At one point, Bornstein offered a plea to those in the audience who felt confident in womanhood to tell her what it is like.
Years after her operation, Bornstein said she began to view gender roles with criticism, saying she believed that "we were forced into our genders," compelled by doctors and fashion magazines.
In defiance of both gender roles, Bornstein claims to be neither a man nor a woman.
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She draws parallels between the radical disfigurement of surgery and her changes in identity.
"I have shed my identities like I shed my dead and dying cells," Bornstein said. "[I will soon become] the one the dictionary will have trouble labeling."