Alena Nurgaleeva is an eighteen-year-old woman who was born in Saint Petersburg, Florida and has a double chin. She is described as ‘Caucasian’ by her parents but claims to be American by birth and to have been born in Ukraine. This may seem confusing since ethnicity plays such a part in the issue of identity but Alena has chosen to live in America. Height, nationality and genetics are all part of the image that accompanies Alena’s double chin. Height and nationality can also be used to explain why Alena looks different from her peers: Alena was not genetically meant to have a double chin, her parents had perhaps not been happy with this outcome and that might have led to Alena developing the double chin.
There is one thing that everyone agrees on however, Alena has chosen to live an entirely different life and it is an important part of Alena’s ‘identity’. Alena has chosen to work as a paralegal in the legal profession and she describes this as her real job. Despite stating her profession as a legal assistant does not make her seem ‘real’ to many people. If you were looking for a profile of a ‘stature’ with a double chin and a legal pad in the corner, Alena fits the description perfectly. This may indeed be a problem for Alena, because although being beautiful, she has chosen to live as a man.
In fact Alena’s double chin does not affect her career in the legal profession, but it is what happens to her lifestyle that is upsetting. Alena describes men as ‘dogs’ and that men treat her with contempt because of her height. Men see no value in her life other than as a sexual object. Alena, who is now finally finding her true identity as a woman, speaks of how disgusted she is at the way her peers treat her because of her ‘incorrect’ size.