Gynesexual

**Gynesexual** is a sexual orientation where a person is attracted to women, females, and/or femininity. There are other prefixes that are sometimes used instead of gyne- to express the same range of attraction, such as gyno-, and woma-.

Gynesexual can be used to mean both sexual and romantic attraction. However, gyneromantic is a label that is used only for romantic attraction, with the same range of attraction as gynesexual (i.e. to women, females, and/or femininity). The same alternative prefixes for gyne- can be used for gyneromantic, as in gynoromantic and womaromantic.

## Etymology

The prefix gyne- comes from the Greek word for "woman". In some cases, gynesexual may also be referred to as "gynephilia", which combines gyne- with the suffix -philia, which means "love of". As a result, gynephilia means "love of women".

The prefix gyne- can be combined with the -romantic suffix to denote romantic attraction to women/femininity. Related to this, gyne- combined with the -sexual suffix can mean sexual attraction to women/femininity in particular.

## Community

### History

An early mention of gynesexual was in a 1978 book by Nancy Chodorow, titled *The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender*. Another early mention was in a Usenet discussion in 1997.

### Flag

A Fem-/Gyne-/Gyno- pride flag was available online as early as April 23, 2016, on the Pride-Flags DeviantArt account; however, its creator and color meanings are unknown. A flag specifically for gyneromantic was available online as early as May 10, 2016, on the same account, but its creator and color meanings also remain unknown.

### Distinction

#### Gay

The term gay means attraction to the same gender as oneself, and can be used by men who are attracted to men, as well as women who are attracted to women. In particular, lesbian is a term specifically for women who are attracted to other women. In the case of a woman who says she is gynesexual, some people may see this as being the same as that woman labeling herself as gay or lesbian. However, gynesexual is different from both terms in that it indicates a person's attraction without including the gender of the person using the label in the label's definition. Thus, lesbian women, straight men, and non-binary people can use gynesexual as a label, especially if they want to describe their attraction without also needing to include their gender.

#### Straight

Straight is a term used to describe a person who is attracted to "the other binary gender" than their own, such as a straight woman being attracted only to men. As with the term gay, gynesexual is different from the term straight because it does not include the gender of the person using the label itself in its definition of attraction.

### Controversy

There have been some people who misuse the term gynesexual, by using it to mean exclusive attraction to female genitalia instead of women and/or femininity. This is because some people may associate the gyne- prefix with female genitalia, especially since the prefix is sometimes used this way in a medical context.

Due to these issues, the prefix woma- was suggested as a "more inclusive alternative" to using gyne- to describe attraction to women and/or femininity. More specifically, it is used as part of the label womasexual as a replacement for gynesexual.

### Perceptions and discrimination

*This section focuses more on the specific kinds of discrimination and oppression that these people may face. Examples would be mentioning systematic transphobia and non-binary erasure on the page for agender, mentioning rates of mental health issues in this group, etc.*