Do you remember those magic eye pictures?

You had to work quite hard to learn to see them, and keep concentrating in the right way to hold the focus. Relax and they go flat.

I think people who have taught themselves not to notice someone's sex are doing this.

Maybe they trained themself for a particular loved one or friend (and have been told that if they don't keep seeing in the new way something awful will happen).

Or maybe they just practiced until they could do it, because (like the magic eye pictures) it was the cool thing

But we wouldn't print books or roadsigns using difficult stereograms, we use the ordinary way of seeing & reading flat printed images - because it is safer & more reliable.

And because concentrating on maintaining this way of seeing takes concentration from other things

Other kinds of optical illusions work the other way - its hard or even impossible to train your brain not to see them the illusory way - even when you know how they work https://twitter.com/Sci_Phile/status/571388980752752640

Names for the sexes work like this. You can tell yourself that "women" & "female" are different things

But if you read a news report (or analysis) about someone referred to as "she" you will find it hard to recognise they are in fact male. https://fairplayforwomen.com/pronouns/ 

And recognising whether someone is male or female is important - in particular for safeguarding, and for consent

Safeguarding - the system for protecting children from abuse and maltreatment is like the system of roadsigns.

Clear unambiguous communication is paramount.

So when people insist that we introduce easy-to-fall for mental mis-messages (like rules against using accurate words for the sexes)

And at the same time insist we exert cognitive effort to maintain hard-to-maintain mis-messages (like trying to believe sex is a social construct)

.... what they are doing is trying to put ambiguity where there should be clarity, and distraction when there should be focus.

We *could*"queer" road signs and make them harder to read and more ambiguous, but it wouldn't make roads safer for the people who share them.

In the gender wars we are saying to those staring intently at a 'magic eye' picture - "its flat paper"!

They know that, but they believe (often accurately) that if they stop concentrating and the picture pops out of 3D something awful will happen to them individually..

...they will lose a loved one, be ostracised, lose their job, be prevented from doing something else important in their life.

But meanwhile the optical illusion is being used to corrupt the systems meant to protect the most vulnerable.

Something awful is happening collectively.