Gender Queer

YA graphic novel memoir 

     After I posted my review of Ophelia After All I realized I couldn't follow it up with discourse on just any old book.  Fortunately Maia Kobabe's graphic novel, Gender Queer A Memoir, is a worthy follow up.

     Maia was gendered female at birth but never really fit in with girls.  They all seemed to know things e was clueless about.  Menstruation came as a shock.  

     "Because of the Alanna books I knew: periods involved bleeding every month, were related to the ability to become pregnant, and were a totally normal thing to happen to young teen girls.  But I NEVER thought it would happen TO ME."

     By high school Maia hated having breasts, wished to be a boy and to have short hair and a gender neutral name, had no desire for sex or children and felt somehow defective.  It took years for em to become comfortable as nonbinary and asexual.

     Maia candidly shares with readers the good, the bad, and the ugly aspects of eir journey.  Pictures vividly enhance the candid and eloquent text.  Gender Queer is a book that will be a treasure for YA readers who are struggling to understand their own rapidly evolving bodies, feelings, and thoughts.  It can be quite illuminating for the sometimes confused friends and family members who want to do right by them and aren't always sure what this involves.

On a purrrsonal note, One of the things I loved the most when I was able to return to campus after 18 months of zoom classes and not being able to work was the dramatic changes in student attire.  The binary was much less in evidence.  The undergrads were dressing and doing hair and makeup more to self express and less to conform.  Cleaning tables in dining I saw about seven or eight hundred every shift I worked.  So I was in a good position to observe.  When Lisa and the gang got ready for Clean Sweep, our end of the school year yard sale of stuff students left behind in dorms we dropped gendering of clothes items and went by size.  This gives us all a lot more freedom to let our attire reflect our inner selves.  (Jules)

I always have the purrrfect attire.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out to all who are engaged in a journey toward authentic selfhood.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

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