ABSTRACT
This is true of the newborn Calliope. The distracted doctor who delivers her fails to notice her somewhat enlarged and phallic-looking
clitoris, and so Calliope (who comes to be nicknamed "Callie" her Greek-American family) is baptized and reared as a girl. But like most XY individuals, Callie is destined to experience a dramatic rise in testosterone levels at puberty, which will be sufficient to enlarge her clitoris into something approximating a penis and to lower her voice, enlarge her Adam's apple, and develop her muscles. Callie's alarmed parents take her to a famed doctor in New York City, an expert in gender identity and gender anomalies. He recommends that Callie maintain her female gender identity, that she take female hormones, and that her genitals be surgically corrected to appear more feminine. But Callie secretly knows that she is sexually attracted to girls and she fears being mutilated, so she runs away from her parents, hitchhikes across the United States, and assumes a male identity. Callie becomes Cal.
