ABSTRACT
In the early 1970s, the author had a job in television, an industry still considered modern and arty. At a colleague's birthday party and not really sure how to be social, the author joined a circle of six people chatting and drinking. Even though he author felt much more comfortable in the company of women and gay men, the author often had to work with very heteropatriarchal men. The author was aware of men living as women, some of whom were glamorous showgirls and some who had had a sex-change operation. Kando's Sex Change, an academic text, describes transsexual women ranging from sex workers and showgirls to housewives. The stories suggested that living in a trans borderland, even though it might be in search of a normative female life, seemed to always end up heavily stigmatised. Influenced by Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, the author saw becoming an accomplished woman as developing skills.
