REARRANGING THE THORN

"You can see a difference" he said "Their asses are much flatter"

The rest of us looked out of window into the street to check out the 'asses' of some of the people standing there in their skimpy outfits, but because of the dark and the slight drizzle nothing was obvious, but we took his word for it.

So, that said... how many years does it take for a man to turn into a woman?

The recent popularity of a particular networking site here in Malaysia has enabled me to reconnect with people whom I once knew, some I've lost contact with from 17 years ago, and some as recent as 6 years. While it is heartening to know that most of them still remember me, it never fails to surprise you how many things and people have changed.

I knew M with a male name since 1998, we were in several classes together, and at that time his soft side was never very obvious. He still dressed in T-shirts tucked into his trousers - something no teenage girl in her right mind would have done at that time. Fast forward a few years later when we used to be in the lab conducting experiments for our thesis, his feminine side was so much more obvious - for one, his complexion was fantastic, and we girls used to comment - much better than ours, and he started dressing more like us, in fitted tops with jeans. The dress ruling for my faculty was very relaxed because we were way up on the mountain and no one cared. In a much more recent development, he informed me that he had been reborned. I can only guess what he meant by that. The few photos he put up on the networking site showed him with almost shoulder length hair wearing dresses and traditional Malay costumes, and sporting a new name, M - of a female kind.

Now, I know there is a huge stigma (well, at least here in M'sia) surrounding this whole issue of people being confused about their genders and so on, but I highly doubt that people do so on purpose. I remember some of our guy course mates used to be afraid of M and his friends (there were two others like him) and avoided them at all costs. Nevertheless, I do believe that sometimes, it is possible for people to be born in the wrong bodies. You're physically male, but deep down, you know you're a woman. The same goes for being physically a woman, but in reality you're all male. That's something that could be equally confusing as well as depressing. The thing is no matter how much you change physically, the people you once knew will always know that you were once a man or a woman depending on the situation, and it makes things much harder. What's really weird (and bothers me) is the fact that sometimes, some people go all the way out to make life even harder for them. From what I've heard, it's hard for them to get employment, seek acceptance into society and these only scratch the surface.