"know"...

The Holy Handbook.

Brilliant movie!

"Because I used a Craftsman model 1019 Laboratory Edition Signature Series torque wrench. The kind used by Caltech high energy physicists. And NASA engineers."

So my thinking is, you don't need to show evidence of it in trans people. We'd need to show credible absence of it in non trans women, and that paper suggests this isn't what we see. What do you think?

Autogynephilia in Women Autogynephilia, an erotic interest in the thought or image of oneself as a woman, has been described as a sexual interest of some male-to-female transsexuals (MTFs); the term has not been applied ...

It says: 'If we adopt Blanchard's criteria of someone who has “ever” had erotic arousal, female autogynephilia was present in 93% of the respondents. Even if a more stringent standard is applied, more than one quarter of the respondents indicated they were “frequently” aroused to multiple items.'

… sexy stuff or even just talking about it, but obvs that's anecdotal. Moser[2009] did the experiment adapting Blanchard's system - it's not a huge study and it uses self-reporting, but the results are far from "none".
...

On the question of "Cis women can't be Autogynophiles", I may have been unclear. From what you say, you'd expect trans women to show arousal when given Blanchard's test, and not cis women. I'm actually surprised at that - many women I know are fairly open about feeling sexy when wearing …

On Blanchard explaining libido etc - to me it sounds from what he says like he's rationalizing away gaps in his system. I'm not aware he has produced any evidence for these ideas, tho I might be wrong? …

Finally - personally - I think it lacks explanatory power. I mean, I'm human and all, and of course that seems to come with a load of built-in machinery, but the AGP hypothesis really doesn't explain how I feel, nor is it a motivation.

… your sources were unbiased. I think the whole theory has lived long beyond its expiry date because it helps paint trans people as deviant, self-deceived and deceptive, and that fits some narratives.

…

… or fantasizing as such, just doesn't seem that surprising.

My feeling is that if someone is talking about Blanchard these days, well, it's sort of like homeopathy, based on an early attempt to understand what's going on. His conclusions are heavily disputed - as I'm sure you're aware if …

… who was well into it, but he said he never actually wished he'd been female, he just loved the feel. What he described and what I described to him didn't really match, but it was interesting. Beyond that, a sense of arousal at feeling great about oneself as an idealized, attractive person, …

4) he had to turn the sensitivity up a long way to get the reported effects;
5) this was all a long time ago, and it's not clear that his cohort (people presenting at a gender clinic in the 80s) was usefully representative.

I mean, transvestic fetishism is a thing - I knew someone long ago …

… reinforcing that trans women are women!);
2) paraphilias tend to decline with libido-dampening hormone treatment, so if trans=AGP, you'd expect the same - but it doesn't. I can vouch.
3) it doesn't tally with the experience of professionals working with trans people;
…

Ok, lots of things there! Picking a thing:

Blanchard's work on autogynephilia is highly controversial:
1) the controls were weak, so it was a first stab at understanding - I think subsequent experiments showed that his positive AGP tests also worked well with cis women, (which can be read as …

Really interesting thread. Thank you!

Obviously painful to read - I'm trans - and this whole last few years has been pretty wild. And of course, I have strong feelings about, say, the existence of Gender Identity as a thing.

Question: do you know any trans people personally?

How about a boot stamping on a human face, forever? Too broad, perhaps.

Super - thanks! (Would it be useful for the Exec Summary there to link to the main doc (and vice versa)?) All useful.

"Mized" was good too tho

"I measured it, and it came to 3.6 roentgens per hour. Not great, not terrible."

I find her to be an invaluable guide: her words, politics and sense of ethics light a clear path.

If I'm not sure what to think about some issue, find out what Kemi Badenoch says about it, and assume the opposite.

So - is it your contention that trans people are all very ill?

I mean, I'd agree it's a condition that causes distress and can be treated effectively.

When Belief Crosses the Line: Kathleen Stock, Grainger V, and the Legal Limits of Exclusion Thanks to a sharp legal commentary from Alice Appleby, we now have a clearer view of how gender critical belief may have just undone itself in court.

“In trying to clarify what gender critical belief means, Kathleen Stock has done more than define it — she may have made it indefensible.” - @joannelockwood.bsky.social

Have the ‘gender critical’ transphobes undone themselves in their relentless pushing of boundaries to be even more bigoted? 🤨

... trans people go to transition, or the obvious intensity of those feelings, or non-binary people.

Why not, you know, believe what they're telling you? If you want science, here's a phenomenon. It feels like you want to just sweep it away.

Or you could say what's wrong with it? Fault the hypothesis, rather than just expressing attitude?

"Men like women's clothes" doesn't explain anything much - women like women's clothes, so on that basis, trans women are women (as Moser confirmed).

It doesn't explain trans men. Or the lengths ...

Yep, it's likely that you think that too - perhaps a reflection of your reading materials?

You've provided no counter-argument to it - which bit is implausible? (Nor have you offered an explanation of your own!)

No, you misunderstand.

Suppose, say, the baby's androgen levels drop off between early pregnancy to late, so that their brain develops under a different hormone load. That could happen, rarely, lots of things can affect that - genetics, mother's diet, etc. Result: trans child.

It could, yes, and it's plausible because we know that messing with those levels in other animals has an effect on their sexuality. So there's clearly a hormonal input into brain development, and we know that hormone levels and their effectivity vary significantly. What's wrong with that?

Genetic connection:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Yes. Not aware that it's correct - as you say, hard to test, but it could explain the phenomenon. It aligns with the other physiological aspects of trans-ness, like the genetic connection.

Certainly better than any explanation you've given. Which, so far, is none.