''Men Trapped in Men's Bodies: Narratives of Autogynephilic Transsexualism'' is a 2013 book on the subject of autogynephilia and

transgender women A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...

written by

sexologist Sexology is the scientific study of human sexuality, including human sexual interests, behaviors, and functions. The term ''sexology'' does not generally refer to the non-scientific study of sexuality, such as social criticism. Sexologists app ...

Anne Lawrence Anne Alexandra Lawrence (born November 17, 1950) is an American psychologist, sexologist, and physician who has published extensively on gender dysphoria, transgender people, and paraphilias. Lawrence is a transgender woman and self-identifies ...

. In the book, she discusses autogynephilia, a

paraphilia A paraphilia is an experience of recurring or intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, places, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals. It has also been defined as a sexual interest in anything other than a legally consenting human ...

in which a person is

sexually attracted Sexual attraction is attraction on the basis of sexual desire or the quality of arousing such interest. Sexual attractiveness or sex appeal is an individual's ability to attract other people sexually, and is a factor in sexual selection or ma ...

to and aroused by the thought or image of themselves as female. It is defined as an

erotic target location error Erotic target location error (ETLE) is a hypothesized dimension for paraphilias, defined by having a sexual preference or strong sexual interest in features that are somewhere other than on one's sexual partners. When one's sexual arousal is base ...

, as a self-directed form of

gynephilia In behavioral science, androphilia and gynephilia are sexual orientations: Androphilia is sexual attraction to men and/or masculinity; gynephilia is sexual attraction to women and/or femininity. Ambiphilia describes the combination of both androp ...

, and as a sexuoromantic orientation. Autogynephilia has been theorized by some academics, such as Lawrence,

Ray Blanchard Ray Milton Blanchard III ( ; born October 9, 1945) is an American-Canadian sexologist who researches pedophilia, sexual orientation and Transgender, gender identity. He has found that men with more older brothers are more likely to be gay than m ...

, and J. Michael Bailey, to be the motivating

etiology Etiology (; alternatively spelled aetiology or ætiology) is the study of causation or origination. The word is derived from the Greek word ''()'', meaning "giving a reason for" (). More completely, etiology is the study of the causes, origins ...

for a subset of transgender women. It has also been theorized to be the cause of the feelings and behaviors of certain non-transgender males, including non-transitioning autogynephiles (sometimes called "crossdreamers") and erotic crossdressers ("transvestites"). In respect to the latter,

transvestism Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes traditionally or stereotypically associated with a different gender. From as early as pre-modern history, cross-dressing has been practiced in order to disguise, comfort, entertain, and express onesel ...

has been defined as a subtype of autogynephilia. Lawrence herself is a transgender woman and self-identifies as autogynephilic. However, Blanchard's etiological typology of transgender women and autogynephilia are highly controversial subjects and are not accepted by many other transgender women and academics. The book was published in 2013 by

Springer Springer or springers may refer to: Publishers * Springer Science+Business Media, aka Springer International Publishing, a worldwide publishing group founded in 1842 in Germany formerly known as Springer-Verlag. ** Springer Nature, a multinationa ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. ''Men Trapped in Men's Bodies: Narratives of Autogynephilic Transsexualism'' is 242 pages in length and has 12 chapters. Its chapters include "Men Trapped in Men's Bodies", "Theory and Case Histories", "Narratives by Autogynephilic Transsexuals", "Confronting Autogynephilia", "Developmental Histories", "Manifestations of Autogynephilia", "Autogynephilia and Heterosexuality", "Sex with Men", "Other Aspects of Autogynephilic Sexuality", "Debating the Meaning of Autogynephilia", "Narratives by Nontranssexual Autogynephiles", and "Autogynephilic Transsexualism in Perspective". It includes 249 first-person narratives of autogynephilia by transgender women and 52 narratives of autogynephilia by non-transgender males (301 narratives in total) that were submitted to and collected by Lawrence. This followed earlier collections of the same kinds of narratives that Lawrence had published in 1999. Besides the book, Lawrence has published a number of

literature review A literature review is an overview of previously published works on a particular topic. The term can refer to a full scholarly paper or a section of a scholarly work such as books or articles. Either way, a literature review provides the rese ...

