My Transition from White Woman to Young Man of Colour

Jayrôme used to be a French white woman. Then he moved to Berlin and began taking

testosterone, causing him to undergo a second puberty. He grew a dark beard and people suddenly started talking Arabic to him on the street. Whether in cafés, locker rooms or at the passport control, he realised that not only his identity but above all the behaviour of his environment had radically changed towards him. He can compare how he was treated as a woman with his treatment as a man. What happens when not only a

person’s gender changes, but the appearance of his ethnicity and age too? Robinet’s

stories about queer everyday life are enthralling, and reveal how meaningless social

perceptions and classifications often are.