Transvestism

Abstract

I was a flat-chested teenager. Still, wanting to be like my friends, I bought a bra, a soutien-gorge which, of course, I didn’t need. My mother, who possessed a magnificent bosom and a sharp wit, called it my “soutien-rien”—my support-nothing. I can still hear her words today. Over the years that followed, my chest slowly pushed out. Nothing to write home about, though. Suddenly, in 1992, a transformation occurred. In the space of six months, spontaneously, I had proper tits: no treatments, no operations. A miracle. I swear. I was thrilled, but not really surprised. I put this feat down to twenty years of frustration, envy, dreams and sighs. —Sophie Calle, The Breasts, 2013