More recently, in his study of 4,175 Americans’ sexual fantasies,
Lehmiller found that: “…women appear more likely than men to see themselves as the object of desire in their sexual fantasies. Therefore, having a specific person in mind may not matter as much to women because they themselves are usually — though certainly not always — the focus of the fantasy, not their partners. By contrast, it appears that men are more likely than women to view their fantasy selves not as objects of desire but as acting on an object of desire, which would make having a specific partner in mind more important for men.”
These findings not only call Blanchard’s Autogynephilic Interpersonal Fantasy Scale into question, but his Core Autogynephilia Scale as well. After all, if most cisgender women tend to be “the focus of the fantasy, not their partners,” then questions like, “Have you ever become sexually aroused while picturing yourself having a nude female body or with certain features of the nude female form?” might also be salient or pertinent for some of them. In fact, in her book chronicling women’s sexual fantasies,
Dubberley (2013) details numerous examples in which cisgender women’s primary focus is on her own body and/or her various states of undress (see Chapter 3 on exhibitionism, although similar fantasies also occur elsewhere throughout the book).
