The last time I went out, I felt uncomfortable in my own skin, I found myself longing to be beautiful, supple and endearing to–in my mind–the opposite sex.

My name is Robert Collins, and I’m a woman in the body of a man. No that’s not entirely right, I am a woman trapped in the body of a Professional Wrestler.

How I came to wrestling as a career is a another tale for another time, now I only want to talk about my recent epiphany and why I now live my life–if one could call it that–as a woman.

I think it started when I was a young lad of just barely 4, I remember my preference for toys commonly viewed as feminine, and my reluctance to play cowboys and Indians with the other boys, unless I could be the saloon waitress or an Indian princess. Of course the other lads found me to be a bit off, but it felt more natural to me.

Outcast by family and friends, I left my town right outside of school, took a year off to find myself and grow emotionally. During this time in the late 70’s I had a string of homosexual relationships, that were unfulfilling and abusive. I remember one incident in a men’s room at studio 54, but that’s another story as well.

It wasn’t until the early-mid 80’s that I realized that living as a gay man was wrong… for me. I wasn’t a homosexual, not at all, in fact the idea disgusted me, I was in fact a woman, in a mans body. I wanted immediately to be let free, from my sweaty, hairy man shaped tomb, and to run freely and bare throughout my new found world. But I could not. I was literally and figuratively trapped.

Which brings us to the present, where I continue to live as a woman, on my personal time, and I wrestle professionally on your TV Mondays and Thursdays.

I’m the Intercontinental Peoples Champion and I’m a Woman trapped in a body I don’t love.

One day perhaps I’ll be free.

The above is a work of fiction, and the story of my illustration for this week’s Illustration Friday topic “Reinvent”, I thought it was a very good idea, when A. suggested it to me this morning.