Two Cans of Paint: A Transsexual Life Story, with Reflections on Gender Change and History

Abstract

This article explores a life-history interview conducted with a transsexual woman in Sydney in the 1980s, at her request: ‘I want people to realize that transsexuals are just normal people’. An ordered narrative of a working-class man’s life breaks into a multi-stranded account of transition, highlighting the agency of the body, social encounters and supports, and the complex practice required to pursue and consolidate transition. The interview confronts the interviewer, a transsexual woman who had taken a different path, with political dilemmas about solidarity, critique, and commitment to feminism. A view of the connection between transition and change in gender relations is outlined.