I think the click baity title jinxed any discussion here.
I’m all for trans people having the right to live as their chosen gender and be left in peace to use the toilets of their choice, but the article clearly slanted it to be a case of “let’s ignore JK Rowling and co and bring this back to being a man problem”. This is from the first paragraph that gives the lens you’re supposed to read the data through.
Now, just to clear up on my origins, I’m a British expat so English is my native language but I’m also painfully aware of the scourge that is the Tory party and the havoc they’re wreaking, and I broadly agree with /u/crypticcoffee regarding the fact that there isn’t really a gender devide when it comes down to who is pushing the war on transgender people, it’s transphobes Vs the rest of us.
The revised title is much cleaner and frankly I agree with what it says, men are generally less accepting of trans people than women.
It depends “Is transphobia a problem” is not the same thing as “Are trans people a problem”.
For one thing trans-women seem to get far more hate than trans-men, which could sway things. Also being less exposed to progressive attitudes could also blind people to what trans people face (which would affect men more).
All this to say that the question asked in the study and what the article makes of it are very different things.
Also the spreads put up as evidence are no where near large enough (2/3 points each way) to push the idea that “cis” men are driving the issue (the study didn’t mention gender identity, the article just assumed).
All in all this article feels more like rage bait than anything that would push the discussion on trans rights Vs women’s rights forward in any reasonable way.
What I see in the article is that the devide is between professional and social settings.
In the educational or professional space lots has been done and a lot of progress has been made, so much so that the young women interrogated didn’t feel like sex was an obstacle in those areas.
In the social, or romantic sphere though things still seem largely unchanged with men and women still in very classic gender roles.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that if things haven’t moved as much in these spheres, it’s because there’s less pressure to achieve equality here. This could be due to the fact that inspite of the issues women face there is still an advantage to their place in social circles and romantic relationships and as such feminism hasn’t touched on them as much, or it could be that some of the issues have a more biological component that we will need to accommodate and compensate for rather than trying to simply level the playing field.
I’m very lucky to have a healthy relationship with my partner where we can both be vulnerable and we support each other.
That said, to get there I also had to integrate the fact that I could be vulnerable whilst also being confident and assert my beliefs, views and opinions (in a healthy way).
This will be a controversial recommendation but “Models” by Mark Manson was instrumental for me in finding this new road to being masculine but in a way that was healthy and respectful. The chapters on aggressive/assertive vulnerability and living your truth especially.
I feel that men today need to learn to live their truth, be proud of that truth and not hide it under traditional gender normes (aka agressivité and blatent sexism) or make it subservant to attone for some original sin linked to their sex.
All humans deserve respect and all humans deserve to be able to speak their inner truth and be vulnerable and accepted, no matter their sex or gender.
Whilst traditional gender normes are hurting everyone (“be a man”, “smile more”) I really don’t feel that “patriarchy” and it’s evident undertone of finger pointing are the main cause.
I’d go even further and say that what people call “patriarchy” is really more of an emergent phenomenon coming from those underlying gender normes.