Chapters have indeed been switched as I expected they might be. This excerpt is from what used to be Chapter 3: Confessions of a Grown-Up Tomboy (but is now Chapter 2: Confessions of a Grown-Up Tomboy. Chapters 2 & 3 switched places.)
My experiences with Betty trying to figure out what exactly she’s after in wanting to be a woman is completely confounding for both of us. I feel like someone who lives in a rainforest who’s trying to understand why Eskimos have a few dozen words for ice and snow. I once found myself trying to explain to a Burmese monk how cold it would be in Tibet, where he was going on a short visit. It’s very difficult to explain how cold snow is to someone who feels chilled in 70 degree weather; he didn’t understand how a human being could physically survive being that cold, though by the end of the conversation I had convinced him he couldn’t wear sandals and should bring every article of clothing he owned. My sense of gender is similar to that monk’s sense of cold: they tell me I should wear these kinds of shoes, and these kinds of clothes, and I might not ever like it, and in the end the idea of it will probably be more fascinating than the reality.
Interesting anaolgy. I doubt that it’s an original thought but I often describe gender to neophytes by talking about air. You usually don’t think much about it but you need it badly and rarely notice it unless it is foul smelling, etc.