OK
“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.
even if they have not accepted that about themselves
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?
trans is short for “transgender.”
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Let me clarify - I think it’s being used in an outdated way in this article.
Well duh, trans people are a very small minority. I think we could go further and come close to saying all porn across the board is mostly consumed by straight identifying men… With perhap the exception of gay porn, but even there who knows (hence saying straight identifying men).
This is actually a pretty bad reading of this article (which is also outdated, but the results are still consistent with how we measure today more or less). Yes, there is a statistical imbalance of which groups of people consume porn media, but to use that as an explanation exclusively ignores what we can tell from a culture where porn with trans women is produced for straight men.
And, it’s also a problem to ignore that yes, it is straight men, not closeted queer men. Pretty much all porn is misogynistic and produced with the intent to fulfill some sort of sexual fantasy for straight men, but straight men are also socialized to value sex in terms of power and asserting their power. In a culture where trans women (trans and gnc people in general, but the topic here is trans women) are actively victimized by an explicitly genocidal system, why do you think so many straight men enjoy fantasies that involve trans women and consuming inherently dehumanizing and demeaning pornographic content involving trans women?
Additionally, think about how this relates to the rates at which black cis men or east-asian cis women are fetishized, and what the demographics are of the consumption of that pornographic material are. Yes, there are simply more straight, white, cis men who consume porn, but porn is also produced in a culture that happens to privilege cishet white men more than anyone else, and those men think that they deserve to assert power over others through sex.
Anyone who has looked for nsfw stuff on reddit eill have observed this bizarre phenomenon
bizarre phenomenon
Is it bizarre for straight men to enjoy women sexually?
Performative
I wouldn’t call straight men consuming trans porn a bizarre phenomenon.
My personal life isn’t performative.
