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[–]opinioncloset 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

A lot of people are unaware that Dr. Ray Blanchard (the researcher who first investigated the concept of autogynophilia) includes in his typology of transgenderism a category that would include the person in the linked post. He terms it "autohomoeroticism", meaning "attracted to the idea of participating in gay sex". He notes that much like how autogynophilia only manifests in natal males, autohomoeroticism only manifests in natal females.

It's also subtly different than autogynophilia—while autogynophilia is the sexual attraction to oneself as a woman, autohomoeroticism is the sexual attraction to the participation in (cross-sex) gay relationships. As such, the attraction to lesbian relationships in autogynophiles isn't the actual target of their sexuality, it's just that being in a lesbian relationship is an incredibly strong signal that the person in question is being perceived as a woman (Blanchard also notes that exhibitionism is also extremely common in autogynophiles).

On the other hand, for autohomoerotics, the gay male relationship itself is the target, and the self-image or identity is secondary.

I believe this explains a lot of the differences in how these sexualities are manifested—autohomoerotics seem to be much more comfortable with others not fully acknowledging them as "men" than autogynophiles do as "women". I've heard multiple autohomoerotics say "I don't really want to be seen as a 'man', but more like a 'boy'", the equivalent of which I highly doubt one would ever hear from an autogynophile.