Transvestic Fetishism: a new diagnosis?

• Posted by Hannah Ceridwen Eluned Cavendish-Grosvenor December 14, 2015 Filed in Society Girl's Personal Blogs 2,157 views
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  One of the girls in our discussion group cheerfully pointed out that she was not a 'Transsexual', but a "Transvestic Fetishist". I was so pleased to explain to her ( and relieve her real, concealed, concerns about her 'Disorder' ) that this further, and as usual totally wasteful, sub-division of humanity does not exist.

  FETISHISM is defined as follows:

  A: ICD-10 as a) a reliance on non-living objects for sexual arousal, without this being a Disorder b) when presenting as a Disorder the subject must exhibit most or all the following features:

  i) It is the primary source of sexual satisfaction ii) it must cause marked distress iii) it interferes with normal sexual intercourse iv) duration of six months or longer.

  B: DSM-5 as sexual arousal from specified body parts and/or non-living objects. It embraces Paraphilia NOS (non-medical Fetishism), and requires the following features:

  i) causes significant psychological distress

  ii) causes impairment of important/essential life activities (work etc).

  OBJECTS OF FOCUS:

  A 2007 study examined all internet Groups with Fetish in their title; and, basically, divided the memberships into two groups:

  a) Body-parts preference - 'Foot' 47%, 'Fluids' 9%, 'Hair' 7%, Muscles 5%.

  b) Clothes, etc. - 'Stockings, Skirts, etc.' 33%, 'Shoes' 32%, 'Lingerie' 12%.

  Most Fetishists are male (Ahlers et al.). the 2011 study found that those  males admitting to fetishism  were 24.5% of the population studied; 30% admitted to fantasies, and 45% admitted to it being intensely arousing sexually.

   

  QUESTIONS?: Why is Fetishism rare in women, and does it relate to their alleged life-long sexual fluidity? (Baumeister, 2000) If Fetishism is really attributable to conditioning, why does it not predominate in the population?

  SUMMARY: The continuing stigmatisation of Fetishists has rightly resulted in demands for the ICD to declassify and abolish the 'condition' of Fetishist Disorder. In contra-distinction to Fetishism, 'Cross-dressing' it is classified in the 'Transvestic Category of DSM-5, and has no relationship to Fetishism

  My Group member was, hopefully, relieved to know that the DSM-5 specifically excludes 'Cross-dressing' as  having any relationship to the diagnostic stigma of 'Fetishist Disorder' as defined in the ICD-10.