιλία (philia, "friendship" or "love"), is a preference of a parasite or dermatophyte for humans over other animals.Braun-Falco, Otto (2000). ...
'', describing
parasite
Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...
s who have a host preference for humans versus non-human animals.
[Covell G, Russell PF, Hendrik N (1953). Malaria terminology: Report of a drafting committee appointed by the World Health Organization. ]World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...
,
''Androphilic'' is also sometimes used to describe certain
protein
Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...
s and
androgen receptor
The androgen receptor (AR), also known as NR3C4 (nuclear receptor subfamily 3, group C, member 4), is a type of nuclear receptor that is activated by binding any of the androgenic hormones, including testosterone and dihydrotestosterone in th ...
s.
[Calandra RS, Podestá EJ, Rivarola MA, Blaquier JA (1974). Tissue androgens and androphilic proteins in rat epididymis during sexual development '']Steroids
A steroid is a biologically active organic compound with four rings arranged in a specific molecular configuration. Steroids have two principal biological functions: as important components of cell membranes that alter membrane fluidity; and a ...
'', volume 24, issue 4, pp. 507-518
Gynephilia
A version of the term appeared in
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
. In ''
Idyll
An idyll (, ; from Greek , ''eidullion'', "short poem"; occasionally spelt ''idyl'' in American English) is a short poem, descriptive of rustic life, written in the style of Theocritus' short pastoral poems, the ''Idylls'' (Εἰδύλλια).
U ...
'' 8, line 60,
Theocritus
Theocritus (; grc-gre, Θεόκριτος, ''Theokritos''; born c. 300 BC, died after 260 BC) was a Greek poet from Sicily and the creator of Ancient Greek pastoral poetry.
Life
Little is known of Theocritus beyond what can be inferred from hi ...
uses () as a euphemistic adjective to describe
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=Genitive case, genitive Aeolic Greek, Boeotian Aeolic and Doric Greek#Laconian, Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=Genitive case, genitive el, Δίας, ''D ...
's lust for women.
[Cholmeley RJ (1901). The idylls of Theocritus. G. Bell & Sons, p. 98][Rummel, E (1996). Erasmud on Women. University of Toronto Press, p. 82, ][Brown GW (1979). Depression: A sociologist's view. ''Trends in Neurosciences'', Volume 2, pp. 253–256 ]
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
used the term ''gynecophilic'' to describe his
case study
A case study is an in-depth, detailed examination of a particular case (or cases) within a real-world context. For example, case studies in medicine may focus on an individual patient or ailment; case studies in business might cover a particular fi ...
Dora.
[Kahane C (2004). Freud and the passions of the voice. In O'Neill J (2004). ''Freud and the Passions.'' Penn State Press, ] He also used the term in correspondence.
[Freud, S (1908)]
Letter from Sigmund Freud to Sándor Ferenczi
March 25 1908. Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing. Accessed 31 August 2022. Quote: "I have often seen it so: a woman unsatisfied by a man naturally turns to a woman and tries to invest her long-suppressed gynecophilic component with libido."
The variant spelling ''gynophilia'' is also sometimes used.
[ Money J (1986). Venuses Penuses: Sexology, Sexosophy, and Exigency Theory. Prometheus Books, ]
Rarely, the term ''gynesexuality'' has also been used as a synonym.
[Chodorow N (1999). The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender. University of California Press, ]
Sexual interest in adults
Following Hirschfeld, ''androphilia'' and ''gynephilia'' are sometimes used in taxonomies which specify sexual interests based on age ranges, which
John Money
John William Money (8 July 1921 – 7 July 2006) was a New Zealand psychologist, sexologist and author known for his research into sexual identity and Sex determination and differentiation (human), biology of gender. He was one of the first ...
called
chronophilia
The term chronophilia was used by psychologist John Money to describe a form of paraphilia in which an individual experiences sexual attraction limited to individuals of particular age ranges. The term has not been widely adopted by sexologists, w ...
. In such schemes, sexual attraction to adults is called teleiophilia or adultophilia.
