{"id":5474,"date":"2016-08-04T09:26:29","date_gmt":"2016-08-04T03:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pahichan.com\/?p=5474"},"modified":"2016-08-04T09:49:00","modified_gmt":"2016-08-04T04:04:00","slug":"about-men-who-are-attracted-to-transwomen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/about-men-who-are-attracted-to-transwomen\/","title":{"rendered":"About men who are attracted to transwomen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"unnamed\"<\/a>Rukshana Kapali\/Pahichan – When we come to talk about men who are attracted to transgender women, we\u2019re usually not informed about them. Although we have explained about people being heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual, what exactly are those men who are attracted towards transwomen?<\/p>\n

Before I talk about men who are attracted to transwomen, lets make clear what transwoman is.\u00a0A\u00a0trans woman\u00a0(sometimes\u00a0trans-woman\u00a0or\u00a0transwoman) is a\u00a0transgender<\/a>\u00a0person who was assigned male at birth but whose\u00a0gender identity<\/a>\u00a0is that of a woman. To understand typically, transwoman are those human beings who are physically male but they behave in feminine ways or feel as a woman. Since I said that a transwoman is physically male, it is obvious that they have male physical attire. In this part of their life, or these transwomen are in their natural form. They live their life as a woman and dress up the way(although it depends upon her society and\u00a0being in closet or not) . When transwomen are in their natural form, they\u2019re called\u00a0non-operative transwomen. Usually transwomen feel a sort of discomfort in their male body or their masculine physique(not necessarily all transwomen), therefore they might decide to use medicines that will make their body look feminine and just like those of female; they do\u00a0Hormone Replacement Therapy(HRT)<\/a>. After they have done HRT for considerable period of time, they grow feminine attire of their body and most of them can easily pass or look just like females. But although they still have penis; and this form of them is called\u00a0pre-operative transwomen; although we can find some people describing this as \u201cshemale\u201d, but the term shemale is purely based on porn industry and transwomen find this term being over-sexualized. Some transwomen after HRT may choose to go under\u00a0Sex reassignment surgery<\/a>, which will remove their penis and change it into vagina with a long process surgery. These transwomen are called\u00a0post-operative transwomen.<\/p>\n

Now lets come to the main point. What kind of men will be attracted to a transwomen. A straight man is obviously attracted to females, and you might assume that\u00a0post-operative transwomen\u00a0\u00a0will be liked by straight men and since gay men like other men, they will love\u00a0non-operative transwomen\u00a0and\u00a0pre-operative transwomen. But your assumption is not fully correct here.<\/div>\n
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Sexuality and Identification<\/h3>\n

For those men who are attracted to transgender women, we have diversity here. First of all, lets think how do they identify, as straight, as gay or as bisexual!\u00a0The men who are attracted to transwomen come from diverse sexual identities and feelings. There are many kinds of men who are attracted towards transgender women.<\/p>\n

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  1. \u00a0Some of the men feel of being purely attracted to transwomen only.\u00a0 These men feel attracted equally to pre-operative and non-operative transwoman. They tend to identify as \u201ctrans-oriented men\u201d or \u201cTrans-attracted men\u201d. They say they are purely attracted to non-operative transwomen and pre-operative transwomen, but not post operative transwomen, because post-operative transwomen are already females now, and the thing these men get attracted to is the femininity in a male body, not the female body.<\/li>\n
  2. Some of the men feel strong attraction to transgender women whereas comparatively less attraction to biological females. These men identify themselves as \u201cstraight\u201d.<\/li>\n
  3. There are men who feel strong attraction to biological females whereas comparatively less attraction to transwomen.\u00a0These men also identify themselves as \u201cstraight\u201d.<\/li>\n
  4. Some of them are equally attracted to both transwomen and biological female. They say they find no difference between a biological female and a transgender women. Most of these men also identify themselves as straight. But some of them can also identify as \u201cgynesexual\u201d. Gynesexual is a term that describes a person who is attracted towards \u201cfemininity\u201d or \u201cfeminine behavior\u201d.<\/li>\n
  5. There are also men who feel attracted towards\u00a0pre-operative transwomen, post-operative transwomen and biological females. They say that they\u2019re not attracted towards non-operative transwomen, because when they undress, they\u2019re just males, and they don\u2019t find it attractive. These men also identify as \u201cstraight\u201d.<\/li>\n
  6. \u00a0There are men who feel strong attraction to transwomen and faint attraction to boys as well; and also vice versa. There are men who like both boys and transgender women equally. They usually identify themselves as \u201cgay\u201d. Most of them call them \u201ca different type of gay\u201d. Gay men do not usually get attracted to transwomen because gay men means being attracted to \u201cman\u201d, and transwomen have something feminine, and they feel any feminization is incongruous to their tastes.<\/li>\n
  7. \u00a0There are men who are attracted to transgender women, females and men as well. They tend\u00a0identifying \u201cbisexual\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This list has shown that there are men who are attracted to transwomen, but they come from various identification terms and sexualities. All men who are attracted to transwomen do not have same sexuality or same kind of attraction. More often straight men who are attracted to transwomen feel violated when they\u2019re mistaken for being\u00a0gay<\/em>.\u00a0There has been a term \u201cgynandromorphophilia\u201d\u00a0<\/i>used to describe the sexuality of men who are attracted to transwomen. Also the abbreviation MSTW is used for Men who have sex with Transgender Women.<\/p>\n

