"Ed, I don't think you and I are alike at all."In episode 7 of Monster: The Ed Gein Story, the titular murderer finally meets his supposed hero, Christine Jorgensen, only for her to say that he's not a transsexual like she is he's a "gynephile."Ian Brennan and Ryan Murphy's true crime anthology series has stirred controversy, and the newest season is no different. While previous seasons have been criticized for exploiting grisly murders and portraying fictional incest plotlines, the latest season is drawing ire from the trans community for its promotion of a pseudoscientific theory that is used to scapegoat trans women.In Monster, Jorgensen tells Gein he's a "gynophile," which means someone attracted to women. However, the show is clearly referencing autogynephilia, a paraphilia, or atypical and persistent sexual fantasy where a person is aroused at the idea of being a woman or having a woman's body. In other words, Monster is saying that Ed Gein wasn't transgender, but was simply a transvestite, or crossdresser, with a fetish for women's bodies.This autogynephilia plotline peddles a debunked theory that has been outside of accepted science for years, while reinvigorating it. It presents a new face for this anti-trans talking point: Ed Gein.Ed Gein was convicted of two murders in the 1950s, and after his arrest, stories came out that he crossdressed, had sex with corpses, wore his victims' skin, wanted to be a woman, and potentially killed many more people. His myth would go on to inspire horror classics, including Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs.As discussed in the documentary Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen, each of those movies features a crossdressing killer, and in both The Silence of the Lambs and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the killer wears a suit or mask made out of his female victim's skin. This trope shaped Americans' views of trans people for decades before shows like Orange is the New Black and Transparent featured trans actors in trans roles with rich lives and more diverse storylines.Whether or not the real Gein was a transvestite or was fascinated with Jorgensen is up for debate, as Drew Gregory writes for Autostraddle. Either way, labeling him as a "gynephile," what Brennan and Murphy have confused with "autogynophile," could lead to serious ramifications for real-life trans women at a time when politicians are scapegoating trans people.In this new version from showrunner Brennan, Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy) plays the killer with a lilting voice and feminine affectations. But the show goes even further in conflating deviance with queerness in proposing that Gein was an autogynephile.Unfortunately, by doing this, Brennan and the show are not only repeating and amplifying TERF (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist) talking points. They are potentially putting real-life trans women in danger. In 2025, the word autogynephile is used in the same sentences where trans women are labeled as groomers and pedophiles. Its used by politicians who are banning healthcare and access to public spaces for trans people, and it's used in conversation therapy.I've written about psychologist Ray Blanchard's theory of autogynephilia before. It proposes that there are two types of trans women: heterosexual trans women who transition because they find homosexual life too hard, and others who transition due to a "misdirected heterosexual sex drive" and a paraphilia that makes them aroused at the idea of being a woman.There are multiple problems with the theory that immediately jump out, including the fact that gender and sexuality are different parts of one's identity that are not always tied to each other. Reports also show that up to 93 percent of cis women experience "erotic arousal to the thought or image of oneself as a woman."So, if cis women are just as gynephilic as trans women, what good does this label do?In Monster, Gein purchases ham radios so he can talk with his heroes a Nazi war criminal and Jorgensen, an actress and singer, and the first woman publicized as having gender affirming surgeries in 1951 and 1952. In reality, his radio isn't plugged in, and his conversations are delusional discussions with himself over things his doctors have told him. In his imagined conversation with Jorgensen, with whom the series claims Gein had a long-term fascination, he asks her if she thinks they're alike.Jorgensen tells him a resounding, "No." Gein is not a transsexual, she says, he's a "gynephile.""The transsexual is rarely the perpetrator of violence, Mr. Gein, we are far more likely to be the victims of violence," she says, parroting a famous line from The Silence of the Lambs. "I don't think deep down that you're a woman, Ed. I don't even think you want to be a woman. "You're what they call a gynophiliac, you so eroticize the female body that you wish to put it on, to be inside of it. That's not an identity, that's sexualization," she adds, adding that his actions are "the ultimate way to penetrate a woman."It sounds like dialogue straight out of J.K. Rowling's wildest dreams.In an interview with Tudum, Brennan (co-creator of other Murphy projects including Scream Queens and Hollywood), says that the scene was "necessary" so the show could draw a line between trans women and autogynephiles."It was really important for us to make that distinction, for us to say, 'Look, these are two very different things," he says. "And it was cool to