In behavioral science, androphilia and gynephilia are sexual orientations: Androphilia is sexual attraction to men or masculinity; gynephilia is sexual attraction to women or femininity. Ambiphilia describes the combination of both androphilia and gynephilia in a given individual, or bisexuality. The terms offer an alternative to a gender binary homosexual and heterosexual conceptualization of sexuality.Diamond M (2010). Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. In Weiner I. B., Craighead E. W. eds. The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology, Volume 4. p. 1578. John Wiley and Sons, .
The terms are used for identifying a person's objects of attraction without attributing a sex assignment or gender identity to the person. They may be used when describing intersex, transgender, and non-binary people.Turban J., de Vries A. L. C., Zucker K. J., & Shadianloo S. (2018). Transgender and Gender non-conforming Youth. The International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions, p. 3. Accessed 31 August 2022.
Historical use
Androphilia Magnus Hirschfeld, an early-20th century German sexologist and physician, divided homosexual men into four groups: paedophiles, who are most attracted to prepubescent youth, ephebophiles, who are most attracted to youths from puberty up to the early twenties; androphiles, who are most attracted to persons between the early twenties and fifty; and gerontophiles, who are most attracted to older men, up to senile old age.Hirschfeld M (1948). Sexual anomalies: the origins, nature and treatment of sexual disorders : a summary of the works of Magnus Hirschfeld. Emerson Books, Dynes W.R. & Donaldson S (1990). Encyclopedia of homosexuality, Volume 1. Garland Publishing, According to Karen Franklin, Hirschfeld considered ephebophilia "common and nonpathological, with ephebophiles and androphiles each making up about 45% of the homosexual population."Franklin K (2010). Hebephilia: quintessence of diagnostic pretextuality. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, volume 28, issue 6, pp. 751–768, ,
The terms androsexuality and androsexual are occasionally used as synonyms for this orientation.Tucker N (1995). Bisexual politics: theories, queries, and visions. Psychology Press,
Alternate uses in biology and medicine In biology, androphilic is sometimes used as a synonym for anthropophilic, describing parasites who have a host preference for humans versus non-human animals.Covell G, Russell PF, Hendrik N (1953). Malaria terminology: Report of a drafting committee appointed by the World Health Organization. World Health Organization,
Androphilic is also sometimes used to describe certain proteins and androgen receptors.Calandra RS, Podestá EJ, Rivarola MA, Blaquier JA (1974). Tissue androgens and androphilic proteins in rat epididymis during sexual development Steroids, volume 24, issue 4, pp. 507-518
Gynephilia A version of the term appeared in Ancient Greek. In Idyll 8, line 60, Theocritus uses () as a euphemistic adjective to describe Zeus's lust for women.Cholmeley RJ (1901). The idylls of Theocritus. G. Bell & Sons, p. 98Rummel, E (1996). Erasmud on Women. University of Toronto Press, p. 82, Brown GW (1979). Depression: A sociologist's view. Trends in Neurosciences, Volume 2, pp. 253–256
Sigmund Freud used the term gynecophilic to describe his case study Dora.Kahane C (2004). Freud and the passions of the voice. In O'Neill J (2004). Freud and the Passions. Penn State Press, He also used the term in correspondence.Freud, S (1908). Letter from Sigmund Freud to Sándor Ferenczi, March 25 1908. Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing. Accessed 31 August 2022. Quote: "I have often seen it so: a woman unsatisfied by a man naturally turns to a woman and tries to invest her long-suppressed gynecophilic component with libido."
The variant spelling gynophilia is also sometimes used.Money J (1986). Venuses Penuses: Sexology, Sexosophy, and Exigency Theory. Prometheus Books,
Rarely, the terms gynesexuality and gynesexual have also been used as synonyms.Chodorow N (1999). The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender. University of California Press,
Sexual interest in adults Following Hirschfeld, androphilia and gynephilia are sometimes used in taxonomies which specify sexual interests based on age ranges, which John Money called chronophilia. In such schemes, sexual attraction to adults is called teleiophiliaBlanchard R, Barbaree HE, Bogaert AF, Dickey R, Klassen P, Kuban ME, & Zucker KJ (2000). Fraternal birth order and sexual orientation in paedophiles. Archives of Sexual Behavior, volume 29, issue 5, pp. 463–478, , , or adultophilia.Feierman JR (1992). Reply to Dickemann: The ethology of variant sexology. Human Nature, volume 3, number 3, pp. 279–297, , In this context, androphilia and gynephilia are gendered variants meaning "attraction to adult males" and "attraction to adult females", respectively. Psychologist Dennis Howitt writes: Definition is primarily an issue of theory, not merely classification, since classification implies a theory, no matter how rudimentary. Freund et al. (1984) used Latinesque words to classify sexual attraction along the dimensions of sex and age: Gynephilia. Sexual interest in physically adult women Androphilia. Sexual interest in physically adult malesHowitt D (1995). Introducing the paedophile. In Paedophiles and sexual offences against children. J. Wiley,
Androphilia and gynephilia scales The nine-item Gynephilia Scale was created to measure erotic interest in physically mature females, and the thirteen-item Androphilia Scale was created to measure erotic interest in physically mature males. The scales were developed by Kurt Freund and Betty Steiner in 1982.Freund K, Steiner BW, & Chan S (1982). Two types of cross-gender identity. Archives of Sexual Behavior, volume 11, issue 1, pp. 49–64, , , They were later modified by Ray Blanchard in 1985, as the Modified Androphilia–Gynephilia Index (MAGI).Blanchard, R. (1985). Research Methods for the Typological Study of Gender Disorders in Males. In: Steiner, B.W. (eds) Gender Dysphoria. Perspectives in Sexuality. Springer, Boston, MA. ,
Gender identity and expression
Magnus Hirschfeld distinguished between gynephilic, bisexual, androphilic, asexual, and narcissistic or automonosexual gender-variant persons.Veale JF, Clarke DE, & Lomax TC (2008). Sexuality of male-to-female transsexuals. Archives of Sexual Behavior, volume 37, issue 4, pp. 586-597, , Freund K, Heasman G, Racansky IG, & Glancy G (1984). Pedophilia and heterosexuality vs. homosexuality. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, volume 10, issue 3, pp. 193-200, Since then, some psychologists have proposed using homosexual transsexual and heterosexual transsexual or non-homosexual transsexual. Psychobiologist James D. Weinrich has described this split among psychologists: "The mf transsexuals who are attracted to men (whom some call 'homosexual' and others call 'androphilic') are in the lower left-hand corner of the XY table, in order to line them up with the ordinary homosexual (androphilic) men in the lower right. Finally, there are the mf transsexuals who are attracted to women (whom some call heterosexual and others call gynephilic or lesbian)."Weinrich JD (1987). Sexual landscapes: why we are what we are, why we love whom we love. Scribner's,
The use of homosexual transsexual and related terms have been applied to transgender people since the middle of the 20th century, though concerns about the terms have been voiced since then. Harry Benjamin said in 1966: ....it seems evident that the question "Is the transsexual homosexual?" must be answered "yes" and "no." "Yes," if his anatomy is considered; "no" if his psyche is given preference.
