Gender seems to have been discussed much more than sex, although I agree that sex has been discussed but to a much smaller extent.

Including much (ridiculous) back and forth about what constitutes 'consent'

So I haven't seen such discussions here that I recall, but I'm curious what they were and what makes you think such issues are ridiculous.

Politics controlling the personal forced behavioral changes that were beneficial

Can you expand on this? This isn't obvious to me.