[Feierman JR (1992). Reply to Dickemann: The ethology of variant sexology. ''Human Nature'', volume 3, number 3, pp. 279-297, , ] In this context, ''androphilia'' and ''gynephilia'' are gendered variants meaning "attraction to adult males" and "attraction to adult females," respectively. Psychologist
Dennis Howitt
Dennis Howitt is a British psychologist. He is a reader in Applied Psychology at Loughborough University and the author of numerous psychology textbooks.Davies, Graham (November 29, 2002)Interested in a life of crime?''Times Higher Education'' He ...
writes:
Definition is primarily an issue of theory, not merely classification, since classification implies a theory, no matter how rudimentary. Freund ''et al.'' (1984) used Latinesque words to classify sexual attraction along the dimensions of sex and age:
Gynephilia. Sexual interest in physically adult women
Androphilia. Sexual interest in physically adult males[Howitt D (1995). Introducing the paedophile. In ''Paedophiles and sexual offences against children''. J. Wiley,]
Androphilia and gynephilia scales
The 9-item Gynephilia Scale was created to measure erotic interest in physically mature females, and the 13-item Androphilia Scale was created to measure erotic interest in physically mature males. The scales were developed by
Kurt Freund
Kurt Freund (17 January 1914 – 23 October 1996) was a Czech-Canadian physician and sexologist best known for developing the penile plethysmograph (a measurement of sexual arousal in males), research studies in pedophilia, and for the "courts ...
and
Betty Steiner
Betty Wilson Steiner-Conduit (1920 – February 16, 1994) was a Canadian psychiatrist. Steiner was the first head of the Gender Identity Clinic at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry.Millar, Cal (February 17, 1994). Fumes kill psychiatrist, husband ...
in 1982.
[Freund K, Steiner BW, & Chan S (1982). Two types of cross-gender identity. '']Archives of Sexual Behavior
The ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal in sexology. It is the official publication of the International Academy of Sex Research.
History
The journal was established in 1971 by Richard Green, who served as its ed ...
'', volume 11, issue 1, pp. 49-64, , , They were later modified by
Ray Blanchard
Ray Milton Blanchard ( ; born October 9, 1945) is an American-Canadian sexologist, best known for his research studies on transsexualism, pedophilia and sexual orientation. He found that men with more older brothers are more likely to be gay tha ...
in 1985, as the Modified Androphilia–Gynephilia Index (MAGI).
Gender identity and expression
Magnus Hirschfeld
Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) was a German physician and sexologist.
Hirschfeld was educated in philosophy, philology and medicine. An outspoken advocate for sexual minorities, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Com ...
distinguished between gynephilic, bisexual, androphilic, asexual, and narcissistic or automonosexual gender-variant persons. Since then, some psychologists have proposed using ''homosexual transsexual'' and ''heterosexual transsexual'' or ''non-homosexual transsexual.'' Psychobiologist
James D. Weinrich has described this split among psychologists: "The mf transsexuals who are attracted to men (whom some call 'homosexual' and others call 'androphilic') are in the lower left-hand corner of the XY table, in order to line them up with the ordinary homosexual (androphilic) men in the lower right. Finally, there are the mf transsexuals who are attracted to women (whom some call heterosexual and others call gynephilic or lesbian)."
[Weinrich JD (1987). Sexual landscapes: why we are what we are, why we love whom we love. Scribner's, ]
The use of ''homosexual transsexual'' and related terms have been applied to
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
people since the middle of the 20th century, though concerns about the terms have been voiced since then.
Harry Benjamin
Harry Benjamin (January 12, 1885 – August 24, 1986) was a German-American endocrinologist and sexologist, widely known for his clinical work with transgender people.
Early life and career
Benjamin was born in Berlin, and raised in a German ...
said in 1966:
....it seems evident that the question "Is the transsexual homosexual?" must be answered "yes" and " no." "Yes," if his anatomy is considered; "no" if his psyche is given preference.
What would be the situation after corrective surgery has been performed and the sex anatomy now resembles that of a woman? Is the "new woman" still a homosexual man? "Yes," if pedantry and technicalities prevail. "No" if reason and common sense are applied and if the respective patient is treated as an individual and not as a rubber stamp.[Benjamin H (1966)]
The transsexual phenomenon
The Julian Press, Inc.,
Many sources, including some supporters of the typology, criticize this choice of wording as confusing and degrading. Biologist
Bruce Bagemihl Bruce Bagemihl is a Canadian biologist, linguist, and author of the book ''Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity''.
Life and career
He completed his BA at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in 1981, and served on th ...
writes "..the point of reference for "heterosexual" or "homosexual" orientation in this nomenclature is solely the individual's genetic sex prior to reassignment (see for example, Blanchard et al. 1987, Coleman and Bockting, 1988, Blanchard, 1989).
