Sexual fantasy across gender identity: a qualitative investigation of differences between cisgender and non-binary people’s imagery

Abstract

Sexual imagery and fantasy are key aspects of human sexuality. They are associated with sexual arousal and response and are reflective of societal influences on sexuality. A limitation of the existing literature on sexual fantasies is the pervasive focus on cisgender heterosexual individuals, whose behavior is considered normative in a cis-heteronormative society. This research has established the strong influence of gendered sexual scripts on the functioning and content of (presumably) cisgender individuals’ sexual fantasies. How these gendered scripts might apply to individuals whose gender identity falls outside the binary is an under-researched area of study. The present work is aimed at providing a better understanding of non-binary individuals’ sexuality through a qualitative investigation of sexual fantasies in a matched sample of Italian non-binary and cisgender individuals. Participants included 44 adults, 22 of whom identified as non-binary, 13 as cisgender women, and 9 as cisgender men. Results indicated that the sexual fantasies of non-binary individuals were generally comparable to cisgender individuals but were significantly more likely to contain references to non-normative genitals, and less likely to refer to themselves as the object of desire. Discussion focuses on how the differences in non-binary individuals’ sexual fantasies affirmed, or were the result of, their gender identity.

Keywords:

• Cisgenderism
• non-binary
• sexual fantasy
• sexuality
• transgender

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 “Mulatto” or “mulato” is a common word in Latin languages, such as Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, and it is used to refer to mixed race individuals. Typically, “mulatto” describes individuals that have one parent with black skin and the other with white skin. The term mulatto was carried to America during the colonization and it seems that the word assumed the meaning of half-Black African and half-American (Forbes, 1995). Soon enough the word assumed a negative connotation in American culture resulting from systems of traditional slavery, where human beings were treated as items of property. “This extended to the children of slaves, including children born of a rape by white male plantation owners of African American house slaves. Thus, an owner had the power and the right to call the child “a mulatto”; the meaning of which was also a slave” (p. 167, Brown, 2019). The cultural difference in the use of this word, as well as the meaning, emerges from the uncommon history of slavery between Europe and America.

2 Participants were not aroused simply by the thought of themselves as another gender, but rather in how their affirmed bodies could be used sexually. Therefore, the presence of a desire for different or both genitals should not be confused for autogynephilia or autoandrophilia.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Louis M. Lindley

Louis Lindley is graduate student in Clinical Psychology at Towson University. His research interest focus on gender dysphoria's interactions with gender minority stress and how transgender individuals navigate sex and sexuality.

Annalisa Anzani

Annalisa Anzani currently works at the Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca. Annalisa is a PhD candidate and does research in the field of Social and Clinical Psychology on transgender health and the effects of minority stress on transgender and non-binary individuals well-being. The recent works "Facing Transgender and Cisgender Patients: the Influence of the Client’s Experienced Gender and Gender Identity on Clinical Evaluation" and "From Absence of Microaggressions to Seeing Authentic Gender: Transgender Clients’ Experiences with Microaffirmations in Therapy" represent the effort to deepen the understanding of minority stress in the psychotherapeutic environment. Lately, her research interests focus on transgender sexual health.

Antonio Prunas

Antonio Prunas, Ph.D., is a psychologist, psychotherapist and a sex therapist. He is a European Certified Psychosexologist (European Society of Sexual Medicine) and also completed the Post-Graduate Diploma in Gender, sexuality and relationship diversity at Pink Therapy, London in 2019. He runs a private clinical practice with LGBTQ-specific therapy and sex therapy as an area of expertise. He is Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology at Milano Bicocca State University, Milan (Italy), since December 2008 and is the scientific Director of the post-graduate program in sex counselling. His main research interests are trans-specific issues in psychotherapy and sex-therapy, discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people and its impact on their well-being, in everyday life and in the context of clinical consultation with mental health professionals.

M. Paz Galupo

M. Paz Galupo, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Sexual & Gender Identity Lab at Towson University. Paz’s research interests focus on understanding the intersection of sexual orientation and gender identity, with a particular focus on understanding non-binary expressions of bisexual/plurisexual and transgender experience. Paz serves as the Editor for the Journal of GLBT Family Studies, the Journal of Bisexuality, and the Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity (the official journal for APA’s Division 44).