I didn’t realize that in his wish to transform me was the proof that he didn’t like me as I was, he wanted me to be different, or, rather, he didn’t want just a woman, he wanted the woman he imagined he himself would be if he were a woman. For Franco, I said, I was an opportunity for him to expand into the feminine, to take possession of it: I constituted the proof of his omnipotence, the demonstration that he knew now to be not only a man in the right way, but also a woman. Elena Ferrante
About This Quote

In the play, The Seagull by Anton Chekhov, Ivan is a man who has been transformed by his friend Tuzenbach into a woman, and as a woman she is now living with her lover, the famous actress Nina. In the play, Chekhov tells us that living as a woman is much more difficult than living as a man. In order to make life as a woman comfortable for herself, Ivan has to constantly change her appearance. She has to constantly adapt to her new lifestyle.

This transformation process is what makes life as a woman so difficult. However, it also makes life as a woman more interesting and fulfilling than living as a man.

Source: Those Who Leave And Those Who Stay

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