Transgender

Now in reality, these sorts of “cross-sex” fantasies (sexual fantasies that involve imagining oneself as a member of the other sex) are fairly common. In his 2018 study of 4,175 Americans’ sexual fantasies, Justin Lehmiller found that “about one-quarter of men and women had fantasized about cross-dressing, and nearly a third had fantasized about trading bodies with someone of the other sex” (p. 66). Lehmiller points out that this isn’t just men fantasizing about being women: “11 percent of the women I surveyed reported sexual fantasies about becoming men and that 20 percent had fantasized about dressing up as men” (pp. 97–98). As Lehmiller puts it, “We often become different people in our sexual fantasies. Most of my participants reported that, when they appear in their own fantasies, they change themselves in some way, whether it’s having a different body, genital appearance, or personality” (p. xviii).

I should point out that trans people only comprise about 0.6% of the U.S. population. So when Lehmiller reports that roughly 33% of people experience these cross-sex fantasies, he is primarily talking about cisgender people here. These are, by and large, cisgender fantasies.

Outside of cross-sex fantasies, some people have used the term “autogynephilia” to refer to sexual fantasies that women often have centered on their own female body and/or feminine gender expression (e.g., dressing up in lingerie). Veale et al. (2008) found that 52% of their cisgender female subjects experienced “autogynephilia” (see Moser, 2010 for further elaboration). In a separate study of cisgender women, Moser (2009) found that 93% of his subjects experienced “autogynephilia” to some extent, with 28% experiencing it at high levels. Other researchers (e.g., Leitenberg & Henning, 1995; Dubberley, 2013) have also described these sorts of sexual fantasies in women, albeit without framing such fantasies in terms of “autogynephilia.”

In my 2020 scientific review on the subject, I argued that we should ditch the term “autogynephilia” because Blanchard’s conceptualization of these fantasies—that is, his theory of “autogynephilia”—has been disproven (more on that in a moment). Instead, we should collectively call these embodiment fantasies (as they are focused on one’s own real or imagined body) and recognize that they come in various forms and individuals may experience them to varying degrees (frequently for some people, on occasional for others, and never for some).

emphasis is mine