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    Bobby the Aardvark
    Bobby the Aardvark
    Bobby the Aardvark
    Ebook105 pages1 hour

    Bobby the Aardvark

    By Sandra Wagner

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    About this ebook

    This is a transgender allegorical tale of a child who is magically transported to the world of aardvarks and must learn how to cope being in an such an alien land. This story tries to give a feeling of how trans people feel living cis-gendered world. The story idea came from the author's workshop called "Trans 101 - Trans Information for the Non-trans Community".

    In the workshop she asks how they would feel if they woke up one day and they were an aardvark. They looked like an aardvark, they smelled like an aardvark and all the other aardvarks said they should just aardvark-up and get over it. This light hearted reference, devoid of any sexual connotation, was meant to get past the knee-jerk reaction most people had to words that had S-E-X or G-E-N-D-E-R in them.

    Transgender people more often than not have their lives sensationalized or are treated as sexual deviants. They are at a much higher risk for violence, suicide and substance abuse than the national average.

    This story is an attempt to try to bring understanding to the cis-gendered without using gender as a descriptive term.

    While there are no sexual situations whatsoever in this story, this is not a childrens story. There are images of brutality, aggression, and manipulation which younger readers would not understand.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSandra Wagner
    Release dateFeb 8, 2014
    ISBN9781310502415
    Bobby the Aardvark
    Author

    Sandra Wagner

    Sandra Wagner grew up and attended college in northern Colorado, and retired in 2008 after many years as a chemist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. She now teaches chemistry part time at Adams State University. Sandra's mother-in-law, Carol Ann Wethrill, is a fourth-generation native of the Upper Rio Grande, and has been meticulously collecting local and family stories over her eighty-four years. They started jointly writing history articles back in 2006 for the Lake City, Colorado newspaper.

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      Book preview

      Bobby the Aardvark - Sandra Wagner

      Bobby the Aardvark

      A transsexual tale

      by Sandra Wagner

      Copyright 2014 Sandra Wagner

      Smashwords ebook edition

      Ebook ISBN: 978-1-3105-0241-5

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Prologue

      Waking up

      At breakfast

      At the Family Doctor's office

      Back home

      The morning of re-orientation

      At re-orientation

      Return to the Doctor's Office

      At School

      In the storm

      A house in the woods

      Dr. Dumont and Bobby

      Story ending 1

      Story ending 2

      Afterword

      About the author

      Introduction

      While this is a story about a little boy becoming an aardvark, it is not about a little boy becoming an aardvark.

      Over the last several years, I have given a workshop about what it is like to be part of the transgender community. More specifically what it is like to be transsexual.

      In my dealings with the straight and LGB communities I have found quite a similarity of opinions, impressions, and questions about what it feels like to be trans* and be in the trans community.

      It inspired me to create a workshop called Transgender 101 - Transgender Information for the Non-Trans Community.

      In the workshop I try to bypass the knee-jerk reaction many people have to words that have the letters S-E-X in them. Many people feel that being transsexual is somehow a clinical term for a sexual deviant. They have images of men in dresses prancing around on talk shows.

      But in actuality, nothing could be further from the truth. Being transsexual is a lifelong quest to simply feel normal. Being transsexual has very little to do with sexuality, or sexual gratification, or genitalia.

      In my workshop I try to convey that being transsexual is about not feeling normal, of how everything feels out of place. And while many say that they feel like they are a man in a woman’s body or vice versa, I relate it to feeling like you have your shoes on the wrong feet, but all over your body.

      In my workshop I say How would you feel if you woke up tomorrow and you were an aardvark? You looked like an aardvark, you smelled like an aardvark, and all the other aardvarks told you to just ‘aardvark up’ and get over it! I used aardvark simply because it was a light-hearted reference devoid of any sexual connotations and, of course, it’s the first animal, and word, in the dictionary. Little did I know that I would be typing the word aardvark several hundred times in the creation of this story.

      By using that imagery, I attempt to convey that being trans* is like waking up in a completely alien environment. It is not about sex or sexual gratification. We don’t know how to be, or how to act, like the gender we were born, just like little Bobby has his problems trying to adjust to the aardvark world.

      Also in the story I try to convey how humiliated we are made to feel because of our difference from mainstream society. And the way that society has often treated trans* people.

      That then, is the essence of this story. I have been this little boy. And I’ve spent quite a number of years in the world of aardvarks. And I too searched for a way home.

      Introduction to Second Edition:

      This version of Bobby the Aardvark has been revised to correct tenses and spelling errors. It was done with the gracious assistance of my mentor and editor, Doris Wight.

      Doris has helped focus this new version and I think it has been improved greatly as a result. I cannot thank her enough for her insight as a renowned writer and editor in her own right, and her helpfulness in guiding me as I grow as a writer.

      Thank you Doris!

      Prologue

      There once was a little boy. His name was Bobby. He liked to do all the things little boys do.

      Bobby was 8 years old. He liked to run.

      And jump.

      Splash in puddles.

      Play in the sandbox.

      Fly his toy airplane.

      Pretend to travel to different planets in his rocket ship.

      Build snowmen.

      He hated school or going to the doctor to get shots.

      He thought girls were dumb because they played with dolls.

      He was fearless. Once, his friends dared him to eat a bug. And without even blinking he reached down and picked up an ant and ate it! His friends thought he was very brave.

      One night, while Bobby was in bed, a terrible storm came.

      There was thunder and lightning. The thunder was loud and woke Bobby up. The flashes of lightning were bright and frightened him.

      He hid under the covers to hide from the lightning and covered his ears from the thunder.

      The storm seemed to go on and on, but even with all the flashing of lightning and banging of thunder, Bobby fell back to sleep.

      In the morning the sun came out and the sky was clear. The birds chirped. And the flowers bloomed. Bobby awoke and tried to turn over, but found it was hard. He was still tangled up in the sheets.

      His hands didn't feel right. They seemed thick and clumsy.

      He opened his eye but couldn't see anything because his head was still under the covers.

      After struggling for a bit, he managed to throw off the covers and sat up in bed.

      He looked at his room and it seemed different, wrong.

      His toy cars were gone.

      His rocket ship was gone.

      The clothes in his closet were all different.

      Then he noticed something horrible! His nose seemed to stick out from his face. It was long! And huge! And was covered in FUR!!

      Then he looked at his hands sticking out of his pajamas. They were

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