Well, that's a twist we didn't see coming, did we?
As long as Jeff became a woman, it didn't matter what the method was, right?
In a way, it almost feels like this was written by an 8 year old boy who is afraid to go into the beauty salon because if they can make his mom really pretty, they could tackle him and force him to have curly blond hair in pigtails, lots of makeup and gah! a short dress with shiny black mary janes and white tights! Silly, huh? Then again, on Facebook, I know a few people that think feminists ARE changing the world right now and that "real men" are a dying breed because an attack on masculinity! "How dare you call it toxic!"
Where the hell was I? Hopefully everyone won't get confused, but I tried a different way of changing her thinking from male to female .. through the use of transitory names and a lack of gendered pronouns from the middle of the text until the ending when Jennifer was completely female. I would like to think that everyone understood what I was doing, but we do have readers that use English as a second language so I can't fault them if they wondered who the hell all those other J-named girls were and what they were all doing at the Beauty Salon, as if they took clients based on alphabetical order!
Starting this week and into the next, I am going to try to start stockpiling some captions to post over the next 2 months. Around Memorial Day through to right after the 4th of July is going to be a busy time for myself and members of the family, so caption time and blogging time might be limited to pockets of privacy when I can find them. I might be able to cheat a bit by writing up these posts while at work, but I definitely cannot make captions while on the clock. I'm hoping most people won't notice any lag or delay in what I post, but I am offering fair warning that things may slow down a bit here until the middle of July, unfortunately as I really love posting snappy captions and getting many comments to answer.
And to everyone out there raising one or more children, Have a Happy Feminine Parent's Day! The best parents have the best traits of both mom and dad wrapped into one ball of love. And bless you to those who's mother's weren't as supportive as they could have been. To those with great mothers, cherish them will they are still here to enjoy your company! It's been more than 25 years now since I celebrated a Mother's Day with my mom, and would love to hear one more time, even now in an ironic way, "Cut your damn hair! It's past your shoulder blades. I'm going to bring you to the hair dressers and get it permed if you don't get it cut!"
I think it's good to know for a lot of us that we don't have to enter a salon to get changed into a girl. So if you don't have the nerve to enter a salon you can still get the experience of becoming one.
ReplyDeleteI was going to ask you if the progress of the transition was shown through the names, just to make sure, but you already cleared that in your post. So I got that right. To think that English isn't even my second language, I got German to fill that spot ;)
Come to think of it, there aren't that many people active at the Haven anymore that I know of who don't have English as the first language.
Do you have a second language Dee? And if so, did you ever consider writing a cap in it?
If you wouldn't have the time to post for a while, I don't think anyone would hold that against you. After all, you are one of the most constant cappers I know.
The fact that English is like a 3rd or 4th language to you never fails to impress me, since you are usually so spot on .. even when it comes to idioms, puns, and other wordplay that I take for granted as a native English speaker.
DeleteI took 2 years of Spanish in High School (well 3 years because I got a D in the first year) and 2 semesters of Spanish in College. I also took a semester of French in college because that is my ethnicity, which I also flunked, though it's because I am French Canadian .. so they were teaching Parisian French at the college. Since I have gotten a D in English my Sophomore year of High School, I like to say that I'm illiterate in 3 different languages!
If people spoke Spanish like a sleepy robot, there is a chance I'd know vaguely what they are saying. I wouldn't want to bet the lives of anyone I care about on doing that though!
And thanks for saying that Helena about my consistency. I still think I might be able to do perhaps 2 new caption posts per week and one oldie .. if I can get a bit ahead before I have to do a bit of a hiatus. We'll see how it goes!
I'm reasonably fluent in German. In Berlin and Munich for instance Germans are surprised when they hear I'm Dutch, but closer to the Dutch German border it often happens that Germans answer me in Dutch when I start a conversation in German.
DeleteI got German, English and French in our equivalent of High School as well, but to be honest, I already spoke German before that. Perks of living close to the border and parents who visited the other side of the border frequently. For learning English I was extra motivated, because I wanted to know where my favorite bands were singing about. I spent quite some time translating songs into Dutch for myself with a dictionary in hand.
I never got the hang of French though, I had a teacher who was good at demotivating me the first two years. The third year I had a teacher who could actually motivate me, but by that time I missed so much of the basics, that I never caught up.
French Canadian. So we learn something new about you. As you always said you're from the Boston area, I always assumed you're from the USA. Boston is not that close to the Canadian border is it?
I've heard before that there is quite a difference between Parisian French and Canadian French, as Canadian English is more influenced by the English language. American and British English are more similar, as English became the dominant language.
I'm definitely American, but my heritage is mostly French Canadian. Need to do some family tree work, but all my relatives from grandparents going forward were born here, their parents ... I'm not so sure. I think a few were, and a few came from Canada, most likely Montreal since that is close to the US border. Most Americans assume that we are also Americans, but we have that "back up" nationality that we claim, since as far as countries go, being around less than 250 years is not that far back!
DeleteThe Irish were the first wave of immigrants in Boston and these parts, then I believe the French, from both Canada and the mainland, then the Italians .. then Asians and lastly Portuguese, much from the Azores. You can tell where each group settled by the ethnic Catholic churches that grew up from those neighborhoods.
Got it and love it
ReplyDelete