If very feminine little boys were allowed to be very feminine and encouraged to be very feminine, allowed to have dresses and long hair, not shamed for liking toys and other things associated with girls, would fewer of them turn out to be transsexual in adulthood?

Can you explain further what you mean by "feminine" here rather than just "dresses and long hair" and "toys" and "things"?

I find that beyond a liking for dresses, long hair and objects that they and some others consider "girly," most males who call themselves "feminine" and are described by many others (without much thought) as "feminine" actually have very little in common with female people in their behaviors, attitudes, sense of self, level of self-regard and social entitlement. Coz being males, they were not raised as girls and subject to female socialization.

"Feminine" in the case of these male persons usually just seems to mean "not typically or overtly masculine" or "fails to conform in all ways to the most rigid and extreme sex stereotypes of masculinity" in whatever way a particular culture, family or individual defines "masculine."

But not being conventionally masculine is not the same as being like a girl or woman, or having qualities and behaviors typical of female people. Yes, some male persons who get called "feminine" might have aspects of their appearance that looks somewhat like female people's - but this usually does not extend to their personalities and behaviors except when "feminine" is defined in the most superficially sexist and, to me, offensive and inaccurate ways (for example, showing a tendency for giggling, acting coquettish, being catty, not wanting to participate in contact sports, having a penchant for neatness and cleanliness, being squeamish, crying easily, being manipulative).

With a few notable exceptions, the males I've encountered IRL and online who claim to be a woman, or want to be women (or in most cases who want to be "girls"), do not strike me as self-effacing and self-sacrificing types who are always focused on taking care of others, putting other people's feelings first, being kind, swallowing their anger and shutting up and taking their lumps without complaint the way girls customarily are raised to be and to do. On the contrary, again with some exceptions, most of these males come across to me as behaving in ways that are totally opposite. The males I have encountered who say they are trans have tended to be self-centered, extremely concerned with appearances, histrionic, vain, competitive, envious, covetous, demanding, moody, colorful, theatrical, quick to take offense/umbrage and rather loud in making their needs and wishes known. Which to me is about as far from "feminine" as you can get.

Is shame and repression of their true natures causing those children to believe they are the other sex because they fit the other sex's stereotypes better, and thus turn against their own bodies as a result?

First of all, I don't agree that anyone's "true nature" is being "feminine" in the way you've portrayed it - which is to say, wearing dresses, having long hair, liking certain toys and things that are "girly," which in this day and age presumably means pink, plastic and glittery.

I'm sure shame and repression are factors in a lot of cases - but that's also true for most of us whatever our own issues and hangups may be. People with "gender dysphoria" are far from the only ones who experience shame and repression in childhood. Being raised as a human child in human society involves repression by definition - and unfortunately, most of us experience shame growing up too.

In past generations in the West, kids were shamed a whole lot more than has become the norm over the past 40 or so years - used to be, children were shamed as a matter of course. To this day, many non-Western cultures today remain shame-based ones where avoidance of losing face and dishonor are major motivating factors for everyone in those societies.

So why is being "trans" a Western phenomenon that didn't arise until the 20th century? Why is it suddenly cropping up as a wildly popular trend only now in the 21st century? And why is the current fad for being "trans" mainly occurring in well-off countries in the West? (Yes, I know there are "third gender" castes for gay men in various non-Western cultures, but those traditions are very different to present-day transsexualism and transgenderism.)

Moreover, in virtually all cultures, female people have been subject to far more shaming than male children have, and still are, and most girls for most of history have not been allowed to "express their true selves." In fact, girls and women traditionally were told either we didn't have selves, true or false - or if we did have true selves, we better keep them hidden, vague and undeveloped so as not to put off potential mates and so it would be easier to put our selves aside and in favor of fostering our future husbands's selves and self-interests. So why, then, is it that until very recently with the rise of girls developing "gender dysphoria" in adolescence and early adulthood, being "trans" has been mainly a male thing?