Quote Originally Posted by Asche View Post
I wouldn't say that CDs and TSs "don't 'fall for'" this social construct. I would say that the gender construct in its current form in Western (or USA?) society is something that most people can wear in greater or lesser comfort, but just doesn't fit some people at all. It's like "one size fits most" tights. Some people (like me) can't get them up past their knees.
I agree that trans individuals feel at odds with stereotypical gender expectations. But I do believe that because the gender gap has and continues to narrow in terms of the workforce and home life responsibilities, the gender stereotypes are losing their strengths, even though I suppose we'll always have them to a degree in some socio-economic contexts.

This, together with the internet's ubiquity, does make it easier for people who don't feel at ease within the gender binary to branch out. But, I disagree that gender dysphorics are being prevented from exploring and then determining who they are. This may have been true a generation or more ago, but I don't think it is the case any more since the stereotypes in terms of what men and women can do at work and at home have all but disappeared. The gender dysphorics certainly don't feel completely free to express themselves in the mainstream (although even this is improving), since it doesn't look as if the narrowing gender gap will affect how people wish to present (in other words, men who are single dads will not want to start wearing dresses), but hopefully CDs are not forcing themselves into denial to the same degree they did 40 or 50 years ago.

I'm not dismissing the trauma that CDs and pre-stealth TSs experience in their life choices. I'm just saying that I doubt there are scores of gender dysphorics waiting in the wings for the opportunities to explore who they are and that sometime in the future we will discover that say half or even one tenth of the men in our society will wish to present as women.