Gender Queer: A Memoir
Books | Comics & Graphic Novels / General
4.4
(601)
Maia Kobabe
2020 ALA Alex Award Winner 2020 Stonewall — Israel Fishman Non-fiction Award Honor BookIn 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity—what it means and how to think about it—for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere. "It’s also a great resource for those who identify as nonbinary or asexual as well as for those who know someone who identifies that way and wish to better understand." — SLJ (starred review)
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More Details:
Author
Maia Kobabe
Pages
240
Publisher
Oni Press
Published Date
2019-05-28
ISBN
1549304003 9781549304002
Ratings
Google: 3
Community ReviewsSee all
"It’s funny how closely this book paralleled my own experiences- it’s probably the closest thing I’ve ever come to a mirror of myself in media. I too wished for breast cancer, walked around topless as a kid because I saw men doing it, attached to Tamora Pierce’s Alanna as a child and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home as an older teen, have debated the great ‘am I bisexual or asexual or just traumatized or all three’ puzzle, decided early I never wanted children, and had similar poorly-functional short-term relationships when I was younger. I also encountered radfem reasonings when I came out, hung out with theater kids because my conservative school wouldn’t allow a GSA, feel intensely embarrassed about sharing my personal work, am involved irregularly in fandoms and regularly have nightmares about restrooms.
But on the other hand, some of our experiences couldn’t be further from each other. I have never had trouble during a pap smear. My parents were not nearly so ‘live and let live’ as Maia’s parents, and I had to shoulder a lot more physical, emotional, financial, and sexual trauma than em. I love spivak pronouns, but they don’t fit me. Eye-catching clothing gives me intense dysphoria. I am actually repulsed by nearly all of the megafandoms mentioned in this book. I medically transitioned after doubting myself intensely. I believe it’s possible to have happy, longlasting, and mostly nonsexual intimate relationships, because I’ve successfully had one for six years. It solidifies my opinion that it’s impossible to find that exact mirror and pointless to search for it, because we are all so different, trans OR cis. I hope Maia gets a chance to have top and bottom surgery sometime soon and feel more comfortable in eir body."
"I’m a voracious reader, and I’ve binged my way through increasing amounts of LGBTQIA2S+ books over the past few years. But as much as I consumed queer content, I rarely found rep I truly identified with. This was a deeply emotional read for me. Maia’s journey might have been a bit different from mine, but eir representation of what it might feel like, what it might look like being nonbinary is so important for those of us out here who don’t yet have the words to express who we are"
"Not much I could say about this book that wouldn't be extremely personal, but I can at least say I'm very glad Maia Kobabe created it because I needed to see experiences similar to mine. Excellent memoir of a gender queer experience."
A W
A W
"This is SUCH an Incredibly powerful memoir!!!!!!!!! Especially as a fellow nonbinary, discovering other people truly <i>do</i> go through these feelings, feelings I've had but thought were abnormal even though I'm around/talk to a Lot of nonbinary and trans folk, seeing these feelings laid out in color on the page is so heartening, I currently do Not have the words to describe it!!!!!!!!!!!"
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