Of Birkenstocks and Chromosomes and Spiders Who Spell Well
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
BOOK IN REVIEW: A TEACHING GUIDE Toby Emert Of Birkenstocks and Chromosomes and Spiders Who Spell Well This article is also available in an online format that In an article about gender role perceptions, allows direct access to all links included. We encourage Franklin Thompson and William Austin (2010) remind you to access it on the ALAN website at http://www. us that “gender role myths are promulgated from the alan-ya.org/publications/the-alan-review/the-alan- day we are born” (p. 427). By the time students enter review-columns/. the kindergarten classroom, their acceptance of what Judith Butler (1990) labeled the “heterosexual ma- ou’re wearing girl shoes,” my two-year- trix”—which defines our bodies in oppositional and old niece announced disapprovingly, hierarchical gender categories—is concretized, and “Y pointing to my Birkenstock sandals. It historically, we have done little in schools to offer stu- was the first thing she said to me after running into dents opportunities to critique cultural beliefs about the yard to meet me as I opened the door of my car, gender and sexual identity. Young adult literature of- having just finished a long drive to visit family on the fers us an opportunity to address that issue. Virginia farm where I grew up. A little more than a decade ago, publishers began “Well,” I attempted to explain, “there aren’t really marketing a handful of selected YA titles that included boy and girl shoes. Boys and girls can wear lots of gay and lesbian characters (Alex Sanchez’s (2001) kinds of shoes. These are sandals, and I bet even your Rainbow Boys, Julia Watts’s (2001) Finding H. F., and daddy wears sandals sometimes.” Unconvinced, she Brent Hartinger’s (2003) Geography Club, for example, shook her head “no.” She had only recently begun all appeared in the early 2000s), and as the appetite for having fully developed conversations with adults; more diverse stories has grown, so has the number of YA each day she demonstrated a growing vocabulary and offerings that feature queer and questioning characters. an understanding of both semantics and syntax, but The percentage of titles published each season is still the rigid rules of acceptable gender performance had miniscule, however, when compared to the total number already been connoted to her. I expect that no one had of YA books—less than 2% of the more than 3,000 books explicitly told her that sandals were only worn by girls published each year (YALSA, 2012). and women, but she had made the translation using In this column, I spotlight four novels that tackle information she had, internalizing the binary catego- gender and sexuality issues directly. All of the books rizations of gender (Dargie, Blair, Pukall, & Coyle, were finalists for the Lambda Literary Award (http:// 2014, p. 60) with ease: apparel and footwear designate www.lambdaliterary.org/), given to authors and who are “boys” and who are “girls.” The culture—its books that feature queer characters and storylines. images, its implicit expectations, its disapproval of And two have won the American Library Associa- variance from the “norm”—had instructed her about tion’s (ALA) Stonewall Book Award (http://www gender roles, and she was an apt learner. .ala.org/glbtrt/award), which first appeared in 1971 91 HE EVIEW T ALAN R Fall 2016 m91-97-ALAN-Fall16.indd 91 9/7/16 4:07 PM and honors exceptional Gregorio tells a compelling story about identity, Bringing these diverse merit in writing related family, romance, and acceptance while educating to the queer experience. readers about intersex individuals. This is not an easy stories into the classroom Revealing, however, is the task, and generally, I would argue that well-written fact that it was not until novels do not attempt to teach readers about a topic has the potential to 2012 that the ALA added or issue, but in the case of intersex, which has a range broaden and brighten the Children’s and Young of biological manifestations and has historically been Adult Literature Awards the cause of unnecessary medical interventions, such students’ understandings to its list of categories. as surgeries to “correct” the condition, there is a great The novels I have selected deal to understand, and informed stories are scarce. of human expression of for the column include Of all the books I read last year, None of the Above felt identity and to encourage characters with a range of perhaps the most important in terms of offering a nar- gender and sexual identi- rative that sensitively explores the concepts of gender them to question their ties—lesbian, questioning, and sexuality in a way that demands that readers transsexual, gender-non- question the categories we have culturally delineated own cultural assumptions, conforming, and intersex— for identifying ourselves and others. and