B. Characteristic of Liam
Liam O’Neil calls himself Lia Marie because he identifies himself as a girl who trapped inside a male body. Later when he is 17 he chooses ‘Luna’—which
means moon—as his name from the time when he identifies himself as a girl who only can be seen at night. Liam have problem in identifying himself as a gender
he has to be. Liam was born as an ordinary boy in a typical American family. His father
was working at Sears some kind of store and his mother was a regular housewife who stays at home for most of her time. This patriarchal family used an old
fashion way in the role of man and woman; whereas man should do the work to earn money and woman take care of the house and do the maternity job.
Liam’s physical appearance is appealing to some of girls at his school, he
was tall and slender. “She Shannon Eiber had hots for Liam at that time. All the
girls did.” Peters 2004, 38 Said Regan his sister once. “Five or six girls said hi to him on the way. Satisfied customers. Or girlfriend wannabes.” Peters 2004,
105. This physical beauty nonetheless he got from his father “Dad was better looking than most geezers his age.” Regan Admits. From time to time girls often
put a crush on him—which he ignores since that Liam has always feels that he is a girl and is not attracted to have any intimate relationship with another girl. He
never dates anybody; this became a problem to his father. Mr. O’Neil thought Liam was having homosexual preferences. Which then Liam denied… “I’m not
gay… it’s not the same. I’m a girl.” Peters 2004, 94.
Even so, when Liam dressed in role, his Boy role, as he called it, his appearance will be categorized as stiff and un-casual. “His long sleeved shirt was
pressed and buttoned to tae chin; tucked into his khaki Dockers, which were ironed with military precision.” Peters 2004, 6. Unlike when he puts his girl
role, he can be very flexible in dressed and matched up all the shirts, jeans, boots and wigs that he collected from second hand stores. He said that his everyday life
is just an acting that he does. “Acting. That’s all I ever do. I’ve been doing it so long, that’s all I can do.” Peters 2004, 58. Liam only put his girl role at night.
He often explores women clothes in her sister’s room, dressing, putting make up on his face, wearing wig and acting out as he is a girl. “She could do this for
hours—posing preening… Liam would give up everything to live one day as a plain, ordinary girl.” Peters 2004, 54. Despite the fact that Liam likes to pose
and dress, he doesn’t want to keep mirrors in his rooms since he avoid to see the projection of himself that is not the image he longed to possess. To his effort of
being a girl he also shaves all the hair he has. “He shaved his arms. He shaved his legs. He shaved everywhere. He hated the hair.” Peters 2004, 53.
He and his sister live in the basement of the house where they do their
activities. “The parental units pretty much designated the basement as our private
space. We had our bedrooms and shared bathroom down there, plus the big room where we could hang out and watch TV.” Peters 2004, 33. Yet their parents
rarely ventured downstairs to nose around and check the room, Liam was very carefully protecting his space. He puts alarm on the stairs that will make sounds
whenever someone steps on them. To his sister, “Liam was careful. Paranoid,
actually.” Peters 2004, 33. He was afraid if his parents caught him when he dresses as girl.
Liam is actually doing very well in his academic turf. According his little sister, Regan, Liam was a genius, a brainiac. Even only as a teenager, Liam has
been financially independent. He works at his parents basement to test the new game that a company created to fix the bugs and to try to crash the system. “It was
his job to play all the levels, to evaluate them, rate the graphic, difficulty of user interaction. Etc. The company paid him megabucks to do this. Their kid wizard,
they called him.” Peters 2004, 34. As so stated from the line, He earns a lot of money from that job that when one day his father asked him to fix a car together
for him, to make a better bond relation between them, Liam decided to buy a new car by himself and ignore his father.
Liam grows as a reticent teenage which always hid himself from people. He barely speaks with anybody, including to his parents that bring the conclusion
there is an emotional gap between him and his parents. “Because he tells you things. He talks to you. Which is more than he does with me or your mother.”
Peters 2004, 121 Said Mr. O’Neil to his daughter, Regan, concerning Liam’s habit and secrecy. Liam keeps himself from anybody that finally leads him into
having no friends in his teenage phase. He used to have friends back then when he was a child, but all his friends happen to be girls. Once in his ninth birthday, Liam
asked a bra for his present, Mr. O’Neil was utterly mad at that. Since then, he never told to have any more friends. In his teenage phase his only friend was
Alyson who also have crush on him and his sister Regan.
Because Liam is too feminine as a boy, his father often force him to take more masculine activities in his life,
such as working at Jiffy Lube, playing soccer or baseball, “I talked to Coach Hewitt yesterday… Stop by his office after school
today.” Peters 2004, 8 Said his father which now and then ignored by Liam. “I don’t want to play baseball, Dad.” Peters 2004, 8. There were times when Liam
did what his father asked him to do just to appease him, but eventually caused Liam frustrated and decided to commit suicide—which was failed since his sister
saved him. Mostly, Liam passion to be alive is so low, now and then he will state that he wish he is dead. “David could’ve killed you. I wish he had.” Peters 2004,
171 Said Regan once after Liam dressed up as a girl in some stranger house that the children have to be baby sit by Regan. “So do I, I wish I was killed” Peters
2004, 171 Liam said.. “I wasn’t meant to be born.” Peters 2004, 67. In mourning his presence and for what he is… “He used to cry almost every night.”
Peters 2004, 174. His only passion to live was to transition—having transsexual surgery—and changes his sex. “If I don’t transition, I don’t want to live.” Peters
2004, 213. Along dressing up in girl clothes, in his teenage Liam chooses reading manga comic as his hobby, he reads ‘Call Me Princess and Love Hina’.
To the concern of his life, his parental unit, Mr. and Mrs. O’Neil are not having a good relationship. They tend to confront each other, especially in doing
their role in the house. Liam’s mother is a typical career woman who doesn’t like to stay in the house even she does it, while Liam’s father is a regular husband
with conservative thought with the theory of patriarchal family. Finally, when Liam’s father got flunked from the job, and have to take a lower position in
another corporation—which means he earn only some of money that will not cover the family needs, he decided to let his wife to work. To their daughter
Regan Liam’s sister “…they felt stuck with each other. Then they got stuck with us. They wasted their lives, both of them.” Peters 2004, 165.
Through the narration of his sister, Regan, Liam has had many occurrences during his stage of life that affect his personality development thus finally lead
Liam into identifying himself as a girl, not as a boy, as he should be. The next part of chapter will analyze the process of Liam’s sex-typing and the failure in his
identification.
C. The failure of the Oedipus complex
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