Gender & Sexuality dictionary
gynesexual
[gahy-nuh-sek-shoo-uhl]
What does gynesexual mean?
Someone who is gynesexual identifies as being attracted to femininity or the female anatomy, regardless of whether the object of one’s affection identifies as a woman.
Where does gynesexual come from?
With the prefix gyne- coming from the Greek for “woman,” gynesexual is a sexual orientation that describes someone who is attracted to females or female body parts, regardless of whether that person identifies as female. Examples include someone who is transgender or a cisgender male who presents as feminine. That means that heterosexual men and lesbians are gynesexuals, but the term is especially meant for when a person is attracted to femininity in nonbinary or genderqueer individuals.
Gynesexual flag / MOGAI Encyclopedia
The term is mentioned in Nancy Chodorow’s best-selling 1978 book The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender in a discussion of Freud’s theory of sexuality (i.e., children’s original attraction to mothers). It also appeared in 1997 Usenet forums on transgenderism and sex reassignment, discussed as sexual attraction to femaleness.
Examples of gynesexual
Who uses gynesexual?
Gynesexual is also referred to as gynephilia-philia, a suffix meaning “love of,” although it’s often simply shortened to gyne. Its counterpart is androsexual, or attraction to masculinity regardless of gender identification.
The term sees use as a self-identifier for one’s sexual orientation, as well as wide-ranging discussions of gender and sexuality more generally.
jealous that androsexual (attraction to masculinity regardless of genitalia, includes masc NB dudes, etc) is such a nice word, but the opposite word for attraction to femininity (gynesexual) just sounds like something a doctor went to jail for
— Garreth đ (@Banjo_Kaluigi)
Gynesexual a useful term to discuss attraction to constructions of femininity without labeling persons as female or as of binary gender, though some in the LGBTQ+ may challenge the concept.
i dont trust people who describe themselves as gynesexual bc 9 times out of 10 theyre being really cissexist
— fuck truck (@VCR_WOLFE)
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of gynesexual like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of gynesexual that will help our users expand their word mastery.