I think there are different motives. For some it's about being "kind". For others, it's about feeling virtuous. Some have been convinced by the echo chamber in media (social and mainstream) over the past few years.

The conflating of transgender with gay/lesbian has been hugely successful. Many people simply assume that you can only support both or neither.

It comes down to a few things. Long comment incoming.

(1) Female socialization (and perhaps biology as well) Women are socialized to be empathetic, to be kind, to “fix” people (especially men). Obviously this either fails or succeeds depending on individual personality but I’m talking on a societal level. It’s often weaponized against them too which leads to:

(2) High on righteousness People love to feel like they’re good people (ties into a biologically selected predisposition to altruism as well). Women especially, it seems. And this allows them to weaponize female socialization in a way that makes them feel powerful (ostracization, patronizing exclusion). Some people are bullies because they were bullied, but just as many are bullies because it feels good. This cloaks those tendencies in moral righteousness, making it even sweeter.

Women also have much more to lose in this debate, which they recognize deep down, and so it gives them an even stronger moral high of even though they say I’m supposed to be suffering the most I’m being so gracious and accepting right now! I’m also sooo smart and enlightened! (Crucially, they think that the fact that they are so accepting is due to the fact that they’re innately better and more knowledgeable than the bigots and backwards hicks that oppose it, rather than the truth which is that they’re actually rather simple and they’ve been lucky enough not to directly suffer the consequences-yet).

(3) It gives them a purpose There’s a reason people tend to gravitate towards religion. They want to believe in something greater than themselves and it gives them something to fight for. It literally fills a spiritual hole in some people, and again, this tends to affect women more than men, at least in my opinion.

(4)They live in a bubble This isn’t women specific but important to note. If they live in a certain area or travel in certain social circles this is all being constantly reinforced, not to mention media

(5) They are spoiled No, I don’t mean in the monetary sense. I mean that most of these western women who do these things have had the lifelong luxury of not knowing what it was like to not have these protections in the first place. so they are having to relearn the hard way why women have their own sports’ leagues and private spaces. They are also ignorant about the depths of male sexual depravity, and are naïve. Some operate under the impression that most TIMs are poor suffering twinkish homosexuals. When they’re confronted with evidence to the contrary they bury their heads in the sand because they’re in too deep and maybe they’re true believers (see the previous point) which leads me to the last point

(6) They’re in too deep Pretty self explanatory. The evidence mounts that they’re wrong, and they persist (and even get aggressive and double down) because acknowledging that you’ve been duped, especially in service of men, is embarrassing. And life altering, in some cases.

I was pro-trans for a while a few years back: essentially, I was pretty naïve and bought into the idea that TIMs were harmless, they ‘just wanted to pee’, that the right thing and the kind thing to do was to affirm them. We all want to think of ourselves as good people, and when there’s a lot of social pressure to do/think something and a lot of social stigma when you don’t it becomes hard to break away from (what appears to be) the consensus.

TL;DR: Women in particular are socialized to be kind, it’s especially easy with outside pressure to think that humoring outlandish claims about sex and gender is the kind or right thing to do. Especially if you don’t or don’t want to realize how prevalent sex-based violence actually is.

Edit: this also lends itself to a lot of virtue signaling, for obvious reasons.

Some haven't met many TIMs and think they're all super femme gay men. Just as they worship drag queens and "the gays" they are fiercely protective of these guys.

But I find a lot of them really believe that removing biological sex removes sexism. They think they've solved misogyny. I've seen some learn the error of their thinking in a brutal way.

So many excellent comments here!

I don't have much to add, but I think in the US anyway, as our politics have become more polarized, it is very important to some to stick with their tribe.

If you are opposed to biological males in locker rooms or in girl's sports or women's prisons it is because you are (pick one or all or add others!):

A religious nut! a right-wing nut! a Fox news junky! uninformed and uneducated (biology is so much more complicated than you can understand!), you hate gay people! MAGA! you are fixated on genitals!

But whatever the reason: YOU ARE NOT IN MY TRIBE! I DON'T NEED TO LISTEN TO YOU, YOU HATEFUL BIGOT! Because if I listen to you and change my mind, I might lose my tribe.

We need TERF/Radfem courses taught in college. Women’s “gender studies” has been hijacked by queer theory be-kind nonsense and is a big TRA maker. Universities need a major overhaul for women’s studies. Kick out the dimwitted libfems and handmaidens, bring in the Helen Joyce’s, JKR’s and Kara Dansky’s of the world to teach courses. Maybe then we’ll get some true female empowerment going on 💪

As an ex-handmaiden:

1. They may still believe that sex and gender are decoupled. In other words, they may believe that there is the biological realm (male and female) and the social/psychological/neurological realm ('man' and 'woman'). I thought that surely NOBODY would say that female people aren't oppressed on the basis of being female. In other words, that you could advocate for both sex and gender identity at the same time. One of the things that made me peak was realizing that trans activists, and ESPECIALLY TIMs, basically wanted to erase the distinction between sex. They either had the argument that sex is totally irrelevant and only gender identity matters, or the argument that you can change sex, so TIMs can also be discriminated against as 'females'. Regardless of how many euphemisms for sex they came up with (AFAB/AMAB), you were never supposed to use them to suggest that AFAB (female) people had particular struggles AMAB people did not. I was very naive and thought this was a minority position until eventually it became impossible to talk about female issues without being accused of being a TERF. Many people who are not very online like me may still be under the impression that "nobody is saying female people don't face special struggles." I wouldn't have seen it if I hadn't been very active on Tumblr.

