One of the biggest questions regarding autogynephilia (AGP) is what causes it. The typically sexological explanation is that it's caused by an erotic target location error (often referred to as ETLE), but as I pointed out in my previous blog post, that theory does not hold up well under scrutiny. So if not ETLE, then what?
It's good to keep in mind that many things are not monocausal. There is a significant amount of variety in AGP fantasies, and this could point to various causal pathways. To understand the development of paraphilic interests, I propose that a good place to start is to look at an interest where the cause is obvious and undeniable. Such a paraphilic interest exists, and it is called the blueberry kink.
The blueberry kink is a paraphilic interest in a person slowly transforming into a blueberry. The victim slowly becomes round and blue. What could cause such a seemingly specific and odd sexual interest? Some of you reading this already know, I'm sure. The thing that sparked this sexual interest was a scene from the 1971 film Willy Wonka & Chocolate Factory, where a girl chews on a piece of gum that causes her body to inflate and become round and her skin to turn blue.
Here's a link to the scene from that film that caused the blueberry kink.
As far as I can tell, it's always children who develop the blueberry kink from watching that film - never adults. The scene itself is rather disturbing, so perhaps the disturbing nature of the scene has a more profound impact on children, leading to a lifelong paraphilic interest.
Vice wrote a good piece about the blueberry kink, and in it, people with the kink describe how their sexual fantasies feel. If you are AGP and reading this, you should consider if these feelings apply to how AGP fantasies feel to you. Quote:
“I
always gravitated to bigness in transformation, so the berry girl
scenario was easy to get excited about,” Maxgrowth said. “On the
surface, for me, it's about the bigness and the roundness, but I think
underneath the surface psychologically it's about the helplessness and
emotional reactions of the girl to her condition.” Those emotions can
range from confusion, to excitement, arousal, and fear. (Emphasis added.)
...
“I
like the psychological implications that the transformation has,” he
told me. “It’s a process of shock, fear and/or pleasure in some cases,
acceptance, etc. and different people react in different ways.”(Emphasis added.)
...
To many,
it’s a form of BDSM: The berry-person is trapped in their own
juice-laden bodies, unable to move except for some helpless twirling
fingers protruding from their round forms.
“Some
people find it as [a] form of bondage due to the obviously restricted
movement of the submissive, berried individual,” Riddlercorps said.
“Others enjoy the humiliation and embarrassment factor of it. Some
people just like to pretend that they or a partner is swelling up,
ripping through their clothing. Some people mimic it to the BBW kink. It
truly just depends on who you ask." (BBW stands for "big, beautiful women"; emphasis added.)
Many AGPs report these same types of feelings associated with their sexual fantasies about being a woman. A good example of this is the cover art for the children's book Help! I'm Trapped in My Sister's Body:
My understanding is that this cover art was popular in early AGP communities online. It depicts feelings of helplessness, confusion, fear, and humiliation - feelings that are often associated with AGP fantasies. Another aspect of this cover art is the body of the sister. She appears to be quite attractive, at least from her back side. Not only do AGP fantasies involve the feelings described above, but also involve all the sexual cues that gynephilic men find attractive in female bodies. By combining the masochism of being trapped in another body with the sexual cues of a female body, a highly erotic fantasy is created. It's no wonder why AGP is such a common sexual interest, with somewhere between 3-15% of men being AGP. To put that into perspective, AGP is about as common as homosexuality in men.
Like the blueberry kink, AGP could be seen as having a BDSM element, with sadists and masochists involved. 88% of men who are aroused by the idea of being a GAM (gynandromorph; woman with a penis) are also aroused by GAMs, and 49% of men who are aroused by GAMs are also aroused by the idea of being a GAM. While I don't think being aroused by GAMs is monocausal, it seems to me that some men have a S&M relationship with the GAM kink - particularly those who are aroused by the idea of being GAM themselves. Perhaps a good idea for future research would be to ask AGPs what feelings they have associated with their AGP fantasies to see if they are similar to those with a blueberry kink.
About GayGP
I mentioned discussing gayGP further in my last blog post. The problem with gayGP is that it's very difficult to get data on. One survey that I conducted found a small amount of men who might be able to be considered gayGP, and their most common sexual interests from the AGP-type options I presented were:
- Imagining being a woman and masturbating with a sex toy
- Imagining being a woman and caressing your own (female) body
- Imagining being a woman and getting checked out by men
- Being forced to wear women's clothes
- Being forced to perform a female dance routine
- Having your penis locked in a chastity cage
- Having sex with a dominatrix who dominates you
I'm not sure how to interpret these results. Perhaps they lean towards masochism.
I was able to pick the brain of one gayGP that I know, who happens to be a transwoman, and she told me that she is aroused by the idea of being a man with a vulva, and is also aroused by men with a vulva (a self/other pairing that is common in paraphilic interests). She describes AGP and homosexuality as being two axes, and without one or the other, she would not have transitioned. She describes her motivation for transitioning as not liking masculinizing in the second half of her 20s (worrying about hair loss, acne, etc). She decided to give HRT a try, and liked the results.
We know that it's possible to be aroused by being something that you are not attracted to. Examples of this are being aroused by the idea of being a dog without being attracted to dogs, and being aroused by the idea of being a child without being attracted to children. The blueberry kink is similar, except that those with this kink often imagine large, swelling, blue breasts, so there can be some genuine attraction to blueberry women. But I think most of the arousal comes from the masochistic feelings associated with the transformation into a blueberry.
