One thousand and one nights

How and where did you access it?

I am not actually conscious of ever reading this book, but I have a disintegrating antiquarian copy that was in my parents' book collection. I experienced the story of 'Aladdin' when my older sibling was in the play of it at school.

How did it make you feel?

It formed my earliest experience of gender. I think I must have been about eight. I was playing a make believe game with my friends. I wanted to play as Aladdin because his character appealed to me from the vague idea I had. I saw him as someone free from the restrictions of society, who ran around with a friend and a monkey in what now seems 'feminine' clothing. Plus, my sibling had been singing the songs from the play for months. However, I was assigned female at birth, and it suddenly seemed strange to say to my friends 'pretend I'm a boy'. I realised that there was a whole experience that I would never be allowed. And so I repressed the possibility that it didn't have to be this way and I pretended to be a girl for nine years.

Did you share it?

No, never.

Is there anything else you would like to tell us about it?

I am non-binary, so I have never really seen 'myself' represented in fiction.

Francis