This is a great discussion.

I think the main problem is that most cultures are still very unaccepting of gender non-conformity. GNC people make others uneasy, and therefore they face a lot of bullying just for being different. People (mostly conservatives) lost their minds in the U.S. even when Target tried to eliminate “boy toy” and “girl toy” designations in their aisles, as if the world would end if a boy picked out a doll or a girl chose a dinosaur, and as if kids haven’t been doing that forever. They were calling it social engineering. Entire colors are off limits to kids if they’re the wrong sex. Many American men still get uncomfortable with pink shirts. “Real men don’t eat quiche.” So much insecurity about gender roles, mostly stemming from misogyny and homophobia.

Meanwhile, the “left” in America (and perhaps most Anglophone countries) is not really that progressive, when considering it is still heavily influenced by these same puritanically rigid/fragile views on gender roles. It takes a long time, generations, to abolish this archaic underlying framework in mainstream culture. Instead of rejecting it, the mainstream American left has taken the easy way (“virtue signaling”) and simply tried to work within it.

According to them: Makeup, dresses, the color pink, long hair, being a sex object, submissiveness, enjoying playing with dolls as a child- that’s for girls/women. They have “lady brains.” If a boy/man acts like this, then he has a “lady brain” and needs to become a girl/woman too. The color blue, no makeup, buzz cuts, dominance, objectifying others but not oneself, enjoying playing with a tool kit or trucks- that’s for boys/men. Girls/women who are into these things need to “transition” to become a man. All of this ideology is extremely regressive at its core. Many gender noncomforming people have spoken out against being “trans-ed.” It really is extremely offensive. Add in autogynophiles and other mentally ill narcissists, who may not even be gender noncomforming, and they will take advantage of all of this and get off on subjecting women to their demands and getting “validated.”

Combine all this with enduring homophobia and misogyny, even if it’s now more subtle to our contemporary sensibilities. How many decades has it taken for the most basic gay rights to be grudgingly accepted? Why does the mainstream American Left back openly, savagely misogynistic pornographers (google Hustled by the Left)? The virtue signaling thing is a shallow and easy way to get head pats for those who want to distance themselves from the negative aspects of the past without actually putting in the work to change things, exercising their brains with some critical thinking, or sticking their neck out by expressing truly controversial views. It’s trendy- porn is trendy, “transtrendering” is in vogue, etc. When we allow this, we get Emilia deCaudin, a white male identifying as a woman who has taken a spot in an election running as “female district leader” and “female state committee member.” Because of the virtue signaling ideology, it doesn’t matter that he is muscling out an African American woman for a chance at the spot. His being MtoF transgender means he is more important and it’s cool to support him at all costs.

Obviously there are tons of other examples, including their repeated dismissal of concerns over trans bathroom policies and women’s sports. I am not conservative at all, don’t give 2 shits if a guy wants to wear a dress, but he’s not a woman and he shouldn’t go into the women’s bathroom or play on a woman’s team. How ridiculous only conservatives and rad fems are saying this, if for very different ideological reasons.