[Blanchard R (1989)]
The concept of autogynephilia and the typology of male gender dysphoria
''Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease'', volume 177, issue 10, pp. 616-623, These labels thereby ignore the individual's personal sense of gender identity taking precedence over biological sex, rather than the other way around."
[Bagemihl B (1997). Surrogate phonology and transsexual faggotry: A linguistic analogy for uncoupling sexual orientation from gender identity. In ''Queerly Phrased: Language, Gender, and Sexuality''. Livia A & Hall K (eds). Oxford University Press, p. 380 ff, ] Bagemihl goes on to take issue with the way this terminology makes it easy to claim transsexuals are really homosexual males seeking to escape from stigma.
Leavitt and Berger stated in 1990 that "The homosexual transsexual label is both confusing and controversial among males seeking sex reassignment.
[Leavitt F & Berger JC (1990)]
Clinical patterns among male transsexual candidates with erotic interest in males.
''Archives of Sexual Behavior
The ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal in sexology. It is the official publication of the International Academy of Sex Research.
History
The journal was established in 1971 by Richard Green, who served as its ed ...
'', volume 19, issue 5, pp. 491-505, ,
[Morgan Jr AJ (1978)]
Psychotherapy for transsexual candidates screened out of surgery
''Archives of Sexual Behavior
The ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal in sexology. It is the official publication of the International Academy of Sex Research.
History
The journal was established in 1971 by Richard Green, who served as its ed ...
'', volume 7, pp. 273-282, , Critics argue that the term "homosexual transsexual" is "
heterosexist
Heterosexism is a system of attitudes, bias, and discrimination in favor of female–male sexuality and relationships. According to Elizabeth Cramer, it can include the belief that all people are or should be heterosexual and that heterosexual ...
",
"archaic",
[Wahng SJ (2004). Double Cross: Transamasculinity Asian American Gendering. In ''Trappings of Transhood''. In Aldama AJ (ed.) ''Violence and the Body: Race, Gender, and the State''. Indiana University Press, ] and demeaning because it labels people by sex assigned at birth instead of their
gender identity
Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...
.
[Leiblum SR & Rosen RC (2000). Principles and Practice of Sex Therapy, third edition. Guilford Press of New York, p. c2000, ] Benjamin, Leavitt, and Berger have all used the term in their own work.
Sexologist
John Bancroft also recently expressed regret for having used this terminology, which was standard when he used it, to refer to transsexual women.
He says that he now tries to choose his words more sensitively.
[Bancroft J (2008). Lust or Identity? ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'', volume 37, issue 3, pp. 426-428, , , ] Sexologist
Charles Allen Moser
Charles Allen Moser (born 1952) is an American physician specializing in transgender health, a clinical sexologist, sex therapist, and sex educator practicing in San Francisco, California. He is the author of numerous academic publications and b ...
is likewise critical of the terminology.
[Moser C (2010). Blanchard's Autogynephilia Theory: A Critique. ''Journal of Homosexuality'', volume 57, edition 6, issue 6, pp. 790-809, , , ]
Use of ''androphilia'' and ''gynephilia'' was proposed and popularized by psychologist
Ron Langevin Ronald Lindsay André "Ron" Langevin (born September 28, 1940) is a Canadian forensic psychologist at the University of Toronto. He is the founding editor of ''Annals of Sex Research'', now titled '' Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment ...
in the 1980s.
[Langevin R (1982). Sexual Strands: Understanding and Treating Sexual Anomalies in Men. Routledge, ] Psychologist
Stephen T. Wegener Stephen Thomas Wegener (born November 20, 1952) is an American rehabilitation medicine, rehabilitation psychologist specializing in the psychology of pain management.Gillis, Linda (October 3, 1991)Individuals handle their pain in different ways.''In ...
writes, "Langevin makes several concrete suggestions regarding the language used to describe
sexual anomalies Sexual anomalies, also known as sexual abnormalities, are a set of clinical conditions due to chromosomal, gonadal and/or genitalia variation. Individuals with congenital (inborn) discrepancy between sex chromosome, gonadal, and their internal and ...
. For example, he proposes the terms ''gynephilic'' and ''androphilic'' to indicate the type of partner preferred regardless of an individual's
gender identity
Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...
or dress. Those who are writing and researching in this area would do well to adopt his clear and concise vocabulary."
