Why I have a hard time with the arguments that some people are simply adopting an identity for political expedience, and that even if they are, that their identities are less “real”: “My project would be to promote sex reassignment, gender alteration, temporary gender adventure, and the mutilation of gender categories, via surgery, hormones, clothing, political lobbying, civil disobedience, or any other means available. But that political commitment itself, if revealed to the gatekeepers of my surgery, disqualifies me. One therapist said to me, “You’re really intellectualizing this, we need to get to the root of why you feel you should get your breasts removed. How long have you felt this way?” Does realness reside in the length of time a desire exists? Are women who seek breast enhancement required to answer these questions? Am I supposed to be able to separate my political convictions about gender and my knowledge of the violence of gender rigidity (which has been a part of my life and the lives of everyone I care about) from my real “feelings” about what it means to occupy my gendered body?