But what does it mean?
This is interesting, at least to me, because I think I do know what she means.
“What does it mean?” he asks, and she’s not able to answer, she can only repeat. He asks if it means wearing a dress, reading certain books, and adds that not every woman wears a dress.
I think what it can mean is just the thought in the head. Nothing more than that.
I think that because I did it myself as a child. I pretended to be various characters out of novels or tv shows, without necessarily actually doing anything. It was just “being.”
But that was just me. I never tried to impose it on anyone else, and in fact I think I kept it mostly secret. It was a form of daydreaming I suppose.
And, to be blunt, I was a child. I didn’t go on doing it forever.
“That’s a much larger question about gender discourse and feminism more generally.”
I think what she’s trying to say is that that would be an ecumenical matter.
(Except of course, that the doctrine of transmutation, or whatever, actually doesn’t matter. But she’s actually claiming with a straight face that central issue in all this is just too important to be worth thinking about.)
Somehow I think getting her to understand would be like trying to explain perspective to her:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4XFUc6175k
Ah yes the old wisdom that passeth human understanding.
How convenient.