If George were there, she would fit right in, giggling and linking her arms in theirs. She would wear a bright-pink bikini, and she would have long hair that her new friends would love to braid. They would ask her name, and she would tell them, My name is Melissa. Melissa was the name she called herself in the mirror when no one was watching and she could brush her flat reddish-brown hair to the front of her head, as if she had bangs.
The context for this passage is the main character flipping through a glossy magazine and focusing on a photograph of four girls having fun together on the beach. This action has become something of a ritualistic act for the boy George who desperately wants to become the girl Melissa. Melissa, as noted, is the name that main character calls herself in those deliriously happy private moments when George no longer exists in any form, having completely been subsumed into Melissa. It is one of the most commonly shared experiences of young biologically-born boys experiencing gender dysphoria. The confusing of names here—in this analysis box—is purposeful and intentional in order to highlight something about this book which is among the rarest in literature. Although published in 2015, in the rapidly evolving social zeitgeist surrounding transgender issues, that already seemed like the last century by 2022. And so the book George would also undergo gender transitioning just like the character George: beginning in April 2022, the novel would be republished under the more identification-appropriate title Melissa.
George eyed the tank top Kelly had given her. It looked a bit like an undershirt, but with thinner shoulder straps. She took off her T-shirt and slipped the girls’ top over her head. The air felt cool on her exposed shoulders. Next, she took off her sweatpants and stepped into the skirt. She pulled it up to her waist and let the fabric settle into place.
She looked in the mirror and gasped. Melissa gasped back at her. For a long time, she stood there, just blinking. George smiled, and Melissa smiled too.
This is another widely shared moment of commonality among younger biological males undergoing recognition and acceptance of the reality of gender. Ask a child born a male who becomes a transgender female about that first time wearing “girl clothes” when it didn’t feel weird or something to be ashamed of or something to do only in private or—worst of all, an act of cross-dressing—but actually made complete sense and felt utterly natural and “right” and chances are you won’t come across too many who can’t vividly recall the moment. Such a moment is what is the boy named George is experiencing here and its significance in the process of transitioning into the girl named Melissa simply cannot be overstated. Some critics of the novel have focused on the fact that Melissa’s preference for clothing and style is traditionally “girly” rather than something a bit more robustly rebellious. Such criticism only serves to prove that those leveling are completely missing the point of this particular shared moment in the process.
“Is that what this is about? Oh, Gee, I was there when you were born. I changed your diapers, and I promise you, you are one hundred percent boy. Besides, you’re only ten years old. You don’t know how you’ll feel in a few years.”
The son she knows as George is struggling mightily to come out with the words he desperately wants to say to his mother: “I’m a girl.” And then, one day, they come. And the mother of a girl named Melissa is forced to listen to the above. In a nutshell, this the central point of contention over the very idea of transgenderism: the confusion of one’s biologically determine sex with the social construct that is gender. Many people seem to think that gender issues is something new to society; at worst, it is dismissed as a fad. The reality is that there has always been gender issues in society because it has always been society—not biology—that determines gender.
Joan of Arc’s story is tale of gender issues. No one questions whether Joan was a girl, but she was eventually burned at the stake not because of her sex organs but because she dressed like a man. Sure, they called it heresy and treason in the official legal documents, but Joan was lit on fire for one reason and only one reason: dressing like a man. The real problem a lot of transphobic people have is not with people born with a penis insisting they are female, but rather the discomfort they feel at seeing a person born with a penis wearing a dress without any intention of making them laugh at the sight. Times have changed, but gender issues have merely shifted slightly over the centuries.