[Wegener ST (1984). Male sexual anomalies: the data (review of ''Sexual Strands'') ''APA Review of Books'', volume 29, issues 7-12, p. 783,
Volume 29, Issues 7-12, p. 783.]
Psychiatrist
Anil Aggrawal
Anil Aggrawal is a professor of forensic medicine at the Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India. He is known chiefly for his online journal, ''Anil Aggrawal's Internet Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology''. He joined Maulana Aza ...
explains why the terms are useful in a glossary:
Androphilia – The romantic and/or sexual attraction to adult males. The term, along with gynephilia, is needed to overcome immense difficulties in characterizing the sexual orientation of transmen and transwomen. For instance, it is difficult to decide whether a transman erotically attracted to males is a heterosexual female or a homosexual male; or a transwoman erotically attracted to females is a heterosexual male or a lesbian female. Any attempt to classify them may not only cause confusion but arouse offense among the affected subjects. In such cases, while defining sexual attraction, it is best to focus on the object of their attraction rather than on the sex or gender of the subject.[Aggrawal A (2008). Forensic and medico-legal aspects of sexual crimes and unusual sexual practices. CRC Press, ]
Sexologist
Milton Diamond
Milton Diamond (born March 6, 1934) is an American Professor Emeritus of anatomy and reproductive biology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. After a career in the study of human sexuality, Diamond retired from the university in December 200 ...
, who prefers the term ''gynecophilia'', writes, "The terms heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual are better used as adjectives, not nouns, and are better applied to behaviors, not people." Diamond has encouraged using the terms androphilic, gynecophilic, and ambiphilic to describe the sexual-erotic partners one prefers (andro = male, gyneco = female, ambi = both, philic = to love). Such terms eliminate the need to specify the subject and focus instead on the desired partner. This usage is particularly advantageous when discussing the partners of transsexual or intersexed individuals. These newer terms also do not carry the social weight of the former ones."
[
Psychologist Rachel Ann Heath writes, "The terms homosexual and heterosexual are awkward, especially when the former is used with, or instead of, gay and lesbian. Alternatively, I use gynephilic and androphilic to refer to sexual preference for women and men, respectively. Gynephilic and androphilic derive from the Greek meaning love of a woman and love of a man respectively. So a gynephilic man is a man who likes women, that is, a heterosexual man, whereas an androphilic man is a man who likes men, that is, a gay man. For completeness, a lesbian is a gynephilic woman, a woman who likes other women. Gynephilic transsexed woman refers to a woman of transsexual background whose sexual preference is for women. Unless homosexual and heterosexual are more readily understood terms in a given context, this more precise terminology will be used throughout the book. Since homosexual, gay, and lesbian are often associated with bigotry and exclusion in many societies, the emphasis on sexual affiliation is both appropriate and socially just."][Heath RA (2006). The Praeger handbook of transsexuality: Changing gender to match mindset. Greenwood Publishing Group, ] Author Helen Boyd
Helen Boyd (1969) is the pen name of Gail Kramer, the American author of two books about her relationship with her trans partner. Her partner is referred to in both books as "Betty Crow", though this is also a pseudonym.
Biography
Helen Boyd gra ...
agrees, writing, "It would be much more accurate to define sexual orientation as either "androphilic" (loving men) and "gynephilic" (loving women) instead."[Boyd H (2007). She's not the man I married: My life with a transgender husband. Seal Press, p. 102, ] Sociomedical scientist Rebecca Jordan-Young
Rebecca M. Jordan-Young (born 1963), is an American feminist scientist and gender studies scholar. Her research focuses on social medical science, sex, gender, sexuality, and epidemiology. She is an Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and ...
challenges researchers like Simon LeVay
Simon LeVay (born 28 August 1943 in Oxford, England) is a British-American neuroscientist.
He received a bachelor's degree in natural sciences from the University of Cambridge in 1966, a Ph.D. in Neuroanatomy at the University of Göttingen in ...
, J. Michael Bailey
John Michael Bailey (born July 2, 1957) is an American psychologist, behavioural geneticist, and professor at Northwestern University best known for his work on the etiology of sexual orientation. He maintains that sexual orientation is heavily ...
