Blanchard proposed that autogynephilia is a natal male’s paraphilic sexual arousal in response to the thought or fantasy of being a woman. Furthermore, based on evidence collected from natal males with gender dysphoria, Blanchard argued that autogynephilia is the fundamental motivation among nonhomosexual males (i.e., those not exclusively attracted to men) who pursue sex reassignment surgery or live as transgender women. These ideas have been challenged by several writers who have asserted, or offered evidence, that autogynephilia is common among women. However, their evidence was weakened by problematic measures and limited comparison groups. We compared four samples of autogynephilic natal males (N = 1549), four samples of non-autogynephilic natal males (N = 1339), and two samples of natal females (N = 500), using Blanchard’s original measure: the Core Autogynephilia Scale. The autogynephilic samples had much higher mean scores compared with non-autogynephilic natal males and natal females, who were similar. Our findings refute the contention that autogynephilia is common among natal females
First off, thanks for the critique! That's what this community is for. I'll admit I went down a bit of a rabbit hole recently, but that's just how I work and im sure I'll move on something else. There will probably be a lot of posts about sex and gender in general, because that interests me and also seems to get the most votes here.
I think the history here is interesting, and not as simple as "Blanchard is transphobic" or "AGP is a terf word". Briefly, Blanchard's typology was incomplete at best, but the concept of autogynephilia existing is accurate. Some people don't like the term and some trans authors prefer female/feminine embodiment fantasies, but that's referring to the same thing and it's just a dispute about terminology. There's also other people that embrace the term and identify with it, are they wrong?