Transgender Representation in a Short Story Continuing the theme of LGBT representation in literature, this essay focuses on the experience of a transgender girl in the short story "Other Women » in the new collection: A Safe Girl to Love by Casey Plett. The story follows a trans girl named Sophie and her struggles with others regarding her gender identity, name and pronouns, as well as gender dysphoria and her sexuality in relation to her gender identity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The story begins with Sophie's reunion with her mother after a long period of being away from home. She notes that her mother "didn't say anything about sex all day, which was nice of her." It was Sophie's first time back in Winnipeg since she asked everyone to call her by her chosen name. Her mother tried to call her Sophie, but it's difficult for her. Sophie's friend Megan is one of the few people in the story who respects her gender identity and fiercely protects her. Megan introduces Sophie to her cisgender friend Mark, and Sophie makes "a note to be careful about whether men and women shake hands." All these new social signals are confusing. Later that day, Sophie gets her gender misgendered by a stranger and she says to herself, "I don't know why I can't say for myself: I'm actually not a man." I have this horrible image of being like a little kid saying, “Look, no, I’m really a girl.” I promise. I promise. I wanted someone else to step in and say you're wrong, buddy, there's a chick, it's not a man and you should get your eyes checked. "Sophie is primarily attracted to women and therefore identifies as a lesbian, but she questions her identity when she meets Mark. She wants to know if he is straight and wants him to like women. She says he poked a hole in her gaydar and made her feel pretty, something that seems trivial but as a trans girl it tends to mean a lot. However, her dysphoria shows up when she accidentally rubs. her phone against her five o'clock shadow, and she stops feeling pretty. Plett also addresses violence against trans people in this story Sophie tells her mother that Oregon is nice and that she doesn't feel like it. danger, but she knows that "it's not true that everything is always friendly She was in a bar a few weeks ago and some guys threatened to throw a knife in her face. Someone shouted. fucking faggot” as she walked home the other day She moved to Portland partly because it was a liberal dream dripping with weirdness, but she wishes she had researched the geographic details first. to sign a lease on 104th and Powell. She reflects, "I'm just lucky no one has tried to hit me yet." Or stab me. But mom didn't need to hear all that. » Sophie faces both casual transphobia and violence from people she knows as well as random transphobic strangers. She meets old people from high school and speaks to them. She makes a comment about her gender, and one of the cisgender boys says, “Don’t be rude.” Look, I'm cool with you. Doing anything, I don't understand, I mean, if it turns you on, whatever. But there are people here tonight who wanted to kick your ass, okay? I talked to them, they're cool, but relax, be normal, everything will be fine. Okay?" She says to the reader.