, and Martin Lalumiere, who she says "have completely failed to appreciate the implications of alternative ways of framing sexual orientation."[Jordan-Young RM (2010). Brain storm: the flaws in the science of sex differences. Harvard University Press, ]
Gender in non-Western cultures
Some researchers advocate use of the terminology to avoid bias
Bias is a disproportionate weight ''in favor of'' or ''against'' an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned. People may develop biases for or against an individual, a group, ...
inherent in Western conceptualizations of human sexuality. Writing about the Samoa
Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...
n fa'afafine demographic, sociologist Johanna Schmidt writes:
Kris Poasa, Ray Blanchard
Ray Milton Blanchard ( ; born October 9, 1945) is an American-Canadian sexologist, best known for his research studies on transsexualism, pedophilia and sexual orientation. He found that men with more older brothers are more likely to be gay tha ...
and Kenneth Zucker
Kenneth J. Zucker (; born 1950) is an American-Canadian psychologist and sexologist. He was named editor-in-chief of ''Archives of Sexual Behavior'' in 2001. He was psychologist-in-chief at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH ...
(2004) also present an argument that suggests that fa'afafine fall under the rubric of 'transgenderal homosexuality', applying the same birth order equation to fa'afafine's families as have been used with 'homosexual transsexuals'. While no explicit causal relationship is offered, Poasa, Blanchard, and Zucker's use of the term 'homosexual transsexual' to refer to male-to-female transsexuals who are sexually oriented towards men draws an apparent link between sexual orientation and gender identity. This link is reinforced by mention of the fact that similar birth order equations have been found for 'homosexual men'. The possibility of sexual orientation towards (masculine) men emerging from (rather than causing) feminine gendered identities is not considered.[Schmidt J (2010). Migrating Genders: Westernisation, Migration, and Samoan Fa'afafine. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., p. 45, ]
Schmidt argues that in cultures where a third gender
Third gender is a concept in which individuals are categorized, either by themselves or by society, as neither man nor woman. It is also a social category present in societies that recognize three or more genders. The term ''third'' is usually ...
is recognized, a term like "homosexual transsexual" does not align with cultural categories.[Schmidt J (2001)]
Redefining fa'afafine: Western discourses and the construction of transgenderism in Samoa.
''Intersections: Gender, history and culture in the Asian context'', issue 6.
She cites the work of Paul Vasey and Nancy Bartlett: "Vasey and Bartlett reveal the cultural specificity of concepts such as homosexuality, they continue to use the more 'scientific' (and thus presumably more 'objective') terminology of androphilia and gynephilia (sexual attraction to men or masculinity and women or femininity respectively) to understand the sexuality of fa'afafine and other Samoans." Researcher Sam Winter has presented a similar argument:
Terms such as 'homosexual' and heterosexual (and 'gay,' 'lesbian,' 'bisexual,' etc.) are Western conceptions. Many Asians are unfamiliar with them, there being no easy translation into their native languages or sexological worldviews. However, I take the opportunity to put on record that I consider an androphilic transwoman (ie one sexually attracted to men) to be heterosexual because of her attraction to a member of another gender and a gynephilic transwoman (ie one attracted to women) as homosexual because she has a same-gender preference. My usage is contrary to much Western literature (particularly medical) which persists in referring to androphilic transwomen and gynephilic transman as homosexual (indeed as homosexual transsexual males and females, respectively).[Winter S (2010). Lost in Transition: Transpeople, Transprejudice and Pathology in Asia. In Chan PCW (ed.) ''The Protection of Sexual Minorities Since Stonewall: Progress and Stalemate in Developed and Developing Countries.'' Routledge, ]
See also
* Classification of transsexual and transgender people
The classification of transsexual and gender non-conforming people into distinct groups has been attempted since the mid-1960s.
History
During the 20th century, the Western medical community endorsed a binary concept of gender in which males an ...
* Masculinity
Masculinity (also called manhood or manliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles associated with men and boys. Masculinity can be theoretically understood as socially constructed, and there is also evidence that some behaviors con ...
* Femininity
Femininity (also called womanliness) is a set of attributes, behaviors, and roles generally associated with women and girls. Femininity can be understood as socially constructed, and there is also some evidence that some behaviors considered fe ...
References
Bibliography
* Hames RB, Garfield ZH, & Garfield MJ (2017)
Is Male Androphilia a Context-Dependent Cross-Cultural Universal?
''Archives of Sexual Behavior'', volume 46, p. 132,
{{DEFAULTSORT:Androphilia And Gynephilia
Sexual orientation
Interpersonal attraction