When I was a kid, I played outside every day. Often I came home with scrapes and bruises. "You are going to get a scar and nobody will want to marry you," my mom would scold me. "Con gái phải xinh đẹp. Girls have to be pretty. Stop playing outside." Her words terrified me. Playing so hard that I occasionally hurt myself could decrease my marriage value, and I would be considered a creature unworthy of matrimony—a failure. For a long time, I wanted badly to be a boy, so I coul