Zazie de Paris

Queen of Saba

[German]

There have always been opportunities to be a woman. Fortunately, I come from an artistic family, first in France and then in Israel, and I had many chances to express myself as a girl. I took, for example, ballet lessons with my godmother. If had been born 300 years earlier, I would have looked for a job in which I would have been accepted as a woman and would not have become conspicuous at all. Maybe I would have become a businesswoman at a market for fabrics, silks and jewellery somewhere along the Silk Route.

My favourite biblical heroine is the Queen of Saba. She was extraordinarily clever and beautiful and came from another culture, Yemen. She went to Jerusalem to test the wisdom of King Solomon. Of course, they fell in love. I believe in the great myths about love. Jewish clichés? What are clichés? But a Jewish mother is no cliché. And of course, all Jewish boys must be little Einsteins. What's cliché about that?

God made me a woman. I have trouble with the word "transgender". Just because this is a trendy thing to say right now does not mean I have to go along with it! Quite simply, I am a woman. Period. The word "transsexual" does not thrill me either, because it reduces you to your gender. But you are much more than your gender. For me, undergoing a sex change means choosing to embark on a process in which you develop and bloom as a woman. I describe this path as a "metamorphosis". At the beginning you are like a caterpillar, but you develop into a beautiful, colourful butterfly. The way between these two poles nevertheless very painful. It is associated with a great deal of self-hatred for everything that is still masculine about you. Many do not survive. Transsexuals who are receiving hormone treatments have one of the highest suicide rates. My family has finally accepted me. But at the beginning it was a disaster. It had nothing to do with religion. My parents were both atheistic communists, but still ... Today my clan includes people I have chosen. I am not saying that as a transsexual, I am saying it as an artist. I find the oath of friendship from those who chose me as a friend much more important than marriage. My family exists through passing on talents as an artist and a person.

Zazie de Paris (Solange Dymensztein), an actress and singer, lives today in Berlin.