@QueenSue
I just don't get it. I can't relate to it at all. Why would it be sexy to wear your mother's dress, for example? Why do they think it makes them female, to do things women don't do?
I think this is around self-awareness, mostly. There is a lot of literature on this is psychology, why some people seem to have none. If you have no real ability to introspect you also don't have any ability to imagine things from the perspective of another.
Some theorize it relates to some sort of failure to mature past a certain point. Maybe some people have biological conditions that make it difficult, for others maybe trauma.
While it's not directly about intelligence, I do think that it is a factor, more intelligence may be protective. In cases where people seem to be able to halt the progress of or overcome AGP it often seems to me that they become self-aware in part because they are intelligent enough that they eventually have to face up to the patterns and inconsistencies of what they are doing. People who are not very smart are more likely to miss those kinds of clues that might create insight into their own state.
As far as why it might be a turn on at all - the only insight I have is that in my experience, unformed sexuality can be influenced in all kinds of weird directions under the right circumstances. And the archetype of the feminine for heterosexual men starts with the mother and maybe there is some kind of desire to consume that?
I think a lot of the psychological maturation of individuals occurs around recognizing the difference between the self and other but also integrating different elements of our personality, intellect, sexuality, etc in a way that is healthy. Most teens struggle with some elements of this at times before they mature which is why they are so vulnerable to a lot of the gender stuff, so maybe that's a way to try and understand what happens - it's like that attempt to integrate at an early stage has become very messed up.