    The Chasers<\/h3>\n

    The term \u201cchasers\u201d particularly define those men who are attracted to transwomen, but treat transwomen as highly sexualized beings and their attraction to transwomen\u00a0highly fetishistic. They do not respect transwomen, and are very transphobic. They take transwomen in terms of sex only.\u00a0Chaser culture is an integral part of the oppression of trans people. Men who treat their trans partners like a fetish or a dirty secret are propping up a system of violence that attacks trans women everyday. In fact, those men are the most common perpetrators of that violence. They are just trans-attracted at night. These men will take transwomen not much more than \u201csex\u201d.<\/p>\n

    Usually, men who want to be committed with a transgender woman find the term \u201cchaser\u201d as offensive to them. They have been explained more\u00a0here<\/a><\/p>\n

    Celebrations or Days<\/h3>\n

    \"12963413_475392799332227_146588798107544500_n.png\"<\/p>\n

    A day named\u00a0International Day for men who are attracted to Transwomen(IMDT)has been proposed for April 5<\/span><\/span>.\u00a0This day has been established to provide an awareness for men who have a sexual and emotional orientation towards transwomen. It also aims to humanize trans-attracted men in the public eye and to help family members and friends of trans-attracted men to get a better understanding of what it means to be \u201ctrans-attracted \u201c. A large part of the reason why trans-attracted men are misunderstood is because transwomen are generally misunderstood, so we have to provide better understanding about transwomen as well. The mission of the day is to establish equal recognization, visibility, discrimination free society, and bias-less-ness towards men who are attracted to transwomen. We can find its Facebook page\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and a Facebook event\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Situation in society<\/h3>\n

    \"600677_469854419886065_8176776066728670155_n.png\"<\/p>\n

    We, as a society, have not created a space for men to openly express their desire to\u00a0be<\/em>\u00a0with trans women. Instead, we shame men who have this desire, from the boyfriends, cheaters and \u201cchasers\u201d to the \u201ctrade,\u201d clients, and pornography admirers. We tell men to keep their attraction to trans women secret, to limit it to the internet, frame it as a passing fetish or transaction. In effect, we\u2019re telling trans women that they are only deserving of secret interactions with men, further demeaning and stigmatizing trans women.\u00a0I\u2019ve stood witness to many so-called scandals, mostly published on gossip blogs, where passing interactions with trans women spawn hundreds of headlines, particularly for a man with fame and social capital. Thousands of words have been dedicated to analyzing whether such and such famous man is now suspect, merely because he took a photo with a fan who happened to be a trans woman. This questioning has led many well-known men to adamantly defend their heterosexuality and has tarnished the reputation and careers of others. It sounds like silliness on the surface, but often times when gossip blogs are the public\u2019s only exposure to trans women, it spreads misinformation, validates stereotypes and causes irreparable damage.<\/p>\n

    \"12718236_547094205468940_3813528920370742258_n.jpg\"<\/p>\n

    This pervasive ideology says that trans women are shameful, that trans women are not worthy of being seen and that trans women must remain a secret \u2014 invisible and disposable. If a man dares to be seen with a trans woman, he will likely lose social capital so he must adamantly deny, vehemently demean, trash and\/or exterminate the woman in question. He must do this to maintain his standing in our patriarchal society. For a man to be associated with a trans women, in effect, is to say that he is no longer a \u201creal\u201d man (as if such a thing exists) because he sleeps with \u201cfake\u201d women (as if such a thing exists)<\/p>\n

    However, the situation with these men is very different, not only are such relationships devoid of social pressure to encourage them, there is a strong social pressure (or at least a fear of social condemnation), that discourages men seeking such relationships. Add to this the fact that most men have little knowledge of transwomen and almost no exposure to successful relationships, in real life or in the media.\u00a0Society is hard on the men who date transgender individuals. There is a lot of stigma attached to it.<\/p>\n

    The heteronormative world in which we live had successfully convinced men\u00a0that being attracted to transgender women meant they\u00a0had a fetish.\u00a0and people\u00a0begin questioning their\u00a0sexuality and even their\u00a0\u00a0masculinity. \u00a0Because our culture deems\u00a0transwomen\u00a0undesirable, their\u00a0lovers and partners are often expected to explain why they choose to be with them.<\/p>\n

    \"12642494_453657628172411_2472635960734681099_n.jpg\"<\/p>\n

    In addition to the usual challenges in finding love and a partner, there are also more specific barriers that complicate the pursuit of love in the transgender community.<\/p>\n