A Man and a Woman

Bill: At any rate, you’ve got to be the only alumna of Vassar College with a beard.
Chris: Well, [stroking the luxuriant blond growth] if you were a woman with a beard, you might prefer it if others refrained from mentioning it. It might really hurt your feelings.
Bill: In that case, I apologize. Moving on a bit: I’d like to ask you a few questions about your life in the three years since you’ve graduated.
Chris: O.K.
Bill: It’s public knowledge that you’re now married to another Vassar alumna, and it’s rumored that she is now pregnant . . . and that you’re the father.
Chris: Really, are you trying to be offensive? I can hardly be referred to as anyone’s ‘father’. My wife and I simply refer to ourselves as ‘ancestor A’ and ‘ancestor B’, and we would prefer it if others did the same in this context.
Bill: I’m sorry. Please sit back down so that we can continue the interview.
Chris: You know, you really should try to be a bit more polite.
Bill: Sorry, sorry. Listen: I think that one thing that will really interest our readers is that, as a non-surgically-transgendered lesbian, you don’t look or act anything like a woman. In fact, you act exactly like any male, while managing to be a member of two protected categories, thus ensuring yourself a really good job.
Chris: What do you mean ‘look like a woman’? If gender is a matter of choice, then there’s nothing that it’s like for a woman to look. Or feel either, in case you were going to ask that.
Bill: Right. Well, thank you so much for letting me interview you this morning. If you’ll let me ask you one more question, what makes you different from a typical man, from me, say?
Chris: Other than your general repulsiveness, you mean? Simply my gender, which is just that, what I’ve chosen my gender to be. Nothing else at all.