2. I believed that the brain sex research showed that there is a biological basis for gender dysphoria and transgender identity, and it would be cruel as well as pointless to ignore the treatment. I believed that gender affirmation improved the mental health of transgender people. As such, I felt that it was a scientific aspect to it and that I was fighting for a group of people who were, in a way, mentally ill but who had this incredible treatment that could make them feel better. So I basically thought that there existed a psychological condition - gender dysphoria - that would cause the person agony. If everyone around me started saying I was a man suddenly, I would probably also feel a little crazy. So I thought - we didn't have the knowledge before to recognize this was an important aspect of human dimension, why not incorporate it into society today? I didn't know about the issues with the brain sex studies and I didn't know how sex was defined.

3. The earliest advocacy for transgender people that I encountered showed the most pitiable people in constant agony. They'd interview someone who 'always felt different' and talk about how awful their life was and now they feel so much better, and look how easy it is, all it takes is some hormones and for them to dress how they want, and they just have a brain condition where they unfortunately got a brain with the wrong body map inside! There was this whole thing to it about how these people were suffering so much, the (false) statistics about how trans women are at such a high rate of being killed, that it felt like kicking a puppy.

So for a lot of handmaidens, we were basically underinformed. We were told this was this new scientific knowledge that revealed a critical aspect of human psychology that had been ignored for decades. We were told not to worry, that sex and gender identity was separate, and nobody wants to de-emphasize sex; we just want to include gender identity! And if you were still skeptical (as I was), they short-circuited you by showing you the saddest, most pitiable trans-identified people, and then showing how happy and fulfilled they were and how right they felt, and made you feel like a monster for daring to be skeptical.

If you never encounter the people arguing that centering 'AFAB people' is transmisogynistic, or you never encounter the research that the violence against TIMs applies to black and hispanic TIMs in prostitution in Brazil, if you never read the issues with the whole concept of brain sex, if you're only ever presented with these cases of suicidal and self-harming people... it can be easy to think that there is a lot of evidence in favor of biological gender identity and that nobody is really coming for women's spaces and look at how sad these people are! Unfortunately, I don't know if there's a good way to make people realize this without coming across it themselves. Reduxx honestly reminds me of Breitbart with the way they find every single bad TIP and display them. As someone from a scapegoated minority group, they really didn't convince me at all.

There were many things that made me peak, but they had to do with my experience: my nagging feeling that a lot of TIFs really had severe internalized misogyny as opposed to a 'genuine' male identity; my annoyance that many things that used to be normal were suddenly 'TERF rhetoric'; my obsessive worry that I didn't have a good model of what sex and gender identity; the disgust I felt when transbians posted a gross, sexualized caricature of women and my rage when criticizing this was called 'transphobic'. Eventually it got really hard to ignore that TIMs acted just like men and TIFs acted just like women, and that TIMs (especially transbians) weaponized their status as 'the most marginalized and vulnerable' to get women to shut up. But that was because I was heavily involved in super trans-heavy spaces. Your average handmaiden is either not that involved in trans-heavy spaces, or doesn't care about the issues I mentioned for them to think about. They think they're doing something brave and good.

In my opinion....this is mostly spread through social media. The (mostly) younger people use their phones to connect with others in an attempt to belong to the bigger tribe they see as having more relevance. The influencers seem to be a powerful magnet.

I also think many of the young don't have the confidence, intelligence, communication or experience to process & understand the consequences of what is happening to women.

As a 66yo mother & grandmother I can't believe the stupidity of it all.

I just can't with all the ones who pretend a five foot tall martial artist can effortlessly throw six foot men over her shoulder. This is a dangerous belief for women to hold. When they learn the truth about how much physically weaker they are compared to men, it may be too late.

Believing that men also have painful, bloody, embarrassing periods makes it more acceptable for women to have this issue.

This is their logic for decoupling womanhood from female biology. Because when you do this decoupling, you can pretend that men also have these shameful burdens. The shame therefore becomes lessened when it becomes a “people problem” rather than a gross inferior woman problem.

Handmaidens and TIFs both think like this.

I don't think it's anything past Jerry Smith voice I'm a good person, I'm a good person! TAKE MY PENIS

Like they're just all terrified of being unlikeable or being "a bad person" so they parrot and clap whatever is popular because it saves them socially

i hate sheep mentality

I think it’s fear. While the climate of fear drove some people to peaking, others desperately wanted to affirm that they’re part of the in group by being vicious to anyone who made a misstep. It feels more secure to be a part of the mob.

Are they just pretending and parroting what they believe is the correct opinion to have?

