In the film "Normal" Roy's transition from male to female was very hard on not only him, but also on his whole family. We see each family member struggle with this transition for their own reasons and in their own ways. Irma, who is the first to find out about it, begins blaming herself. She believes she must have done something wrong as his wife to make him act this way. She believes that a man should be strong, but doesn't see how strong her husband really is being until further in the movie. Several times throughout the movie, she describes how she loves how strong and rough a man's hand is, and how Roy's no longer feels this way. She is a housemother and does all the work around the house. She does all the cooking, cleaning and childcare, even though both of her children are pretty well grown up. She feels like girls (particularly her daughter) should be concerned with how they dress and look. Many times we hear her telling her daughter to put something more feminine on. I do not think that Roy's transition really changed this view she has of gender. She grew to accept him, however, she still wanted to do all the feminine work around the house. She still did all the cleaning and cooking, and even picked out Roy's clothes (since he is a man, he cannot possibly do that himself). However, she just didn't view him as a man either, instead almost as a weak man. She took the typically masculine tasks away from him, like carving the turkey; yet hardly let him help with the feminine tasks, such as cooking. At first, she even tried finding a job, since she assumed Roy would not be able to keep his job. This could possibly make him feel almost worthless. Even in his own house, he doesn't quite fit in. In one scene, we see that Irma would not even let him make his own breakfast, when it is as simple as something like oatmeal. There is only one time I recall in the movie that Roy, after the transition began, was really aloud to do anything around the house, and that was when he was talking to his daughter, Patty Ann, while hanging laundry.
