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Sex Question Friday: Why Are So Many Straight Men Into Transsexual Porn? - Sex and Psychology
www.sexandpsychology.comEvery Friday on the blog, I answer people’s questions about sex, love, and relationships. This week’s question comes from a reader of the blog who was curious about why so many heterosexual men are pleasuring themselves to pornography featuring transgender and transsexual performers.I run a porn blog and I keep getting messages from men wanting to see tranny / shemale porn. I'm assuming these men are all straight-identifying, but maybe that's just my gay-identifying bias. I'm wondering what, if any studies or knowledge is out there about men who are attracted to and watch this kind of material or even look for them in real life? It does absolutely nothing for me, but this particular fetish is unavoidable if you frequent any kind of porn social network and it seems a lot of people are into this. What are your thoughts? Why might this be a turn-on for some, and what does it imply, if anything, about their sexuality?
“Transsexual” is a pretty dated term and this article is from 2012.
Might want to find something more recent and without that language to post instead.
Hijacking top comment to also add that there are words for men who are attracted to femininity outside of the bounds of cisgender women: gynesexual (older term, less inclusive due to implication of a vagina) and finsexual (newer term, more inclusive and drops implication of a vagina).
It is quite likely that many of those men actually fall into these categories even if they have not accepted that about themselves as of yet. Others are bisexual, and even others are pansexual, and haven’t “come out” as it were.
Especially if this is relying on self-reporting and how often men want to appear straight, the number of men who are wrestling with such feelings but still put down “straight” is probably quite high.
They also may not even know. The whole thing is a political minefield and trying to join in any conversation without knowing all the words tends to trigger a massive overreaction from allies and bigots alike.
I mean it’s why I hate people who self apply the term “ally” because a lot of “allies” do more harm than help.
Allyship is to be determined by those who need allies, not the people who talk big and claim to be allies while doing fuck-all.
If someone from a minority community decides I am an ally to their cause and calls me an “ally” then I am an ally, not because I self applied a bullshit label to make myself feel better about cisgender white guilt or something.
Thank you! I actually learned about those two terms recently, I appreciate you putting those out here!
My husband is finsexual and it’s nice to have a more accurate word for it :)
I thought “trans” was short for transsexual? Could someone bring me up to speed here?
In what way is it outdated?
trans is short for “transgender.”
Is this incorrect, then? (See: “Etymology 2”)
It is correct, but the former has become a slur over time, nor does “transexual” match because it’s not about who you desire, it’s about who you are. Heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, finsexual are all about what kind person(s) you desire sexually. It’s a mismatch and it is now a slur.
So it means transgender. Unless you’re an asshole.
Wouldn’t a “transsexual” be someone who has a strong sexual preference for transgender people?
That’s not what the historic definition of the word is, but I don’t know if people are trying to reclaim it and redefine it so I can’t speak on that.
I do know that it is seen as offensive generally.
No its not dated, generally transgender is used instead but many trans folks still use transsexual especially those that have undergone bottom surgery.
Let me clarify - I think it’s being used in an outdated way in this article.