Quotessence
Home / Books / Parrotfish

Parrotfish

Book by Ellen Wittlinger · 6 quotes · Gender, Lgbt, Sex

Filter quotes by topic

Parrotfish Quotes

“Did the women feel like I was deserting them by deciding to live as the other gender? Maybe for Dad and Charlie, it didn't seem strange to want to be male, since that's what they were. But Mom and Laura—and, of course, Eve—acted like I was betraying them somehow. Would I have to give them up if I wasn't a girl anymore? I hoped not. I hoped that changing my gender wouldn't mean losing my entire past.”

“Why can't I act like a girl? I used to ask myself that question all the time. When the swimming teacher said, "Boys in this line; girls in the other," why did I want so badly to stand with those rowdy, pushy boys, even though my nonexistent six-year-old boobettes were already hidden behind shiny pink fabric, making it clear which line I was supposed to stand in? I wondered, even then, why I couldn't be a boy if I wanted to. I wasn't unhappy exactly; I was just puzzled. Why did everybody think I was a girl? And after that: Why was it such a big freaking deal what I looked like or acted like? I looked like myself. I acted like myself.”