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I read this book last year for pleasure since I've heard great things about it. Last year I just read it and soaked it in, but after attending this class I have some new feelings towards it. After Tuesday's discussion about sex and gender and the difference between them, I was left confused because I had never really thought about the many different genders and the idea of sex meaning biological and gender meaning mind. So when I read book 1 for the second time, I could better understand Cal. When I first the book, I couldn't really understand the concept of him starting out to be a girl and then half way switching to indentify as a man. I'm still learning/understanding the notion of there being tons of different genders, and I could only imagine that it is a very hard thing to go through when deciding/are aware of the fact that one thinks he/she is not the way he/she was born. Plus, I really agree with the fact that culture/society influences individuals. Cal mentions that after he identified himself as a he, he would do what other males did in society to blend in. He would go to male restrooms and dress like a man. Also, both Desdemona and Lefty know they are not doing the right thing by getting married because it is almost shunned in society for siblings to marry. But when they are on the ship, the society they grew in is not with them on that ship; instead, there is a new group of people who do not know  Desdemona and Lefty's past, so it gives them a chance to make a new past that would allow them to marry and for them to feel somewhat satifisfied with them marrying each other.