Erotic target location error

Erotic target location error (ETLE) is having a sexual preference or strong sexual interest in features that are somewhere other than on one's sexual partners.

When one's sexual arousal is based on imagining oneself in another physical form (such as an animal, an infant, or an amputee) the erotic target is said to be one's self, or erotic target identity inversion.

The terms "erotic target location error" and "erotic target identity inversion" were first used in 1993 by sexologist Ray Blanchard.

The best known examples of erotic target identity inversions are biological males who experience sexual arousal in response to imagining themselves as women (called autogynephilia), but at least one case of anatomic autoandrophilia has also been reported. In The Beauty Myth (1990) by Naomi Wolf, Wolf writes, "Women tell me they're jealous of the men who get so much pleasure from the female body; that they imagine being inside the male body that is inside their own so that they can vicariously experience desire."

Whereas gynephilia refers to the sexual preference for women, autogynephilia refers to a male's sexual interest in being a woman. Autogynephilia can be associated with gender dysphoria and gender identity disorder, discontent with one's biological sex and the desire to undergo surgery for sex reassignment and permanently take on a role and life of the other sex. A male with sexual arousal based on temporarily taking on the appearance or role of a woman is transvestic fetishism.

Several other sexual interests also exist in ETLE forms:

Whereas acrotomophilia refers to the sexual preference for amputees, apotemnophilia refers to sexual arousal in association with having an amputation, although both can be experienced at the same time. Apotemnophilia can be associated with the strong belief or desire that one's external body is mismatched to one's true nature, a phenomenon called body integrity identity disorder, and the desire to undergo surgery to remove a limb. People who temporarily adopt the role or identity of an amputee have been called disability pretenders.

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