be able to put it in the mouth of Christine Jorgensen. For him to be told that through her in his mind was a really cool moment."What Brennan seems to be unaware of is that psychologists and doctors aren't the ones who define transsexuals (another, often more clinical, word for transgender people) and autogynephiles as two separate categories. TERFs and transphobes do too.In fact, autogynephilia has become one of the main talking points for anti-trans activists who say that trans women and particularly trans women who are attracted to other women are sexual deviants and mentally ill.In the paper The Psychopathology of 'Sex Reassignment' Surgery by Richard P. Fitzgibbons, Philip M. Sutton, and Dale O'Leary, autogynephilia is cited numerous times. The paper says that "all gender-dysphoric biological males who are not homosexual are instead autogynephilic." It goes on to say that "autogynephilic transsexuals" are "generally less convincing as women and less overtly 'sexy' than [heterosexual transsexuals]."It continues, saying that "autogynephilia doesn't come from gender dysphoria, but from, "transvestic fetishes and masturbatory fantasies [in]adolescence" that involve crossdressing and masturbating while looking at themselves in a mirror."As writer and trans activist Julia Serano points out, conservative news sites and blogs love to bring out talking points about autogynephilia. Many of these points sound eerily similar to the conversation in Monster.Serano brings up a Focus on the Family pamphlet titled, "Helping Children with Gender Identity Confusion." In the section asking what causes "gender confusion," the pamphlet says that "Gender confusion is a type of fetish where some adolescent boys and men are aroused by putting on women's clothes. (This is sometimes called 'autogynephilia' love of oneself as a woman or 'transvestic fetishism.')""Around 90 percent are late-transitioning straight men with a sexual fetish for being and living as women, and a history of cross-dressing autogynephilia. The rest are early-transitioning, effeminate gay men who find it easier to live as women," Marcus Gregory wrote for The Federalist in a 2017 essay defending conversion therapy.He adds that Blanchard's theory of autogynephilia reveals that "gender identity is an alibi for activists real motives" and that "adult transitioning is usually sexually motivated, in a way we'd consider deviant."Conservative political commentator Ryan T. Anderson writes in his book When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment: Studies at the Clarke Institute in Toronto arrived at a similar conclusion: that discordant gender identity in adult males could arise from homosexuality or from autogynephilia, a mans sexual arousal in presenting himself as a woman."Anderson then quotes anti-gay and anti-trans psychiatrist Paul R. McHugh, who said that to provide gender-affirming surgery to trans patients is "to collaborate with a mental disorder rather than to treat it."Other anti-trans activists use the theory of autogynephilia to paint trans women who are attracted to women as sexual predators and paint their desire to transition and live as women as sex play.In society, there are lines that we draw, and we cannot engage nonconsensual people in our sexual fantasies. You know, do it in the bedroom when theres no one there, and youre all good," Gender Critical activist Helen Staniland says on notorious transphobe Graham Linehan's podcast. "You cant dress up as a woman at work, say, and expect people to call you she because its a part of your sexual fantasy. Its obvious this is wrong. Well, its obvious to us. But it isnt obvious to people who have never heard of autogynephilia."Instead of explaining the difference between men who commit violent crimes and trans women, Murphy and Brennan have simply repeated TERF talking points and given them a face.Autogynephile is a TERF dogwhistle, and when it's used today, most people mean trans women when they say it. If they're being more specific, they mean trans lesbians and bisexuals who don't necessarily pass. They mean the trans women who can be identified in public places like bathrooms. If we see them as autogynephiles instead of women, it's not only acceptable to kick them out of women's spaces, it's righteous in their minds.Monster won't prevent that; it will only continue to further the divide between how people see trans women into two groups: the "good" ones who go stealth and are straight, and the "bad" ones who are attracted to women and are visibly trans.In the past, when transsexuals were mentioned, people without real-life experience would think of horror villains like Leatherface, Buffalo Bill, and Norman Bates. Now, when TERFs talk about autogynephiles, a new generation of people will picture Ed Gein (or maybe Hunnan's version of him).No matter Brennan and Murphy's intentions, Monster: The Ed Gein Story does more than play into anti-trans tropes about serial killers. It promotes these harmful narratives. Mey Rude is a staff writer for Out.Voices is dedicated to featuring a wide range of inspiring personal stories and impactful opinions from the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. Visit out.com/submit to learn more about submission guidelines. We welcome your thoughts and feedback on any of our stories. Email us at voices@equalpride.com. Views expressed in Voices stories are those of the guest writers, columnists, and editors, and do not directly represent the views of Out or our parent company, equalpride.