Not getting the fucking point [Controversial, Public]

[danaelaurm.livejournal.com]

This correspondance was between Anne Vitale, PhD, and a friend, who is currently completing a Bachelor's degree in Psychology.

Anne Vitale is a trans psychologist who is relatively known for her theory of Gender Expression Denial Anxiety Disorder (a long name for what is essentially dysphoria). She is also a member of WPATH, and a specialist of "crossdressing and other gender identity concerns".

S.D. is a friend who allows me to leak this freely, her words: "knock yourself out."


Dear Dr. Vitale:

I have just completed reading your essay, Notes on Gender Role Transition. The attitudes expressed by the APA though the DSM surrounding gender variant people is something that has troubled me greatly. I thought your solution to the problem in the DSM-V was well thought out and elegant. Nonetheless, there was one part of your essay that I found very disturbing.

Under the heading "New thinking for DSM V" you included this line: "GEDAD does not differentiate between adults, adolescence, children, MTFs, FTMs, Intersex, androphilic or autogynephilic gender variant people."

I believe what you meant to write is "[...] androphilic or gynephilic gender variant people." Adrophilia simply describes a male directed sexual orientation; likewise gynephilia describes a female directed sexual orientation. Autogynephila, on the other hand, means the sexual arousal of oneself as a woman and is a psuedoscientific theory surrounding the aetiology of transsexuality.

Autogynephila holds that the driving force behind transition is a sexual fantasy involving the individual as a female. The paraphilia then, supposedly, causes the individual to becomes obsessed with the idea of becoming female full time resulting in the formation of a female gender identity.

As you can see, the concept of Autogynephila, aside from being pseudoscientific garbage, holds extremely troubling implications for gender variant individuals and their allies. I'm sure this is not what you meant to convey in your essay and I hope my letter has helped clarify the matter.

Regards,
S.D.

The reply, was:

Dear S.,

Thank you for taking the time to pass on your thoughts about my essay regarding the new DSM-V and the concept I call GEDAD.

I can understand you concern over my use of the term autogynephilia. At least I think I can. There are aspects attached to the term that bother me as well. Those are the political or the presumed ethology aspects that Blanchard and his followers have been ascribing to the term over the last several years. That is probably the psuedoscientifical theory you are referring to.

However, to deny that there is a whole class of people who are in love with themselves as women and deriving sexual pleasure from it is to be denying the obvious. All one need do is open a woman's fashion magazine or watch a woman's skin care commercial or to see young female starlets strut their stuff in front of TV cameras, to see women so in love with their femininity it can be considered a psychosexual disorder. With gender dysphoria being a reality, the fact that some genetic males experience the same feelings is almost to be expected. Femininity has a sexual way of needing to be expressed and sexual fetishistic clothes are one way to do that.

In my opinion, Blanchard et al, have the cart before the horse in their behavioral model of thinking. I believe that some gender dysphoric genetic males become in love with themselves as women as a from of survival. In so doing they are recognizing a side of them that is otherwise being denied to them by stint of the fear of societal sanctions and a natural inability to produce estrogen. Without being autogynephilic and the sexual outlet that comes with it (dopamine release in the brain when dressed) they probably would not survive long enough to get the permanent feminizing relieve estrogen can provide.

Be careful in your thinking here. Autogynephilia is real. What is not proven and more then likely never will be, is that it causes gender dysphoria.

Oh... one other word...the next time you chose to lecture someone about an issue this profound, make sure you know more about it then they do.

Thanks again for your comments re GEDAD.

Anne Vitale PhD