TV's to a little kid who's barely out of kindergarten and suddenly de- cides he is going to start being an astronaut: tomorrow! Just have your parents buy you a space suit and then apply for a job at NASA. Any- thing missing in the project? Just a few little details! Such as twenty years of study and training. To me, this is exactly the case of the so- called transsexual who thinks of the surgeon's knife as the magic key that will open the door to paradise.

They tend to forget that one must learn to be a woman first before you can even begin to plan on being a female. I underscore this learning process for the simple reason that female babies are trained to become women. Parents, school and society in general see to it. And I am not talking about biological behaviour which comes naturally for obvious reasons: e.g. menstruation, sex drives, maternal instincts, etc. . . I refer to the overall pattern of functioning as a woman in a society where the roles are separated, divided and fairly well defined. Of course, when and if we become a society in which gender separation is abolished and all modes of behaviour, activities, dress are equally accessible to both sxes, then there won't be any reason to talk about woman-like or man- like behavior. Everybody will be able-if he or she so wishes to act "womanly" or "manly" any time they feel like it. We all know that females today are a great deal closer to this situation than males are. A girl may or may not put on lipstick going to work . . . such choice is not available to the male. A girl may or may not wear skirts going out ... the choice is not extended to males and so forth. Society has imposed a good many limitations on being a man. Women have been stubborn and determined enough to sweep away many of the old restrictions about being a woman. But, we are living in 1970, and un- less we are willing to join the hippie parade we simply have to abide by present rules if we want to succeed family-wise, security-wise and dollar-wise.

So, society insists upon females behaving like ladies and this is where our TS and pseudo TS friends fail in a most regrettable way. I am thinking right now of several instances whereby people continue to "read" a TS as being a man even AFTER the operation. "Impossible”, you say? No indeed! Sure, the operation plus hormones and sometimes electrolysis have supplied them with a fairly nice external appearance— after all (sex aside) externals are all that people see, whether you are a TS or a dolled up TV going out shopping. However, these brand new gals, just arrived from the factory, can be compared to an old car with a gleaming new body and fenders, but still with the same old engine that rattles, the old connections, the dirty filter and the leaky radiator.

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