Lynne Tillman

A NOMADIC EVENT IN THE BODY

Dr. Rene Richards, the transsexual tennis player and surgeon who was not allowed to switch in tennis so as to compete as a woman, was interviewed on late night television.

As part of her narrative, Rene Richards explained that when she was still a man she fathreed a child, a son. After his operation, sensitive to her son's needs, she acted as both father and mother to him. She made him dinner, but also took him to ball bames. She was his pal.

The interviewer, fascinated, leans forward on his chair, and asks, But what does your son call you?

Touching the pearls around her neck, Rene Richards smiles and says, He calls me Daddy.