Men Trapped in Men’s Bodies

Dr Ann Lawrence: copy below. 👇

men-trapped-in-mens-bodies_book

I have finally got around to reading this book. Dr Ann Lawrence is himself a self-described autogynephile. This book extensively researches the stories of men who are in the grip of this paraphilia. I won’t assume he is entirely honest, and he doesn’t address the impact on the female sex in this book, but he is more honest than most. I intend to do a series on the writings of Ann Lawrence because I think understanding this phenomenon is vital to understand what is behind the attacks on women’s, sex-based rights. It is also critical that we head off calls to normalise AGP, some overt and some insidious.

First the Title

Lawrence rejects the notion that these are women born in men’s bodies. They are, for him, men trapped in men’s bodies. The forward was written by Ray Blanchard who first coined the term autogynephilia, which is, basically, a man’s love of oneself as a woman. Blanchard theorised that men who claim the name ”transsexual” can be divided into two camps. The homosexual “transsexual” and the autogynephilic “transsexual”.

For Lawrence, all the attempts to deny and demolish this theory falter when confronted by the words and actions of autoynephilic men. It is not surprising that there is widespread denial about this paraphilia. It has huge implications for the kind of men we are being urged to accept in single sex spaces. Moreover *some* of these men have undergone significant bodily modification to breathe life into the “woman” they love. Rejecting ”her” from female spaces triggers narcissistic rage in these men. {Lawrence has written on this phenomenon and that paper will also be part of this series}.

Lawrence’s motives for writing this book are described as wanting to explain this phenomenon so that other men, in the grip of this paraphilia, have an understandinf of their affliction. Lawrence argues, somewhat against his own interests, that AGP men are not the one’s who should be accepted as ”women”. For Lawrence, feminine, gay, transsexuals have the greater claim. Whilst I reject this argument, it is remarkable, to me, that Lawrence does not argue for his own ”woman”. After making claims of psychological affinity between feminine, MTF, ”transsexuals” and women; here’s what he says about AGP Men:

We have all seen how many men with this paraphilia have backgrounds in the military, have pursued extreme sports, or have PhDs in disciplines which are dominated by men. Whilst I don’t accept any men are ”psychologically” women the AGP males stick out like an erect penis.

I part company with Lawrence in other areas too. 👇 This is not at the benign end of the paraphilia spectrum. Indeed the men desirous of re-classifying biological sex, in service of their own fetish, are one of the more dangerous groups of men. 👇

Denial.

Lawrence points out that many of these men deny any sexual arousal is involved in wearing the clothes associated with the opposite sex. This was disproved when penile tumescence was measured. Interestingly the most aroused these men became was when they were presented with scenarios of sex, as a woman, with a male. These sort of fantasies are common in AGP males and are not true homosexual experiences. The source of their sexual pleasure is being treated as if they were a woman; it’s validation sex.

Men lie about their sexual proclivities, shocker.

Dr Lawrence puts a more compassionate slant on this deceit. This, he argues, may be driven by seeking to respond in a socially accepted way and may also be based on a genuinely held belief. In other words men may not know they are lying because they are deeply immersed in their fiction and ashamed that it is sexually motivated. Either way I have long since learned to be distrustful of AGP narratives.

Subcategories of autogynephilic behaviour

Blanchard identified other associated fetishes in men who claim a female persona. Some may fetishise pursuits which are associated with female sex(ist) stereotypes. Think of that when you hear about a man taking over the ironing or bread making or taking up knitting. Someone really needs to tell the Women’s Institute who featured one of these men on the front of their magazine. The are clearly naive about the motivations for one of their newest members. They may also fetishise pregnancy, lactation and menstruation.

There are entire sites dedicated to men with these fetishes. Menophilia and Lactophilia generate their own porn and there is even a fragrance. 😳

Lawrence further claims that men can find the erotic stimuli decreases over time and the relationship of the AGP male, with his own female persona, becomes analagous to pair binding in a long marriage. I am not persuaded by this argument. Neither am I convinced we should treat this as a legitimate sexual orientation, as Blanchard proposes.

This would legitimise fetishising women and, as we can see, to validate this sexual obsession women’s rights to self-determination are being obliterated. This compulsion is driven by envy, even hatred, of actual women who decline to validate the ”New Women”. I am not willing to #BeKind to a movement which is in direct opposition to women’s rights. True compassion for the many young kids caught up in this is the real #BeKind, not fostering a delusion driving vulnerable kids to engage in state-sponsored self-harm.

Blanchard goes on to delineate the phenomenon of co-existing paraphilia that sit alongside autogynephilia. Are we going to legitimise all of them?

Lawrence also delineates the existence of co-existing paraphilia which are borne out by the reports of the ”transsexuals” he interviews. They include paedophilia, masochism, forced feminisation, adult babies, amputee fetishists and zoophiles. (I will cover these first person narratives later in this series).

Lawrence makes a critical point in this section. If we accept the notion of the female brain in a male body then are we also going to accept the idea of a little girl brain in a man’s body or the brain of an animal in the case of zoophilia?

Another claim, often made by AGP males, is that their impulses began in infancy hence they could not have had a sexual motive. This is such a common narrative. See ”I have known since I was three”.

Another observation, which casts doubt on the idea that this is an innate identity, is the differential, geographic, distribution of the two types of “transsexual” . In Asia the gay males predominate but not so in the UK and North America. This is a good quote but I would say modify it to state that our culture is accepting of this paraphilia regardless of ”the impact on others”

Denial of Autogynephilia

While I diverge from Lawrence on many issues it cannot be denied that this is an important work. Given that Lawrence is in the grip of this paraphilia they are more honest than most. They have suffered much backlash from the wider trans community who need to deny AGP to persuade law makers to compel women to serve as their handmaids. It is unacceptable that we are asked to validate men with a pornified fetish about our existence.

In this next section they respond to some AGP denialism. This quote is hugely revealing. The denial is explicitly because Blanchard’s typology is not incorrect; it’s politically inconvenient. All politicians should read this book.

More to follow in this series. I will cover a paper on AGP and Narcissistic Rage, next, then I will return to some of the case studies covered in this book.

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