Clothes Make a Man
Not a lot of information is supplied about Melissa’s backstory. For the most part, the narrative takes place in the story’s present day. There is some essential information contained within a brief flashback however. The mother of the boy named George catches her son wearing one of her skirts and pretending it is a dress. She flew a mini-rage that included a directive to never wear such clothing again and she furthermore rejects the request for a tutu. The underlying message of this very common scene in such stories is that one of the first thing future transgender girls learn is that it is okay for girls to wear boy’s clothes jeans and T-shirts but it is “wrong” for boys to wear dresses, skirts, etc. For many transphobic people, this seems to be the centerpiece of their entire reaction. Since most don’t know anything much about the scientific workings of gender, transphobia really does come to the most absurdly simplistic concept possible: there ought to be a law against males wearing dresses unless it is for the purpose of comedic entertainment starring men who make ugly women like Dustin Hoffman or Robin Williams.
Identity
Melissa is a rarity among transgender girls. She knows from a very early stage exactly what she is. She may not be aware of the finer details and intricacies, but she is very early to recognize the difference between George and the boys in her classes. And, what’s more, Melissa is not overly trouble by this. She has issues, but they are not issues of anxiety over recognition of gender differences. She is not just okay with it, she embraces it. She is to be admired for not allowing herself to be sucked into the painful vortex of gender dysphoria in which societal pressures to conform create severe anxiety which leads to often suicidal-levels of stress.
The Double Standard in Gender Convention
The book very subtly highlights some of the ways in which society has very rigid demands about gender convention in some respects while allowing for every loose rules in others. At one time, clothing was very much a gender issue on both sides; wearing men’s clothing is what turned Joan of Arc into the main feast as a Catholic barbecue. Today, of course, it is entirely one-sided. Melissa is even forced to go to the extreme of hiding absolutely non-pornographic magazines in part because she likes to look at the clothes the girls in them are wearing and fantasize about wearing them herself. Another example of contradictions is the whole subplot surrounding the Charlotte’s Web play in which George is not permitted to play the title character because it is a female spider. Meanwhile Bart Simpson, Bobby Hill, and almost every young boy character on an animated TV series is voice acted by grown woman.
One of the most beautifully subtle touches—almost a work of sublimity—that the author uses to comment upon contradictions in America’s treatment of gender is the name of Melissa’s best friend. Kelly is incredibly girly, far from a tomboy, and is instrumental in helping George navigate the otherwise-banned world of wearing female clothing. And yet, Kelly is a name that could just as equally be applied to a friend who is a boy and not a girl at all. We are still at a state of a double standard in gender convention where a woman named Michael can become the star of a beloved family-friendly TV show, but a boy named Sue may literally not survive adolescence.
