You have hit the point exactly. As a trans person, I'm not fighting for the right to obey a different set of social norms than the ones I was assigned at birth.

I'm fighting for the right to not obey gender norms at all, and (relatedly but separately) the right to modify my body to my liking.

In an ideal world, I wouldn't need to declare myself non religious - I could just not be religious and no one would care. Similarly, in my ideal world "transness" would cease to exist because there would be no expectation of conformity against which I currently stand out by my transgressing them.

On top of the answers you got there is a problem of semantics. "Feminine" can mean very different things in different contexts once you step even slightly out of the cishet gender binary.

Standard English lacks a concise way to convey the idea of fashion choices reclaimed from "feminine" fashion as its own (usually but not necessarily) male gay thing. We call that "femme" or "effeminate", but the difference between a cross-dresser and a hairy gay man wearing a crop top and booty shorts is obvious. We call that "femme clothing" because we lack a better word for it, but that archetypal gay man isn't any less masc for it and probably isn't any closer to attracting archetypal lesbians or straight men.

Another way semantics betray us is when we call emotionally available/sensitive men "effeminate". Usually in a misogynistic way, but regardless men who are emotionally sensitive aren't "feminine".

At the end of the day "being a man" is a vibe, the sum of countless things that aren't offset simply because a small part of your gender presentation is borrowed from traditionally female things. And vice-versa, neo-nazis on their gym grind aren't better men because they put on 100 kg of useless muscle and refuse to shake a woman's hand.

Gender is a social construct, so there is no baseline other than current sociatal norms which change all the time.

Fun fact social genderism is a construct. So the only thing that defines what is masculine is what the avg person does.

It's not different then slang.

At one point people called losers squares. That changed and fell out of fashion.

Masculinity is just the same. It's slang, it changes by the decade and century. If enough men do something that's masculine. If enough women do it then it's feminine. If everyone does it then it's nongendered.

Gendered terminology is deeply rooted to language and class. So just do what you want, get your friends and community to do it. Start a movement or don't.

End of the day, it doesn't really matter. Its going to change no matter what anyone wants. Humanity is after all a social animal, and what the tribe does at large decides our language and views.

So do your part and be true to yourself. Your influence may be small but together we are strong.

what does it mean to be masculine?

confidence in yourself