1) There is something to be said the feminising of men as part of the leftist stance of demonising and destroying "white male privilege" who are the scooby doo villain behing every problem in society, allegedly.
2) In my opinion, the darker side of the trans movement is the pressure on young children through the media and school system to self identify and question their biological sex and "assigned" gender before they are too young to be considered sexually and emotionally mature.
3) TS people in the media are usually overly sexualised and celebrated - a few decades ago as objects of ridicule and freakshows and today as equal to biological women, if not more beautiful. I wonder where that comes from, as I don't think the social justice movement for trans rights is demand led. Trans people are a very small minority and until recently, had no pull in the upper echelons of society and politics. It's very much a political, top-down movement. In fact, it's become the biggest social justice movement, seemingly out of nowhere.
4) Nothing in this thread should be moralising or seeking to limit anyones choice, but the impact of social conditioning on people's tastes and sexual desires is very interesting. I don't think the curiosity that people in this thread have mentioned can ever come completely from within; that is to say, it is encouraged through consumption of media etc.
5) A few have mentioned that rather than adopt any labels, they are simply "perverts" and willing to try new things. I respect their honesty, but I think this supports my suggestion of porn and escort use leading to desensitization. The same mental mechanisms behind addiction apply in whole or part to the regular pursuit of visceral sexual gratification. Perhaps it's a good thing, but I wonder if one's ability to exercise self control gets weaker over time. Lowering inhibition is one thing and should be encouraged, but use of the term perversion suggests that the person finds their own behaviour unacceptable to some degree.
To respond to your points in turn:
1) There's some truth in this IMO. Of course men shouldn't hit their wives, of course men should do the washing up, of course men shouldn't 'control' women or any of the other stuff which would make a woman feel coerced or trapped or put down. But similarly, I'm sure we all know that when you get into a relationship with a woman they can start trying to make you into their 'ideal bloke'. I'm not talking about leaving your pants on the floor and leaving the toilet seat up, I'm talking about a root & branch rebuilding of your psyche. That's just as pervasive.
A relationship is a balancing act of power and sometimes one partner will like to be the one with less power. If that's the case the hormones in our bodies will mean that's normally the woman and that's why men are generally more assertive. But it can be the other way around sometimes, or all of the time. In sex, it's fun to play around with that power balance. But in everyday life as well as sex life there needs to be respect and consideration for the other, and hopefully an agreed balance.
Daily we are bombarded with images and suggestions that men need to access their feminine side more, and that women need more power, that they're being downtrodden. There's an obsession with having 50% of any given job role being women (apart from being a sewer worker of course) and if it isn't happening, there's something wrong with society. Of course there are also issues with some work/job environments being 'laddish' and there can be such a big disparity that women can be 'put off' from applying. It's important that they aren't. That can go both ways too though, just out of school a mate of mine got an office job surrounded by women and they were demeaning him and sexually intimidating him all day, from little things to being groped up in the stationery cupboard.
We all know that 90% of TV advertising is driven by women's buying choices, and that means that the bloke in the ad is frequently depicted as stupid or a klutz. Could you do that with a woman? No. In terms of equal opportunities it should be exactly that -
equal opportunity. Not equal numbers. The biggest part of getting into any job is having the desire and drive to be in it, not whingeing about why 50% aren't women. Of course This is all tied up with 'equal pay' too, of course women should get the same pay for any given job, but to look at a company's pay stats and say there's gender bias because the men in the company earn more than the women on average, is bollocks. And we are getting this rammed down our throats every day.
2) Schools and educating kids: I don't have kids but I'm certainly aware of the PC brigade (by that I mean overly so) trying to tell us that men and women are the same, we're all gender fluid and we should mix things up by giving boys dollys to play with and girls, an Action Man. Give kids full access by all means, but don't try to engineer them in some way, you'll fuck up their heads. Teach them to respect everyone, however different they are. Similarly, although it's only entertainment, I do get fed up with every action film having a ballbusting woman who can beat up on men. It all started with Lara Croft I believe?
3) I think Trans people (male to female) can often be very 'camp', in a 'theatrical' way and also in a sexual way. Almost like a performance. I think that's already within them and I think the media grasp onto that because it makes good telly. Is it an innate and driven desire to be ultimately feminine? I honestly don't know. It can perhaps come across as 'trying too hard'. If you lived with a Trans girl, would they be like that all the time? I doubt it. I do think you're wrong about the Trans movement not being demand-led though, I think they want their place in the sun, just like the Gay movement did, just like the Women's movement did. You kind of wonder when all the dust will settle, if indeed it ever will. These are times of great change, great upheaval, from the world order all the way down to what's in your girlfriend's knickers. What facilitates all of this now of course, is social media. Movements are unstoppable now, whether the majority of others subscribe to them or not.
4) Personally, I would disagree about my 'Trans curiosity' being led from without. Modern media and awareness have made things visible, but not influenced my thinking...I think! I'm finding out about myself as much as about others, and at my age too, who'd have thought it? Although punting is in a way 'fake contact', paid for and transitory, and with a Trans girl that's no different of course, I find myself trying to look into the other person more than with a Cisgirl. I find them fascinating, and that's not in a freakshow kind of way. Without giving too much away, of all the Trans girls I have seen I actually had dinner with one of them. It was an 'ordinary' dinner date in an 'ordinary' restaurant, with drinks in a bar afterwards. It was off the clock and we went Dutch. I had a fantastic night out with a gorgeous girl and we had a lot of fun (I think and hope she had as much fun as I did). We were laughing all night and we delved a little deeper too. Genuine intereest in each other, from both sides. I'm sure most people around us knew 'the score' yet there were no raised eyebrows whatsoever and it was just a normal dinner with a girl, albeit with someone 'out of my league' and young enough to be my daughter. If you want to look at it that way, I was just as proud to 'have her on my arm' as with any girl. Maybe they thought she was my daughter? I have no idea.
5) The pervert thing...for me that's simply denoting my desire to sexually explore, beyond what the societal norm is. I mean it in a lighthearted way, and yes, possibly to deflect the issue of my own sexuality, which I think is almost a side issue, in that I'm comfortable with myself and what I get up to. I have no interest in men at all, of any age, of any 'looks'. If I did I wouldn't deny it here. You think a Trans girl is a bloke in a frock and I'm therefore Gay or Bi, I don't really care. Coming back to the desensitisation thing which I addressed above, there's no way this has happened to me. I still find the small, normal stuff exciting and I don't feel the need to buy loads of leather and latex gear and strap myself to a fucking machine, operated by some mad Dom (of either sex). For me, my attraction to Trans girls is that I see them simply as girls who happen to have the same sexual equipment as me. Just as importantly, I also see them as people, and not just objects of some unicorn sexual fantasy.
