Why are some men attracted to transgender people?
- Biological Factors: Hormones and brain chemistry play a role in sexual attraction. Transgender individuals may present with physical and hormonal characteristics that resonate with certain men.
- Personal Preferences: Attraction is subjective and influenced by individual experiences, values, and preferences. Some men may be drawn to the unique qualities and experiences of transgender people.
- Comfort and Acceptance: Men who are open-minded and comfortable with diversity may be attracted to transgender individuals who embody these values.
- Empowerment and Strength: Some men may appreciate the courage and resilience demonstrated by transgender individuals.
- Emotional Connection: Like any relationship, a deep emotional connection can be a significant factor in attraction, regardless of gender identity.
- Challenges and Personal Growth: For some men, the challenges faced by transgender individuals may be a source of attraction. They may be drawn to the journey of self-discovery and personal growth.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6362784/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3918279/
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Why are some men attracted to transgender people?
Gender identity, transgender and sexuality: these topics are part of our everyday life, yet it is not easy or obvious to talk about them because even today many are the taboos related to the LBTQIA+ world..
The last and only official data on the transgender population in Italy is from 2011: it looks at a time frame from 1992 to 2008 and the estimate spoke of 424 transgender women and 125 transgender men. A more recent figure comes from SPoT, an acronym for the first Estimate of the Adult Transgender Population in Italy: “data from the international scientific literature suggest that the percentage of the transgender population should be between 0.5 and 1.2 percent of the total. If confirmed, even in our country, it would consist of about 400,000 Italians.”
We asked Fabrizio Quattrini, psychologist psychotherapist and sexologist to talk to us about transsexuality and the reason why it brings some heterosexual men to be attracted to transsexual people.
Attraction by heterosexual men to transgender people: is it a sexual orientation or is there more to it?
“Attraction to transsexual or transgender people. cannot be part of a sexual orientation. Sexual orientations are an attraction to people of the same sex or the opposite sex and not for such specific characteristics (otherwise even a fetish could be referred to as a sexual orientation, but it is not).
It can be a form that can relate to a transgressive dimension, a sexual attraction to these characteristics. There are those who are attracted to the heeled shoe or latex, in this case one is attracted to a figure that we can almost call “mythological” that has different characteristics than what one expects in the biological dimension.
On the other hand, this kind of attraction can also hide other aspects.
We are talking, in fact, about an attraction on the part of a man who describes himself as heterosexual to a trans woman, thus a man who has become or would like to become a woman or has a situation related to not feeling compliant between physical identity and psychic identity.
In this case, some heterosexuals may have a number of characteristics that could also a conceal internally a certain homoerotic attraction and thus tend to hide it from the social through series of “cover-ups,” such as being attracted to a person who is ostensibly a woman but hides a male genital apparatus.
There are many nuances that could represent attraction to a transgender person,” comments Dr. Fabrizio Quattrini.
Is there a “sketch” for a person attracted to trans people?
“I don’t feel like there is a sketch accurate for those who are predominantly attracted to trans people; I think they are more “false myths.” What can sometimes be hidden, however, is something that is not so clear in the attracted person: a homoerotic nature might be hiding, a fear of accepting this part of oneself and acceptance by others,” Quattrini explains.
How important is the illusion, linked to the figure of a woman with a male genital apparatus?
“Illusion becomes fundamental also because sometimes the person deluding himself that he is with a woman, precisely, allows himself to transgress and experience what is probably there in his imagination.
The most dramatic thing is that related to the judgment of others and to social judgment, as if they come to lose their role as “male.” Their vulnerability becomes feeling less masculine, less manly, despite the strong attraction to this kind of fantasy and behavior. In reality, attractions are so free, or so they should be, so that every person is guaranteed the opportunity to experience.”
And for women, can we talk about a similar transgression?
“No, there is no such transgression: the woman who may be attracted to a trans man falls into a much lighter dimension. Women have an imagination related to sexual orientation that is much more “open”; most likely the woman is less afraid of experiencing homoerotic attraction and so even attraction to a trans man becomes simply an attraction to a person, regardless of not having a neo-phallus and still having a vagina.
I would say it is something completely different: in the man, the fear of losing virility confirms the great attraction for transgression in going with a trans woman, in the woman, on the other hand, the freedom of being able to experience relating to an individual does not prevent her from this individual also being a trans man,” Dr. Fabrizio Quattrini concludes.
