[bauruine]

I'm from Switzerland so I may get "gender" wrong but yeah that is the progressive take here since the 2000s or so. That just means that you shouldn't force gender stereotypes on children. Let boys play with Barbies and wear pink if the like it and stuff like that. But nobody thought about their gender because of this, they are still boys. Nowadays, at least from what I read online, it feels like your gender depends on these sterotypes and if you don't conform to them you're trans.

[deanCommie]

Those don't even need to be gender stereotypes. There is nothing (or there SHOULDN'T be) masculine about liking Trucks or Barbies.

But there are things that at least today still fairly strongly tied to gender Expression. Wearing skirts. Painting nails. There used to be more such things! Wearing pants. Having a labour-based job. Feminism enabled women to pick and choose aspects of things gendered masculine and incorporate them as needed. The reverse hasn't caught up - mostly because of misogyny, honestly. It's reasonable that "Women want to be more like men". It's demeaning when men want to be more like women.

But this is all still gender expression, not identity.

Where does expression end and identity begins? The answer is actually very difficult to establish. This line is constantly shifting, but it takes decades.

Is it possible that if we completely removed all social stigma on any kind of "gendered" expression, and allowed everyone to behave exactly how they want, would there be any gender binary remaining except biological? Would the majority of people end up some sort of "non-binary" and there would be no more reason to "transition"?

It's possible.

But that will take decades, and meanwhile there are people today, in today's society, who are suffering.

And this is just me taking a very shallow look at the problem that is sympathetic to people who say things like "This transition thing doesn't make ay sense, just act how you act, you don't need hormones or surgery for that".

There is another layer which is dysphoria, and then we get into a question of innate gender identity. I suspect a part of it remains.

The only way we find out the reality of what humans are like, and how they belong in our society, is by being accepting, and welcoming, and believing those that are trying to tell us what they want and need.

Unfortunately, to a lot of people, someone being "accepting" of an idea they disagree with, sounds like "encouragement" of the idea. So now you have all these stories of teachers grooming children to believe they're trans. And it's just b.s.

[int_19h]

The only real concern is with children who transition early - it's unclear to what extent they can consent, and just how much counseling can affect their decision beyond what they genuinely feel (bearing in mind past examples, such as therapists implanting false memories of abuse in children during the Satanic Panic). Pushing someone into puberty blockers etc when they don't actually have gender dysphoria is also causing significant suffering for them later in life. Safeguards shouldn't preclude those who need therapy and surgery from having access to it, but we don't need more of this kind of thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHS_Gender_Identity_Developmen...