What would be the situation after corrective surgery has been performed and the sex anatomy now resembles that of a woman? Is the "new woman" still a homosexual man? "Yes," if pedantry and technicalities prevail. "No" if reason and common sense are applied and if the respective patient is treated as an individual and not as a rubber stamp.Benjamin H (1966). The transsexual phenomenon. The Julian Press, Inc.,
Many sources, including some supporters of the typology, criticize this choice of wording as confusing and degrading. Biologist Bruce Bagemihl writes "...the point of reference for "heterosexual" or "homosexual" orientation in this nomenclature is solely the individual's genetic sex prior to reassignment (see for example, Blanchard et al. 1987, Coleman and Bockting, 1988, Blanchard, 1989).Blanchard R (1988). Nonhomosexual gender dysphoria. Journal of Sex Research, volume 24, pp. 188-193, Coleman E & Bockting WO (1988). "Heterosexual" prior to sex reassignment—"homosexual" afterwards: A case study of a female-to-male transsexual. Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality, volume 1, issue 2, pp. 69–82, Blanchard R (1989). The concept of autogynephilia and the typology of male gender dysphoria. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, volume 177, issue 10, pp. 616–623, These labels thereby ignore the individual's personal sense of gender identity taking precedence over biological sex, rather than the other way around."Bagemihl B (1997). Surrogate phonology and transsexual faggotry: A linguistic analogy for uncoupling sexual orientation from gender identity. In Queerly Phrased: Language, Gender, and Sexuality. Livia A & Hall K (eds). Oxford University Press, p. 380 ff, Bagemihl goes on to take issue with the way this terminology makes it easy to claim transsexuals are really homosexual males seeking to escape from stigma. Leavitt and Berger stated in 1990 that "The homosexual transsexual label is both confusing and controversial among males seeking sex reassignment.Leavitt F & Berger JC (1990). Clinical patterns among male transsexual candidates with erotic interest in males. Archives of Sexual Behavior, volume 19, issue 5, pp. 491–505, , Morgan Jr AJ (1978). Psychotherapy for transsexual candidates screened out of surgery. Archives of Sexual Behavior, volume 7, pp. 273–282, , Critics argue that the term "homosexual transsexual" is "heterosexist", "archaic",Wahng SJ (2004). Double Cross: Transamasculinity Asian American Gendering. In Trappings of Transhood. In Aldama AJ (ed.) Violence and the Body: Race, Gender, and the State. Indiana University Press, and demeaning because it labels people by sex assigned at birth instead of their gender identity.Leiblum SR & Rosen RC (2000). Principles and Practice of Sex Therapy, third edition. Guilford Press of New York, p. c2000, Benjamin, Leavitt, and Berger have all used the term in their own work. Sexologist John Bancroft also recently expressed regret for having used this terminology, which was standard when he used it, to refer to transsexual women. He says that he now tries to choose his words more sensitively.Bancroft J (2008). Lust or Identity? Archives of Sexual Behavior, volume 37, issue 3, pp. 426–428, , , Sexologist Charles Allen Moser is likewise critical of the terminology.Moser C (2010). Blanchard's Autogynephilia Theory: A Critique. Journal of Homosexuality, volume 57, edition 6, issue 6, pp. 790–809, , ,
Use of androphilia and gynephilia was proposed and popularized by psychologist Ron Langevin in the 1980s.Langevin R (1982). Sexual Strands: Understanding and Treating Sexual Anomalies in Men. Routledge, Psychologist Stephen T. Wegener writes, "Langevin makes several concrete suggestions regarding the language used to describe sexual anomalies. For example, he proposes the terms gynephilic and androphilic to indicate the type of partner preferred regardless of an individual's gender identity or dress. Those who are writing and researching in this area would do well to adopt his clear and concise vocabulary."Wegener ST (1984). Male sexual anomalies: the data (review of Sexual Strands) APA Review of Books, volume 29, issues 7–12, p. 783, Volume 29, Issues 7–12, p. 783.