One thing I notice about TRA rhetoric online is how often the tone is intensely smug and dismissive without actually making or refuting any argument. You can see this in the vapid popularity of “X exists” discourse.

Intersex people exist, so…we can’t identify male people as male?

Masculine trans women exist, so…no trans women are performing sexist stereotypes?

Infertile cis women exist, so…we don’t ever need to mention that only female people bear children?

Gynecomastia exists, so…a cosmetic double-mastectomy is an appropriate medical response to psychological distress in middle school girls?

Some cis lesbians date trans women, so…it’s acceptable for male people to suppress discussion of female same-sex attraction in lesbian spaces?

Tall cis women exist, so…that obviously male man isn’t obviously male?

Ad nauseam. This sort of framing is intended to suggest that people who ask questions about obvious weak-points in the ideology are not only morally suspect but also wildly ignorant…and it is then easy to derail into the new topic that “exists” and away from whatever valid concern is actually being raised.

If you approach the conversation from the assumption that the other side is talking in good faith, they will steamroll you with bad-faith arguments and shaming tactics as soon as you open your mouth.

They are still in their appeasing men phase.

I wouldn't assume there is widespread support. Some very vocal campus agitators and media promoter types might give that illusion. Their tactics are bullying and shaming.

Girls and women still approach a lot of high-conflict situations with avoidance and silence. They rightly fear backlash and ostracism affecting their social connections and work opportunities.

these are all good questions.

What's going on? What's the psychology? I don't understand. Im not even close to understanding it. I can't fathom it. Are they just stupid? What's going on?!

I've wondered about things that are kind of adjacent to the stuff you mention in your post.

for me, it's not so much the parts about why handmaidens support various elements of trans ideology, like "why do they insist womanhood is just a performance?" but more of a general "what drives someone [including, but not limited to, handmaidens] to go out of their way to support and promote trans ideology?"

why does trans ideology specifically induce such fervor among TRAs? like, this is The Issue that TRAs want to be very clear and obvious about their support for it. I constantly see proclamations from TRAs online where they're doing some sort of ~ * ~ virtue twerking about twanz ~ * ~.

I think for a lot of TRA-aligned people, they simply haven't thought very deeply about the core tenets of trans ideology and what all that actually means. supporting trans ideology in a general, overall sense is just something they basically see as a given/default due to how much pro-trans propaganda they are being surrounded by.

I also think there's a lot of reflexive defensiveness of trans ideology from TRAs because from their perspective, they only see criticism of trans ideology from conservative media/politicians, and they are automatically primed to dismiss all that as wrong and bigoted.

in other words, they think: anti-trans = conservative = anti-trans = bad, bigoted, other nasty stuff. there is simply no possibility in their minds that someone could oppose trans ideology for gender critical feminist reasons instead of "oh, they're just a backwards bigoted transphobe". to be fair, the vast majority of opposition to trans ideology in the US is coming from conservatives, and for non-feminist reasons.

even if gender critical reasoning is explained to a TRA, they still might not be able to see that it's coming from a different motivation than the conservative anti-trans perspective. a TRA thinks that any and all opposition to trans ideology is inherently conservative in motivation, as I described above. so it's easy for them to write it off mentally and not seriously consider that GC people might actually be right.

this still doesn't fully explain "why are they so goddamned fervent about supporting trans ideology?" there were some past discussions where I speculated more about that part. this Aldous Huxley quote was involved https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/95413-the-surest-way-to-work-up-a-crusade-in-favor

iirc, I said things like being a TRA is apparently very integral to some people's perception of themselves as a good person. or rather, being seen by others as a TRA is very integral... - it's not enough to just support it quietly, to yourself.

I think there's some kind of external validation factor at play here, which is the part that's most puzzling to me since it's not something I can relate to. although I didn't outright disagree with trans ideology pre-peaking, I never saw it as something I needed to be very loud and overt about supporting.

it's really late here so I hope at least some of all that made sense!

They want a socially-approved excuse to bully people. There is no deeper reason beyond that. If this were 30-something years ago, then they would be on the Religious Right hectoring parents about kids listening to Ozzy Osbourne and reading Harry Potter books.

Honestly? I think there is a fun element to it. People dressing up in costumes is fun. I think it is a bit like being part of a play or Halloween party for them.

Internalized misogyny? A way of subconsciously coping with the fact that males will never, ever, ever just leave us the fuck alone? Seriously that dumb that they think putting on a dress means a man is less dangerous? I mean, let's be real, people are fucking dumb, and that includes a lot of women.

I don't know, I wish I knew.

I also think the misinformation factor plays a huge role in people not peaking and people do discount that. They don't even realize these men are fetishists.

The shitty behavior of men (which is nearly all their behavior) is taught to them via the male socialization they are inculcate with from the day they are born.

Womens' acceptance of, and reinforcement of, male behavior is taught to girls from the day they are born and relentlessly hammered into women every day of our lives.

They hate themselves and are grateful that a man would want to be one of them

Massive internalised misogyny and inferiority complex is all I can come up with.