Trans+: Love, Sex, Romance, and Being You

Trans+: Love, Sex, Romance, and Being You by Kathryn Gonzales and Karen Rayne is excellently self-described as “a ground-breaking, all-inclusive, uncensored must-have guide for teens who are transgender, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, gender-fluid, or questioning their gender identity, and for cis-allies” (Gonzales & Rayne, back cover).

For the sake of this blog post, I would like to state I am a cis woman, so I am coming from an ally perspective, and therefore I cannot speak to the accuracy of the trans experience that is depicted and described. Although I cannot speak to the accuracy of this aspect, the novel is written by a trans woman and includes many diaries of teens with a variety of gender expressions and sexual identities explaining their experiences with being transgender, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, gender-fluid, or questioning their identity.

­ Trans+ is an incredibly welcoming book, with a muted grey cover and the title is in the colors of the trans flag. It starts off introducing the backgrounds of the authors of the book and teens interviewed for the diary entries. 

In media, it can sometimes seem as if there is only one way to be trans, and that is to be passing as cisgender, but Gonzales and Rayne break this misconception down. Trans+ does not describe the process of transitioning as perfect and emphasizes that no one transition is “ideal” or has to follow a certain set of rules. Gonzales and Rayne break down stigma surrounding the discussion of gender and sexuality and approach it in an understandable manner, and yet the readers are never babied or talked down to.

Diverging from the written content, I would like to point to the pictures in this book and applaud the illustrator, although they are not named in the book. I cannot include copies of the illustrations, but I can promise that the illustrations are excellent, depicting people of varying races, religions, and (dis)abilities.

This book is not perfect; I would recommend a bit more of an emphasis on the potential dangers of improper chest binding and how that could permanently damage chest tissue (Gonzales & Rayne, 109), but they do somewhat caution to be aware of how you are physically feeling when binding. There may be inaccuracies I was not aware of, but it overall seems incredibly inclusive and well researched.

There were some issues with paragraphs repeating exactly, a couple typos, and some more terms should be added to the glossary, including ‘neutrois’ and some other terms, but this is something that can be easily fixed.

Trans+ is an excellent book, and after additional reviewing I believe it should be in all schools and libraries for teens and adults alike of all identities to access. Trans+ is set to be published in August of 2019 through Magination Press, and I highly recommend you all check it out. I look forward to the final copy being released!

-SS

Citation: Gonzales, Kathryn, and Karen Rayne. Trans+: Love, Sex, Romance, and Being You.      Magination Press, 2019.

"The Poet X" Is the Next Book You Need to Read

“You need to read The Poet X.”

This is what I texted all my friends as soon as I read the last line of this book; I wanted to tell every person I spoke to that this book would not get out of my head.

Born and raised in New York city and the daughter of Dominican immigrants, Acevedo was a National Poetry Slam Champion and coached for the D.C. Youth Slam Team. The Poet X is her debut novel and quickly became a New York Times Bestseller. It also has won multiple awards including the 2019 Michael L. Printz Award and the 2018 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. With The Poet X being her debut novel, we are so impressed with her work and cannot wait to see what Acevedo comes out with next. 

The Poet X is a breathtaking novel in verse narrated by the protagonist, Xiomara Batista, who is a passionate and headstrong young Afro-Latina woman growing up in Harlem. Xiomara slowly falls in love with poetry, especially spoken word poetry. Xiomara pours her emotions and reflections of her day to day life into her poetry journal, commenting on topics ranging from pressures from her mother’s religion to gender to sexuality.

Acevedo told Publisher’s Weekly that she “pulls from her experience working with teens and her own high school journals”, which clearly is seen in her poetry, which truly channeling the emotions we can relate to from our teen years. She points to her being first-generation influencing her writing: “There are a lot of the cultural things that inspired aspects of Xiomara, like the ways in which who you are outside of your house is a little bit different than who you must be inside because of the cultural norms that exist. That push and pull that Xiomara carries of being first-generation is something I share.” (Publisher’s Weekly, 2018) Because of her own personal connection, her words evoke so much more meaning and carry weight of being something she has lived through.

Xiomara’s words haunted me at every moment I set down this book. A particularly impactful poem is In Front of My Locker (218). In the poem a boy at school grabs Xiomara inappropriately, and instead of waiting for her friend and crush Aman to say something, she has the realization of not needing to wait for anyone. In the poem In Front of My Locker we see Xiomara standing up for herself:

“For the first time since I can remember I wait.

I can’t fight today. Everything inside me feels beaten…

He’s not going to curse or throw a fit.

He’s not going to do a damn thing.

Because no one will take care of me but me.” (Acevedo, 219)

Xiomara is a girl to look up to, with her strength and dedication driving her actions, even when  everything inside her “feels beaten.” Her emotions are so raw and realistic, and from the first page I found myself cheering for Xiomara and her passion for life.

Acevedo excellently captures the struggles of being a minority teen in her novel, and I can see people everywhere being able to see some of themselves in Xiomara’s story.

“There is power in the word” Xiomara says, and yes, there is power in practically every word of Acevedo’s book. (Acevedo, 353)   

(SS)

Sources:

Acevedo, Elizabeth. The Poet X. HarperTeen, 2018.

https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/76224-q-a-with-elizabeth-acevedo.html

Princess Culture and Consumerism

In light of the fairy tale discussions we've had on the blog this week, this link is an excellent example of one of the many ways fairy tales show up in society.

These Disney-princess-themed rings run between $1000 and $5000 a pop. Oh, heck yeah.

Except...these aren't actually sold by the jeweler who designed these rings. At first I was going to point out that I came to these rings by way of a post on Jezebel.com, which said that these ring designs already existed in the jeweler's inventory before the ol' fantasy lyrics were engraved inside the band. But further investigation revealed that these rings are an invention of the site http://heckyeahdisneymerch.tumblr.com.

It's still an interesting example of how commodified fairy tales are now. Even if these rings aren't being marketed by the jeweler as Disney princess rings (I wonder if they soon will be?), the existence of this as an idea calls to mind questions about "princess culture." It also reminded me of this Disney bridal collection by Alfred Angelo:

There are dozens of Disney-inspired dresses, and if you'll notice, the first line of the "about" paragraph tells you that "Your Fairy Tale Awaits..." It's fascinating that marketers pull on the happy ending trope by implying that the wedding is the end goal. You'll have your fairy tale wedding, and that's all that matters. You know how in fairy tales it ends with a big lavish sparkly wedding? Yeah! That could be you! Your wedding day is your chance to be a princess!

I could write a lot more incensed prose about how problematic it is to link the wedding day with being a princess and how that just feeds into the Wedding Industrial Complex and how a fancy billowy gauzy ethereal princess wedding is not the most important moment in a relationship and how your wedding day is ONE DAY and so on and so forth. But I won't, because it's Friday, and I've had a long week.

But before I sign off, I do want to pose the question of why fairy tale wedding dresses and jewels are so popular. What is it about the pervasiveness of princess culture that these items exist for grown women to purchase? As someone who was never wildly into Disney princesses, I'll admit that I have no personal connection with this. Is it because it evokes childhood happiness? Is it because in spite of our progressive times, many women still subconsciously want to be beautiful princesses who are revered for their exquisiteness, because that's what we're so often taught in mainstream children's media?

What do you think?

P.S. There is going to be a panel at PAMLA about princess culture; I really hope someone talks about Disney and the wedding industry.