@NiceGerbil
The whole concept of a feminine gender identity/ lady brain is so regressive.
Women have been fighting the idea that we are, well whatever men wanted us to be at the time, because we were naturally disposed to it.
A disproportionate amount of studies over years and years has sought to prove that the constraints of our sex role were not imposed, but how we naturally were.
If it's not related to body (dysphoria), or how you dress etc (cultural and heavily socialised), and it's not to do with what interests you have (socialised but also in the UK fairly free rein) and it's not to do with behaviour (massively socialised)...
Then what is it to do with? What on earth is left?
Many pages ago I asked the OP several times what you would say to a young child who was confused about their gender identity. How would you help them figure it out? The unspoken part of this question was really
how do you help them figure it out without reference to gender stereotypes?
The OP didn't answer, just claimed they had already explained what gender identity is and provided a link to something which seemed to conflate gender identity with gendered behaviour.
So in the absence of any clarifying information from the OP or anyone else, here's my take:
If you go back 15 years or so, children were identified as being transgender at a certain age because of their behaviour. If you look at the stories of Jazz Jennings or Jackie Green, for instance, it is clear that clothes and toys were the key reason these kids decided they were girls rather than boys. I have never seen a story of a little transgirl who had all the stereotypical traits of a boy but who decided to transition to being a girl. Nor have I ever seen the story of an 8-year-old girl who likes Barbie, dresses and long hair declaring that she is actually an effeminate boy.
What has changed in recent years is the following:
- A greater scrutiny of the idea that liking certain things 'makes' you a boy or a girl
- A drastic rise in the number of teenage girls transitioning to boys, despite having perfectly typical upbringing and not suffering any kind of gender dysphoria that was observable in childhood
- A growing number of middle-aged mtf transitioners who have lived their whole lives quite happily as men but who transition later in life. For many of these people, autogynaephilia plays a part in their decision to transition.
Therefore, to account for the rise in numbers of these non-traditional transitioners (2) and (3) on the list above, as well as to sidestep criticism for setting young children on a medicalised pathway because they liked the 'wrong' toys or clothes, a new idea is being promoted:
Gender identity is separate from gendered behaviour.
That's why you get 'tomboy transgirls' - it offers a neat explanation for middle-aged transitioners. You aren't medicalising young boys for liking dolls - you are helping young transgirls fulfil their true destiny. The liking of dolls is simply conforming to stereotypes because they want to be like their peers who share their identity. And it neatly glosses over the issue of teenagers who conclude that they are really male, even though they never expressed any discomfort with their sex as children.
The ideology falls down the moment you ask anyone to explain the components of gender identity without reference to clothes or behaviour.
Over and over we have asked, but never get any further than the fact that gender identity is innate, inexplicable and subjective.