Sunday, August 21, 2016

The Bob Project - 2

If you haven't read the Introduction for The Bob Project, I recommend that you begin there.

Sentence: Mother called to Bob but he did not answer.

Okay, so A of all, I love this sentence, which I find incredibly evocative.  Why didn't Bob answer?  What is Bob doing?

As it so happened, I had just learned about Christine Jorgensen, a trans celebrity from the 1950s (yes, you read that correctly) who transitioned several years after serving her country during WWII.  In 1953, she wrote in an article for American Weekly that as a teenager, she felt "lost between the sexes."  After the war, "I found that the longer I lived in the male role of George, the less physical and mental energy I had to devote to any project I might choose.  My mental anguish drained me dry of emotion."  Following hormone therapy and surgery, newspapers made Jorgensen famous with headlines like ''Bronx GI Becomes a Woman!" and "Ex-GI becomes blonde beauty!"  Although some ridiculed her, Jorgensen enjoyed plenty of positive press coverage - for a time.  (You can read a wonderful reflection on her life here, and Google can tell you lots more, too.)

In any case, I decided that Bob was inspired by the courage of Christine Jorgensen, whose picture he put on the wall.  He's left the house, no longer willing to live by Mother's rules.




"I read The Well of Loneliness not long ago.  It made me more determined than ever to fight for this victory.  The answer to the problem must not lie in sleeping pills and suicides that look like accidents, or in jail sentences, but rather in life and the freedom to live it."


 TI love the way her in life and the freedom to live it.In

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