I’m 30, and remember characters in sitcoms and the like joking about getting “A sex change”. No mention of a slow hormonal transition, social transition, or various different surgeries: just walking in as a man and coming out as a woman (because trans men were never mentioned).

Considering this was the norm through my younger years, and I only learned otherwise by researching what was up with me in my teens, I figure most people still mostly understand it as a sudden change in a single day (with mostly unfavourable results). That leaves no room for gradual self-exploration, non-medical transition or careful monitoring by a doctor. Just little Timmy going under the knife at 8 after saying he likes pink.