Narrative Messages Part 1

The ring also represents her father's acceptance of her as his daughter. This acceptance (and the recognition, or reward, that followed it) came as a result of pain, of suffering, but had Jaime been afraid or unwilling to undergo this pain and to be honest with herself and her father as to who-and what-she is, a real relationship wouldn't have been possible with her father or herself: "He thought me a freak of nature, a perversion and a fraud. But I had to take hormones. I had to undergo electrolysis. I had to have surgery. I had to have breasts. I had to become who I am inside. I had to be a woman-in all details except my genitals. . . . Daddy got used to the idea that her son, James, was born to be his daughter, Jaime. When I turned sixteen, he flew me to Europe, so that I could begin my transformation. Two years later, I returned here, to his home, and he gave me the bracelet that you returned to me to mark the occasion of my coming out party. That's why it means so much to me. It's my father's expression of acceptance and love."

It is best to be oneself, this story suggests, even if it is painful to do so, for being true to oneself is its own reward. Honesty about oneself enables one to live an authentic life. It also allows one to be honest to others. As Shakespeare's character Polonius says in Hamlet, "Above all, unto thine own self be true,/For then it follows, as night follows day,/ Thou cans't not be false to any man."

"Boy Meets Girl" features a double date between two sisters, Stephanie and Jenny, and two brothers, Brad and Dave. Brad dates Stephanie, and Dave dates her younger sister. Stephanie, a transsexual who has completed sex-reassignment surgery, and Jenny, a shemale who has not come out concerning her sexuality, share common ideas about the nature of their sexual identities. Both are happy to be transgender. Brad and Dave contrast in their attitudes toward the girls, once they discover their dates' secrets. Brad, who is homophobic and chauvinistic, is aghast to find that Stephanie and Jenny are male-to-female transsexuals.