The Little Mermaid
That is to say, The Little Mermaid in general, but specifically Ariel, the redhead from the Disney animated version. Mermaids generally are often latched onto by biological males with gender dysphoria because as an anatomical metaphor: physically female from the waist up, but genitally ambiguous beneath the fin. Ariel’s unique situation within American culture as the dominant mermaid image since the 1990’s typically makes her the specific mermaid latched upon, helped along in no small part, likely, by her striking physical appearance.
Culottes at the Christmas Concert
Culottes are today generally considered female attire in America, though the history of the garment has not always been thus. At the same time there is even now a distinctly symbolic transgender quality to them: they look skirts but are really shorts. The symbolism that comes together when Wyatt/Nicole is wearing this skirt/short to a Christmas school concert while standing directly between boys to one side and girls to other is perhaps the most iconic symbol of his/her gender status before making the surgical transition to Nicole.
Name Change
The petition to legally change Wyatt’s name to Nicole is positioned as a significant symbolic turning point for Wayne. It is almost as if changing Wyatt’s name to Nicole is what actually transitions his son into his daughter.
Bathrooms
For some inexplicable reason, public bathrooms seem to be the focus of anti-trans political activism. It sometimes seems as nothing really matters to the anti-trans movement more than keeping the transgender population from having a place to relieve themselves when the urge to go becomes too much to resist. For the rest of history, toilet behind locked stall doors will be the definitive symbol of trans discrimination.
The Woods
The woods become Wayne’s sanctuary, a place to go off alone or with male companions that takes him as far away from Wyatt’s girly behavior as possible. The woods are also the place where Wayne goes hunting and, of course, in the world of patriarchal masculinity there is nothing that says “man’s man” quite like, for some reason, shooting a defenseless deer to death; even non-hunters seem to believe this within that domain of the patriarchy. The woods—with their connection to hunting—are therefore invested with a fairly dark symbolism: they a world where Nicole doesn’t exist and possibly Wyatt as well, but certainly it is safe to suggest even if Wyatt does exist in the woods, there is absolutely no mechanism for him becoming Nicole.
