Small-sized reviews, raves, and recommendations.

So that’s what all the fuss is about.

Gender Queer: A Memoir, by Maia Kobabe is a coming-of-age tale in comic book form of Maia. By turns tender, heartwarming, informative, and funny, it is a gut-wrenching exploration of the cliched phrase: “Know thyself.” Among the many challenges of growing up include discovering one’s personal interests (culture, music, video games, books, etc.), fending off bullies (classmates, gatekeepers, religious and political authorities), and figuring out where one fits in society at large. For Maia, the last was particularly painful. Growing up, she didn’t particularly like “girl stuff,” didn’t feel particularly “feminine,” and wishes she was born a boy. Luckily, she grew up in an eccentric (contra conformist) household. Her parents were hippies in college and preserved a crunchy granola existence (to use broad strokes). Despite her panoply of anxieties and tortured existence, her family was accepting of Maia’s long confusing journey.

Throughout the lengthy and labyrinthine years from childhood to adulthood, Maia suffered a combination of body dysphoria and gender confusion. During these early years, she identified with she/her pronouns, later adopting they/them, and finally the Spivak pronouns e/em/eir. But it isn’t all dour and depressing, because Maia discovers aspects of her identity. First in the androgynous works of David Bowie, LGBT+ fanfiction, and the genderbending fabulousness of fashion designer Alexander McQueen. She is a voracious reader and nascent comic book artist. Maia’s education becomes an education for the reader, including long digressions about fashion, gender, anatomy, and sexuality. Cultural stereotypes, the embryonic development of gender, and pronoun etiquette are topics explored.

While taxonomies and classifications can be limiting, they can also be a form of liberation. Throughout the journey, Maia repeatedly asks, “What am I?” Oftentimes, the feelings and physiology don’t match up to any preconceived category. Usually gender and sexuality are something that has become so second nature, one simply doesn’t think about it. Boys do this, girls do that. Done and done. But what happens when one feels like they are stuck in the wrong body and the performative nature of gender comes across as false, artificial, and painful? Gender Queer is that story. It is beautifully rendered and Maia Kobabe’s voice provides a compelling narrative.

Unfortunately, given our dismal times, many have come to this memoir because it remains one of the most banned books in America. Somehow more dangerous in the hands of children than a bump-stocked, fully-loaded AR-15 (hallowed by Thy Name, Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be done). A scapegoat manufactured by the moral hypocrites belonging to cheapjack hate group (and bisexual orgy enthusiasts) Moms for Liberty, it has put librarians on the defensive. What is a relatively innocuous book has become a target for sanctimonious hypocrites everywhere. Moms for Liberty, like the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) before them and The Hays Code even further back, are kack-brained gatekeepers allegedly tasked with protecting the lives of children. Although when the same children get systematically murdered by automatic gun fire, they do what conservatives do best after actual atrocities: Nothing whatsoever. Moms for Liberty represent the moral, spiritual, and intellectual bankruptcy of modern American conservatism (aka conservative Christian moral sadism). I’d call them evil, but evil necessitates a free will and a functioning central nervous system. They are idiots. Mock and ridicule them relentlessly. Their opinion don’t matter. Or, as Sarah said in Labyrinth: “You have no power over me.” Maia Kobabe is a master storyteller. Moms for Liberty are scum.

Gender Queer should be stocked in libraries (schools or otherwise). Whether or not it should be required reading, I leave those decisions to curriculum designers and school boards. I recommend that others read, not necessarily that it be required reading, mainly because I have my own issues with what is or isn’t required reading. (Mainly the “required” part.) Word of mouth and social media virality can do more to spread the good word about a book than a million mandatory reading lists.

Read it for free at archive.org