It's meant to be kind of disturbing, so if I hit that instead of melodrama, I am glad.
The reason behind this universe is that Lewis did characterize the Pevensies by means of gender-linked archetypes -- at times I suspect he used archetypes in lieu of actually thinking about characterization. *wry* And the thing about gender-linked archetypes is they create dissonance when someone of the "wrong" gender acts them out. People don't like dissonance. Society reacts very strongly against it.
So yes, Mary is on a collision course between who she is and who her culture says she's allowed to and/or ought to be. I don't know what would happen to her if not for Narnia. The optimist in me says she struggles through her teenage years, retains the strength of will to get into college somewhere, and begins to learn how to define herself for herself instead of letting other people box her in. The pessimist in me says she commits suicide before she's twenty, or gets raped and/or killed after running away from home and losing one fight too many. :-(
I had not thought of Mary identifying as trans, to be honest. She doesn't fit into 1950s middle class feminine ideals at all, but people can fail utterly to fit gender stereotypes without feeling they don't belong to that gender. I think of it less as Mary being wrong (by which I mean "in the wrong body") than the world being wrong, you know?
I actually think coming back from Narnia will be less of a problem than you posit, if only because a lot of Mary's trouble stems from giving too much weight to the opinions of society, to the point where she has internalized them and hates herself. Once she knows that her native culture is not universal -- that there are other, perfectly valid ways to live, and that she can be herself without the world falling down -- it will, I think, be easier for her to say, "This is who I am," and not let other people get to her. Which is not to say there wouldn't still be a lot of resistance and trouble, but Mary herself would be in a much stronger place from which to face it.
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The reason behind this universe is that Lewis did characterize the Pevensies by means of gender-linked archetypes -- at times I suspect he used archetypes in lieu of actually thinking about characterization. *wry* And the thing about gender-linked archetypes is they create dissonance when someone of the "wrong" gender acts them out. People don't like dissonance. Society reacts very strongly against it.
So yes, Mary is on a collision course between who she is and who her culture says she's allowed to and/or ought to be. I don't know what would happen to her if not for Narnia. The optimist in me says she struggles through her teenage years, retains the strength of will to get into college somewhere, and begins to learn how to define herself for herself instead of letting other people box her in. The pessimist in me says she commits suicide before she's twenty, or gets raped and/or killed after running away from home and losing one fight too many. :-(
I had not thought of Mary identifying as trans, to be honest. She doesn't fit into 1950s middle class feminine ideals at all, but people can fail utterly to fit gender stereotypes without feeling they don't belong to that gender. I think of it less as Mary being wrong (by which I mean "in the wrong body") than the world being wrong, you know?
I actually think coming back from Narnia will be less of a problem than you posit, if only because a lot of Mary's trouble stems from giving too much weight to the opinions of society, to the point where she has internalized them and hates herself. Once she knows that her native culture is not universal -- that there are other, perfectly valid ways to live, and that she can be herself without the world falling down -- it will, I think, be easier for her to say, "This is who I am," and not let other people get to her. Which is not to say there wouldn't still be a lot of resistance and trouble, but Mary herself would be in a much stronger place from which to face it.