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My school library once proudly displayed "Symptoms of Being Human" for Pride Month, which is about the life and experiences of a nonbinary teen named Riley. Oops, my bad, "genderfluid." Which might even be an even faker identity than NB since it literally just means "sometimes I feel like a boy and sometimes I feel like a girl".
Here's the link to this book on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/22692740. (BTW side note, I really dislike how you're forced to use the new layout on Goodreads now.) The book isn't actually that recent, it's from 2016. About the same time I even heard about trans people and their movement in the first place.
I actually read through the whole thing during my TRA era. Though it wasn't as obvious at the time, this book was low-quality and the plot was threadbare. I had a reservation at the back of my head that it read more like propaganda than an actual substantial work of literature, and looking back, my spidey senses were probably right. The front cover even shows off the protagonist's "androgynous" haircut. Very notliketheothergirls-y.
And honestly the gimmick wasn't even that effective. I think there was even one point near the beginning where the narration talks in detail about how Riley was forced to present feminine during the first week of school and was feeling uncomfortable. Details like those made the whole narrative seem like some sort of monstrous elephant the author was desperately trying to cover with an undersized tarpaulin. Which, as we now know, it is.
You know what? I'd even say it helped peak me a little!
(If you want to get a load of this garbage for yourself, here's the Open Library link: https://archive.org/details/symptomsofbeingh0000garv, though you'll need to make an Internet Archive account first. Read it before Internet Archive loses that stupid lawsuit!)
I have the original that was published in 1999 and downloaded the 2014. This chapter is like night and day between the two books.
I really hate how Gender Ideology has seeped into the things I love best: books.
So far the Mystery genre umbrella hasn't been effected, yet. But Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Horror definitely has because it's speculative fiction. It's malleable enough for the insertion. There has been a certain amount of frequency of writers going into Trans subs asking for information.
Interesting, what are some of the differences (seems like a lot!) between the two versions?
I agree. Talking about intersex people or people with AIS in the context of gender is harmful and cruel. Now that I've read this chapter, I have the language for participating in conversations about intersex people. I won't though, because the LGBT cult doesn't allow conversation, but I would be ready.
I haven't looked, but I wonder if that later materials at the end of this edition talk about "lady brains" and our wider brain diversity in genes expressed from the X chromosome. The research was just beginning. We need more research into the female body, but I guess anyone reading this book already knows that.
I appreciate how she started this chapter with an argument between a man and a woman, then revealed that it was about her parents, and the effect it had on her. She's very good at balancing dialogue, interviews, and expository passages.
It's really a shame how so much of the inclusivity movement has started with good intentions (body positivity,
intersexVSD* language, mental and sexual health awareness) and it's all become something so stifling and unproductive.*Variations of Sexual Development