As I am reading the first 100 something pages of Driscoll’s book where she talks about what ‘being a girl’ means from different perspectives, time frame and theoretical positions, I can’t help but think of another way of becoming a girl – a literal way: through sex change. I wonder how that might fit into the given scheme of things, particularly in Indian contexts where such things are still big taboos?
One of my friends from India is a LGBT activist and researcher. She once told me about this couple she knew. The girl was in school with her and she knew the boyfriend primarily through the girlfriend, and only later discovered other connections. The couple had been together for several years, before the boyfriend realized that she had always felt like a girl inside and wanted to change sex. The story was narrated to my friend by the girlfriend, who expressed her concerns and confusions about her boyfriend suddenly turning into a girl. Put that way, the story probably sounds funny, but as far as I have learned from my friend it had a rather sad ending for the couple. It pains me to think what ‘becoming a girl’ could entail for people like them, especially in an unsympathetic and unforgiving conservative society.
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