settings—from the as well as promote a American Midwest to the George (Lambda Literary Award Finalist, 2016; sense of empathy. Middle East. Bringing these Stonewall Book Award, 2016) diverse stories into the The charming and conceptually sophisticated debut classroom has the potential novel George (2015) from genderqueer writer Alex to broaden and brighten students’ understandings of Gino recently received the Stonewall Award (http:// human expression of identity and to encourage them www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2016/01/2016- to question their own cultural assumptions, as well as stonewall-book-awards-announced) and has garnered promote a sense of empathy. international attention for its perceptive portrayal of a transgender fourth grader, Melissa, whom the Award-winning YA Novels with Queer world sees as a boy named George. Melissa wants and Questioning Characters desperately to play Charlotte in her class production of Charlotte’s Web, and she and her best friend Kelly None of the Above (Lambda Literary Award spend hours practicing the lines in the play. When her Finalist, 2016) teacher holds the auditions, however, she reprimands On her blog (http://www.iwgregorio.com), I. W. Melissa (whom the teacher sees as George) for want- Gregorio describes her debut young adult novel, None ing to play a part written for a “girl.” Melissa is heart- of the Above (2015), as “Middlesex meets Mean Girls.” broken when she is not cast as Charlotte, but she joins Gregorio, a urologist by day and writer by night, the stage crew. Ultimately, Kelly (who captured the based the story of her protagonist, Kristin Lattimer—a Charlotte role) and Melissa hatch a scheme that allows popular high school athlete whose life seems perfect Melissa to show everyone, including her parents, who until she discovers she is intersex (http://www.isna she is. Gino deftly renders Melissa as a dynamic and .org/faq/what_is_intersex)—on one of the patients likeable character who understands her own gender she treated during her medical residency. Like Kristin, identity and simply needs a vehicle for helping others Gregorio’s patient did not learn that she had Androgen understand as well. Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS) (http://www.aissg Gino (who prefers the gender-neutral singular .org/21_OVERVIEW.HTM) until she was a teenager. personal pronoun they) says they have been work- AIS, a genetic condition that causes individuals to ing on the story that became George since 2003 and have XY chromosomes (the biological designation for credits research, timing, and luck with the publication “male”), results in the development of male internal of the novel—one of only a tiny handful of middle organs (such as testicles), but physical development grade novels that feature a transgender character. is not affected by the testosterone, so the individual What makes George such a compelling novel, though, “appears” female. is not the fact that it portrays a transgender child; it is 92 HE EVIEW T ALAN R Fall 2016 m91-97-ALAN-Fall16.indd 92 9/7/16 4:07 PM that the portrayal is so deftly handled, and the narra- is learning to live as a “guy” after 18 years of living tive is so well constructed. Gino succeeds in bringing as Elizabeth. Gabe is a music fiend and feels lucky to readers a timely story that also has the potential to land a summer gig as a DJ hosting a show on commu- endear them to the protagonist in much the same way nity radio; he calls the show “Beautiful Music for Ugly that generations of readers have been endeared to the Children” and quickly develops a small but loyal fan unexpectedly intelligent spider Charlotte—who, like club of listeners. In his DJ role, Gabe finds the free- Melissa, is a “radiant” character. dom to be himself. He also finds a supportive music mentor and friend in his 70-year-old neighbor, John, If You Could Be Mine (Lambda Literary Award, who works at the station. Call-in requests for Gabe’s 2014) radio show help him develop relationships with some Sara Farizan, the daughter of Iranian immigrants, sets of his fans, but being known publicly also complicates her first novel If You Could Be Mine (2013) in openly his transition when he is outed and threatened. repressive Iran, where 17-year-old Sahar and her best Critics have noted Cronn-Mills’s ability to tell a friend Nasrin have been in love since they were both nuanced first-person story about a transgender char- six. In Iran, however, the girls could be imprisoned, or acter. She makes Gabe’s concerns about his family, possibly even executed, if their relationship is discov- his friends, and his romantic life not only believable, ered. So, they keep their feelings for each other secret. but understandable. Beautiful Music for Ugly Children The complications increase when Nasrin’s parents joins the short list of young adult novels that explore arrange her marriage to a wealthy doctor.