One other thing I've noticed with regard to transgenderism is that the way it is currently manifesting to me seems to constrict gender roles even more. It seems more binary than ever. I only have one friend who is transgendered and she is very "girly." If I say something like that I decided to paint my toenails for fun with my sister when I was at the beach, she'll ask me if I think that I could be a woman (she is a bit different in some ways--I don't know the exact diagnoses, but she's definitely different--she says sort of shocking things out of the blue and has difficulty thinking about things outside her frame of refernece). I personally don't strongly identify as male or female, but I am biologically male (I actually know I'm XY because I had a test for Kleinfelter's due to my extremely low testosterone along with some other strange symptoms). Anyhow, for her, it's hard to understand how I could want to do "girly" things without identifying myself as female. I saw a clip for Caitlin Jenner's new reality show and she was saying something about she sympathizes with women more now because she never knew how much work make-up is. That's perfectly good, but it does, I think represent more of a shift to a binary, constricted gender roles. Because of course people who identify as male or who don't identify as anything can use make up. And of course women don't have to use make up. That goes along with what I was saying before that it feels like there is less of a free to be you and me type vibe and more of a by the numbers feel to things lately.
I'm not a sociologist, but I do know gender roles have constricted and expanded over time in a non-linear way. Have we entered a constricting period?
