Gynosexual
Attraction to femininity, whatever the person's gender.
Gynosexual means attraction to femininity: to women, to feminine people, or to femininity itself, described without assuming anything about the gender of the person feeling it.
It is the counterpart to androsexual, and the two are almost always explained together. The pair exists to describe attraction without first requiring the speaker to place themselves in a category.
The usefulness shows up for people whose own gender makes the older words fail. Gay and straight are both relational, defined by the distance between two genders. For someone agender there is nothing on their side of that comparison, so neither word returns a sensible answer. Gynosexual answers the question directly.
It describes attraction to femininity rather than to a particular anatomy, and that distinction is intentional. Trans women, transfem people, femme nonbinary people and feminine presentation more broadly can all fall inside it, depending on the person.
It is rarer in daily use than androsexual, largely because more people have found the older words sufficient. It turns up most in profiles and in conversations where someone is being careful about what they are actually saying.
The prefix is from the Greek gyne, meaning woman. Like androsexual it appeared in sexology writing before the community adopted it, and it entered general use through online vocabulary in the 2010s.
Gynosexual is about femininity, not about anatomy
The word gets misread as a technical way of specifying bodies, and that reading is sometimes deliberate: it appears in profiles where someone means attraction to a particular set of parts and would rather not say so. The term does not mean that. It describes attraction to femininity, and trans women are women.
The second confusion is with straight or lesbian. Those describe a relationship between two genders. Gynosexual describes only one side of it, which is why it is useful to people whose own side does not fit the older words and largely redundant for people whose does.
Saying it well
Say this
- I am gynosexual.
- Drawn to femininity, and my own gender is not part of the description.
- Gynosexual, since neither straight nor lesbian says anything true about me.
- Gynosexual, and that includes trans women.
Not this
- Gynosexual meaning a specific anatomy
- So you are a lesbian
- That is just straight with extra syllables
- Using it to exclude trans women politely
Questions people actually ask
What does gynosexual mean?
Attraction to women, feminine people, or femininity, described without assumptions about the gender of the person feeling it.
Is gynosexual the same as being a lesbian?
No. Lesbian describes a relationship between two genders, a woman attracted to women. Gynosexual describes only what someone is drawn to and says nothing about who they are.
Does gynosexual include trans women?
Yes. It describes attraction to femininity and to women, and trans women are women. Anyone using it to mean a particular anatomy is using it wrongly.
What is the opposite of gynosexual?
Androsexual, attraction to masculinity. They are a matched pair and are usually introduced together.
Who uses this word?
Most often nonbinary and agender people, for whom gay and straight have nothing to anchor to. Anyone can use it, but people whose gender fits the older words usually keep them.
Is gynosexual the same as gynephilia?
They cover much the same ground. Gynephilia is the research term, popularised by the psychologist Ron Langevin in the 1980s; gynosexual is the word found in community glossaries. Used properly, neither means attraction to a particular body.