s on autogynephilia. The book has a similar title to a 1998 essay published by Lawrence in ''

Transgender Tapestry International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE) was an American non-profit transgender advocacy organization. The foundation was devoted to "overcoming the intolerance of transvestitism and transsexualism brought about by widespread ignorance ...

'' called ''Men Trapped in Men's Bodies: An Introduction to the Concept of Autogynephilia'' and to a 1999 essay presented by Lawrence at the 16th

Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), formerly the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA), is a professional organization devoted to the understanding and treatment of gender identity and ...

(HBIGDA) symposium known as ''Men Trapped in Men's Bodies: Autogynephilic Eroticism as a Motive for Seeking Sex Reassignment''. Both of these essays were also previously published on Lawrence's website, in addition to her earlier 1999 collections of autogynephilia narratives. The book's title is also similar to the title of a chapter called ''Men Trapped in Men's Bodies'' in J. Michael Bailey's 2003 book, '' The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism'', with this chapter title being inspired by and taking after the titles of Lawrence's earlier essays. The phrase "men trapped in men's bodies" refers to the fact that transgender women are often described as "women trapped in men's bodies", yet autogynephilic transgender women are said not to resemble women in terms of their behavioral characteristics and life histories but instead to be more similar to men in these areas and to have an intense desire to become women due to their autogynephilic feelings. Hence, these transgender women, relative to pretransition, could, in a sense, alternatively be described as "men trapped in men's bodies" per Lawrence. Ray Blanchard has stated that Lawrence initially startled even him with the phrase and the forthright titles of her essays. ''Men Trapped in Men's Bodies: Narratives of Autogynephilic Transsexualism'' has received several published

book review A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is merely described (summary review) or analyzed based on content, style, and merit. A book review may be a primary source, an opinion piece, a summary review, or a scholarly view. B ...

s, including by

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and explanation, interpretatio ...

Richard Lippa,

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

Stephen B. Levine, sexologist Kevin Hsu, psychologist Richard Carroll, and psychologist Margaret Nichols. It has been regarded by Ray Blanchard, who wrote the

foreword A foreword is a (usually short) piece of writing, sometimes placed at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature. Typically written by someone other than the primary author of the work, it often tells of some interaction between th ...

of the book and developed the concept of autogynephilia, as the definitive text on the subject of autogynephilia. He has compared it favorably to

Magnus Hirschfeld Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) was a German physician, Sexology, sexologist and LGBTQ advocate, whose German citizenship was later revoked by the Nazi government.David A. Gerstner, ''Routledge International Encyclopedia of Queer ...

's classic 1910 work, '' Die Transvestiten: Eine Untersuchung über den Erotischen Verkleidungstrieb'' (''Transvestites: The Erotic Drive to Cross-Dress''). Many transgender women reject autogynephilia as an explanation for their feelings and consider the concept to be offensive. Criticisms have been lobbied against the construct of autogynephilia on a variety of grounds. However, some people, most famously Lawrence herself, identify with autogynephilia and find that it accurately describes their experiences. That some individuals identify with autogynephilia is also evidenced by the 301 narratives of autogynephilia by transgender and non-transgender people that were submitted to and published by Lawrence.

References

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External links

Book - Anne A. Lawrence, MD, PhDPDF
2010s LGBTQ literature 2013 non-fiction books English-language non-fiction books Gender identity LGBTQ literature in the United States Medical books Men and sexuality Paraphilias Sexology literature Sexual fetishism Sexual orientation Transgender health care Transgender non-fiction books Transgender sexuality Transgender women-related topics