I (22M, straight) have never tried dating women due to gender roles. There is nothing that turns me off more than an unequal partnership where I'm pigeonholed into being some stoic protector who never cries, never needs comfort, doesn't like "girly" things, and always leads affection and intimacy.
You know what I like? When a woman is strong, confident, playful, and comforting, but is also down-to-earth and vulnerable. Someone I could take turns caring for and being cared for by, pursuing and being pursued by her. I don't want some stupid power dynamic; I want us to be like best friends, equals with matching vibes who care for and comfort one another. And for us to have lots of fun together: foam sword fights in the living room, baking cakes together despite neither of us knowing what we're doing, having goofy staring contests... whimsical and silly stuff like that.
There is absolutely no room for gender roles in my life because I want us to feel like buddies, not the infallible chivalrous knight and the small vulnerable one. I see the opposite genders as complements that equally embody both strength and vulnerability. Hell, there's not even any room in my life for this serious adult facade everyone seems to put on. Having adult responsibilities doesn't mean I also have to act all serious and sophisticated. No, I'm going to be silly because we have only a finite amount of time on this earth and I'm going to use it to make people laugh and smile.
The Internet has made me disillusioned with the idea of a relationship because gender roles are constantly reinforced. "If you show your emotions to a woman she'll use them against you later" or "If you cry in front of a girl she'll break up with you" or "Guys who are too feminine give me the ick". Often some variation of "If you want a girlfriend, you have to maintain the image of a strong stoic hero, and the moment that illusion is shattered, you're fucked."
That's why, as soon as I realized what my attractions were, I immediately wrote off the possibility of ever fulfilling them because they didn't fit a patriarchal world, and I saw the idea of trying to force myself into that world as torture. I had somehow "fallen out" of gender roles and was attracted to equality instead of hierarchy. I didn't want to be "manly," I wanted to be adorable, playful, caring, and sweet, and I was attracted to those exact qualities in women. Once I developed chronic health conditions and physical limitations, the idea of me being strong and infallible became even more unattainable.
I'm interested in hearing others' experiences in navigating this. I really want to believe that equal straight relationships can be found, but I am surrounded by an information ecosystem that mostly points to their nonexistence, tainted by universal gender expectations.
Honestly, the fact that there isn't an "incel" subculture full of progressive men who gave up because their personality wasn't patriarchal enough makes me wonder if most guys with this issue: (1) don't have the self-awareness or courage to post about it, (2) enter relationships where they spend their entire lifetime in hell suppressing their personality, or (3) actually did find partners who loved them for their authentic selves, and most people have figured this out and I desperately need to touch grass.
It has actually helped me a lot, but only because the people here helped me to build enough confidence to talk to real life people about this and realize that I had fooled myself.
I used to think it was literally too dangerous for me to go outside because I didn't fit a world of hyperpolarized gender norms, which I convinced myself was how reality was. I used labels like "submissive" or "GNC" to mean "likes confident women" and "isn't a macho alpha male" respectively, not knowing that these were common characteristics that didn't need special labels. In that stage, the questions I asked were me trying to poke holes in my theory and see if there were exceptions to the hyperpolarized rule I imagined.
As my language became more accurate and I talked to online friends about my feelings, they kept saying that I was completely normal and not weird at all. That gave me the courage to come out about my feelings IRL to some of my conservative family members, and even they said I was normal. The more I probed real people, the more I realized that I had been catastrophically wrong this whole time, and this fascination with gender norms made no sense.
I asked this question to see if there was any shred of legitimacy left in the way I used to think, and I think it's safe to say that it has been fully discredited at this point. I only thought that way because some assholes in the past convinced me I was unlovable and I developed an elaborate pseudoscience to explain why. Maybe I should have just listened to the nice people who told me to my face how much they love my soft side.
I feel like I'm ready to go outside and make some friends now. And see a therapist if I still find myself struggling. The Internet has served its purpose for me, and I will not miss this era of my life.