FULVIA: No, I am not happy with my “perfect
body”, because it is not perfect. Perfection is something else.
COMM: Transgender Fulvia Pelegrino has spent
80,000 Euros over the last 15 years transforming her body through surgery.
FULVIA: Plastic surgery is not a drug but
it’s something people like me need. I am not happy with my face and other parts of
my body.
00:42 COMM: And her wife Marisa has stood by her.
MARISA: Our relationship transformed slowly,
also because Fulvia transformed slowly. All the things we’ve done together, doctors,
therapies help me to understand what was happening to her.
COMM: 56 year old Fulvia who was born Fulvio
had wanted to transition for years but didn’t feel able to until she was married and in
her 40’s.
FULVIA: I realised it at a very young age,
around 15 years old, but I didn’t have the opportunity to do it because I was living
in a very religious family. It was difficult to grow up with a body which is not yours
and that you try to mask in every way, behaving in a macho way, drinking beer, buying an American
4x4 and going shooting to make you feel like a man when instead you understand it is a
mask, so you need to throw it away and become what you are. I was feeling trapped in my
body. I had a hard time and I would drink to forget it. I understood I had to talk to
Marisa and undertake this path.
COMM: And after getting over the initial shock
Marisa was very understanding.
FULVIA: In 2000 I told Marisa that I wanted
to start the transition, but I didn’t know how complex it would be. Obviously, Marisa
lost it for a moment, it is not something that is easy to accept. We went to a psychologist.
Marisa being very open-minded only had one session, she didn’t find it too hard to
accept me.
MARISA: In the end I’ve asked myself: What
is more important? What is outside or what is inside of the person? I realised at the
time that I loved the person so it wasn’t changing anything.
COMM: But some things in their relationship
have changed.
FULVIA: Today Marisa and I are nothing more
than two sisters. Also, Marisa’s not gay and she wouldn’t have sex with me because
I have boobs, and even though I still have my male attributes they are “retired”
due to the hormone therapy. We live together. We argue like two normal people but not like
husband and wife.
MARISA: Of course the physical aspect is important,
this is why we don’t have any sexual rapport as wife and husband but we are more like 2
sisters. There is no attraction any more because it is not Marisa and Fulvio, it is now Marisa
and Fulvia. But there is affection.
COMM: And while her brothers have been as
accepting as Marisa, Fulvia’s parents were not supportive.
FULVIA: When I told my parents what I was,
my mother pushed me away and my father asked Marisa, my wife, to sign a paper to send me
to as psychiatric institution to make me change my mind. It was hard, truly very hard. When
my father died, we were not allowed to go to the funeral because they were ashamed of
us.
COMM: Now Fulvia is determined to become the
woman she feels she is meant to be even if it means more surgery.
FULVIA: I won’t stop here, I want to continue
with plastic surgery because this is not perfect. If I reach perfection maybe I will stop.