NNRM #9: Fated for Femininity

by Sandy Thomas^[1]

Over the past few days I've been on a quest to find the ancient trans lore - to see how old of a trans-authored work I can find. This search started from this recommendation by Bethany, of transfemininereview.com. I eventually ended following the trail of all publications of Transvestia, organized by Virginia Prince and later, Sandy Thomas. There's a treasure trove of post-war trans literature available there, and I look forward to poring through it to get a clearer idea of how.

Lennie is a "boy", slight of stature, with long hair, and fair skin, has just changed schools and transferred to Clifftown High School. He is athletically talented, a whiz at basketball despite his not just at cheerleading (the impetus for the "force" fem plot).

The setup is so timeless that It's practically indistinguishable a setup as Alyson Greaves' How to Fly from last year.

The mean head cheerleader character, Mona, is truly incredible. The mean girl head cheerleader slowly comes to respect the main character, but then snaps, being unable to contain her repressed lesbian desires any more. Their relationship is a 1960s understanding of dom/sub play, or maybe just a spanking kink made manifest. It's wild to know that this stock character basically hasn't changed at all over the past 65 years.

Aside: one of the funniest lines of dialogue in the book is about her.

"You see, my dear child, Mona is alright, basically. It's just that she is an innate sadist, and her experience with you has plunged her into fixed and definite sadistic tendencies that will now become a part of her personality. However, I am glad you came to see me."

"You've irreversibly altered this girls psychology for the worse. Well, anyways..."

While the protagonist, Linda, is a trans woman, (one of) their eventual partners is textually a trans man. Like so much trans fiction, it presents him... if not cruelly, then with an indifference bordering on incuriosity. As if to say: "I can't imagine why anyone would want to do that". That being said, he does end up marrying Linda. And throughout, this is portrayed as the most well-adjusted relationship that Linda has.

Although I thought this book was going to end on an charming T4T note with this hetero relationship, swerves off the highway at the last minute, off-roading into the desert sunset. Linda ends up in a polycule with almost every named character in the book: the OTP, the BFF-turned-lover, enemy-turned-dommy-mommy, and the elder Mr. Sexual Assault of a Minor.

I have 0 tolerance for pedophilia nonsense, and not only was it played off as something akin to normal - it was highlighted that the principal who was doing the abuse was doing so because of he was "a frustrated transvestite". That's not the only thing aged like milk, either. There are some ancient slurs here that are so dated I didn't even realize they were slurs - "a Svengali", a "morphodite". Even if it's not a slur, it's definitely used pejoratively in context.

Really, the whole thing is steeped deep in the sexological understanding of sexuality: I don't remember if "sexual inversion" was mentioned in this book, but it was very much in line with the ideas. The ongoing conflation of homosexuality with pederasty is also very much present - but it's hard to separate that from the seeming casual acceptance of massive age gaps between men and women, and the sexualization of young girls that was common then (and now).

While its fascinating how this story reflects the evolution (or lack thereof) of white, middle-class trans tropes since the mid-1900s, normalized pedophilia and racism makes this a hard No for me.

1/5

Available on Lulu.