I'm sorry you had a bad experience with autogynophelia. I've run across many trans women who have had bad experiences with this, but I've also run across trans women who had a good experience because it explains who they are. I think the problems were more common in the past.
Yes first I was sexually exciting, but I very quickly found out that people liked me, and paid attention to make as a woman, instead of being an invisible man that nobody cared about. And so it immediately made me feel confident and happy, and I felt sexy and good about myself. And that's what's it's like now, probably how a lot of cis women feel.
Regarding your comment "is it still important to use the term that has harmed our shared experience as trans women, knowing that many trans women will view your claiming of that term as a problem". My answer is yes it is important to still use it, that's the point of my article. I get more crap from other trans women vs. anybody else. A lot of trans women can't stand trans women like me, they deny our right to exist, and they deny our right to call ourselves trans. I understand that this term has hurt them, but this term has helped me and many other trans women, despite some of the controversy around it. I don't think the problem is so much that this term has hurt them vs. they simply hate us, and don't consider us trans. That is their problem not ours.
Could I use a different term, maybe, but what term? Is the point of using a different term because it will help people forget about the problems with this term, or it is because they simply hate us and refuse to acknowledge that we are trans. I think it's the latter. They are probably taking out their negative experiences with this term on us (i.e. Blanchard's incorrect claim that ALL trans women are exactly the same, which is absurd). Your experience is legitimate, but taking it out on us is not.
One thing I've learned about people is that there are two types of trans people - cool people and assholes. There are two types of straight people - cool people and assholes. There are two types of Jews - cool people and assholes. There are two types of Christians - cool people and assholes. Etc. If you are trans and you deny the right of autogynephilic trans women to exist, you're simply an asshole - stop taking your negative experiences out on other people. I acknowledged this issue in my article, yet some trans women couldn't give a shit, they simply hate trans women like me and it shows. Once again, that's their problem, not ours.
