It's a very interesting perspective, and probably has some merit, however, there are probably a number of other significant factors. In the 1950s and 1960s, there were only 3 major networks. Most of our stereotypes of women were fed by these networks who showed hours of June Cleaver, Harriet Nelson, and Laura Petrie. In general, women, many of whom had been "Rosie the Riveter" only a decade earlier, were now expected to give their jobs to the men returning home from WW-II and Korea. The divorce laws were designed to keep women from getting remarried, since most of the payment was tax deductible Alimony rather than taxable child support. Often, women struggled with depression and psychiatric disorders as a result of attempting to live up to these unrealistic ideals, possibly the side-effects of diet pills containing methamphetamine, tranquilizers containing phenobarbital, and alcohol.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the birth control pill, better contraception, and better feminine hygiene products gave women much more control of their bodies. They were able to enjoy sex without fear of unwanted conception, the common STDs, syphilis and gonorrhea could be cured with common antibiotics. As a result, there was more willingness to be attractive, to dress sexually attractive, and women weren't expected to preserve their virginity into their 20s in order to be acceptable for marriage.

Since women didn't have to have children right away, many women went to college, established impressive professional credentials, and then had their children within the framework of their careers, including support for day-care and other substitutes for the extended families women had given up in the 1950s and 1960s as part of what Ivan Toffler referred to as "Future Shock".

There had also been new options available for men as well. In the 1950s and 1960s, men were being drafted into wars, and it was their patriotic duty to answer that call of duty. By the end of the 1960s however, the Vietnam war had become very unpopular, men were burning their draft-cards, and many were looking for ways to delay or avoid the draft. In the 1950s and 1960s, gay men were considered traitors and draft evaders, and could be arrested. Lenny Bruce would say "I love what they do to gays in this state, put them in prison with a lot of MEN, that's real punishment". By the mid 1970's, even gays in high school were experiencing far less persecution and were allowed to participate in theater, dance, choir, and other non-military activities. By the late 1970s, gay characters such as Billy Christal's character in Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman had created a far more compassionate view of gay men. Harvey Milk had encouraged gay men to come out to their families, friends, and communities, so that people would realize that it was their children, grandchildren, brothers, and cousins who were loved and admired, who were gay. Not some nameless faceless person committing rapes against innocent boys in bathroom stalls.

By the late 1970s and early 1980s, cable television had spread across the country bringing a dozen or more working channels to choose from. This resulted in a wider selection of entertainment and a wider range of choices. We had MTV with people like Madonna, Billy Idol, and Pat Benetar, bending gender roles, playing them up, and slowly tearing down many of the traditional gender roles. Business Casual went from one Friday a month in the early 1980s, to standard business attire for IT workers.

It wasn't until the late 1990s however that Rue Paul crossed out of New York and ventured into New Jersey. Soon he had gone across the country, and eventually new movies like Pricilla Queen of the Desert, and "To Wong Fu, thanks for everthing Julie Newmar", had transformed the image of crossdresser from Psycho's Norman Bates, Dress To Kill's serial killer, Freebie & the Bean's assasin, and Silence of the Lambs "Buffalo Bill" to the compassionate drag queen bringing love, joy, honor, and compassion to men and women everywhere. Or that was the hope at least. We also had "The Crying Game" in which a transgendered M2F becomes a love interest for whom we have already developed affection and compassion before discovering that she has a little "something extra".

But more important than ANY of these things was simply the AVAILABILITY of information. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was almost impossible to find ANY reliable information on gender identity issues. Christine Jorgensen had tried to have herself castrated in the United States but doctors feared that they would be prosecuted for criminal assault. She eventually went to Stockholm Sweden where doctors were willing to perform the requested operation which was mostly just castration. She was essentially mutilated and when they did the final SRS, she was unable to have any kind of orgasm. It wouldn't be until the mid 1980s that the medical profession would be able to refine the procedures to the point where they could produce something similar to a functional clitoris.

In the late 1970s, Penthouse published penthouse letters and variations, which were almost entirely prose stories, targeted toward women. Initially, transvestite and crossdressing fantasies were put into variations, along with stories about bondage, humiliation, and lesbian sex. It wasn't until the late 1990s that these stories became more popular in Penthouse Letters and was associated with more conventional fantasies such as oral sex, swinging, and 3-ways.

There were publications related to crossdressing, but they were sold exclusively in adult bookstores, and you had to be 18 years old to even get into the store, then you had to locate the materials, which were often located next to fetish and bondage oriented publications. I remember my first trips to such stores and being lured into buying the magazines with these women in corsets, stockings, and heels, only to find out that they were into female domination. Many of these magazines also had stories of women who wanted to feminize men as a way to dominate them.

This forced feminization, also known as "petticoat discipline" was both appealing and terrifying at the same time. It was clear that these women wanted to abuse or punish the men they feminized. In many ways, it was more like describing a rape. There were a few magazines with men wearing women's clothing, but in the 1970s, there weren't any publications featuring she-males. The men in the pictures were obviously male, and often the men were not attractive at all.

By the early 1980s, there were more adult videos, and magazines of she-males. Sulka and Shannon became famous for being the first to have their transitions recorded on video, including adult movie scenes both before and after the procedures. I don't know their real names, but they did make quite an impression on me. By then I was married, but I began to see that it might be possible to become a beautiful woman if I wanted to.

In the mid 1980s, a number of Unix administrators had created a network of unix to unix networks that featured e-mail and newsgroups. These "usenet" newsgroups allowed Unix users to discuss a variety of things in seemingly anonymous way. Often, the IDs and hosts were hard to identify, so it felt like you could say anything. There were two newsgroups, net.women and net.motss which stood for Members Of the Same Sex where many transgendered men and women were able to discuss their frustration with gender roles.

Even in the 1990s, transgendered men had no protection from sexual harassment. A man couldn't even complement a woman, but a man could me harassed and even fired for things as simple as wearing a pink shirt to work, wearing his hair too long, wearing an earring on the wrong side, wearing two earrings, or wearing pants that were too tight. He could be harassed and fired for being PERCEIVED as being gay, even if he was just transgendered.

And even as late as 2005, some states would give men who killed transgendered or homosexual men minimal charges such as 3rd degree manslaughter, while a homosexual or transgendered man who killed a gay-basher in self defense often got the death penalty.

The Matthew Shepard law - named after a boy who was bound in barbed wire, tortured, and murdered. His murderers claimed a "gay panic defense" hoping to get a reduction in charges to manslaughter. One turned witness for the state, and the other got life without parole.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_panic_defense

Even as recently as this summer, a transgendered man was beaten severely by two women in a Burger King because he was dressed and used the ladies bathroom. Even though the assault was captured on a video phone, the women were arrested and the charges were dismissed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violenc...endered_people

In some countries, transgendered and cross-dressers are given the choice of being raped daily in prison for a year or more, being executed, or being castrated. In many churches in the United States, violence against gays and transgendered is still openly advocated.

I have often found it ironic that gays and transgendered boys/men are targets for violence while pedophiles are given jobs as youth pastors.