>>4779Yeah, I agree 100% with all of this.
Blanchard's theories are almost universally rejected by trans people. Which should be seen as pretty strong evidence that blanchard's theory can't comprehensively explain the most common reasons for transitioning.
Blanchard's theories also seem to fail to account for gender dysphoria, both social and physical, and don't explain why someone would want to live every aspect of their life as a woman. If it was just a fetish, one would expect to see people acting out fantasies in the bedroom, not transitioning completely and living every aspect of their life, including social and solitary time, as a woman.
I think the survey author probably touches on something real. If you're same-sex attracted, it would probably make sense that you have a different way of appraising yourself than someone who's opposite-gender attracted.
I bartend in a gay bar on weekends, and I can kinda tell that there's maybe a lot of pressure to appear physically attractive, and an intense focus on appearance and body among probably most people here. On reason could be, is that everyone takes the ways that they examine and evaluate potential partners, and turn it inwards on themselves, effectively evaluating their own attractiveness from the perspective of someone who might be interested in them as a partner. This can lead to a lot of stress, if you feel like parts of you aren't optimally attractive. And it's hard to turn that off, because sexuality is kind of constant.
That said, though, people are definitely capable of looking beyond that as well. And we definitely try to do that, because it's just healthier for everyone involved.