I. AM. FUMING.
Friends, I absolutely did not expect to be so angry I almost threw my book across the room and nearly let out a scream so loud it would wake the entire neighborhood. What the unholy FUCK did I just read????
I only got seven pages in, and I am incredibly pissed. I was expecting to read about two characters falling in love, except what I got was dated and utterly shitty gender politics.
Look, I am not going to assume the author's age and assign ignorance to them based on the number of years they have been alive. However in my experience, older folks tend to not understand if something they say is messed up or not. Also, to be clear, I am a cisgender female so I am NOT an authority on what I am about to say but I feel the need to stick up for my friends and loved ones as well as myself in a small way.
Ok, so I barely got seven pages into chapter 1, and most of Anna, the white cisgender female heroine of the book's dialogue has been comparing herself to her identical twin sister. While I have no siblings, I totally understand comparing yourself to family members for a number of reasons. However, Anna's sole focus of comparison is how "effortlessly female" (direct quote) her sister is, while she "looked like a confused boy playing dress-up in his sister's closet."
That last sentence was another direct quote, and is precisely what is angering me so. The author is DANGEROUSLY playing with b.s. gender nonsense and being incredibly insulting and cruel to anyone who doesn't present themselves within a made up binary. While I hope that the author did not mean to be so mean, the words are still within a published novel, I read them with my own two eyes and did not misread anything. This kind of rhetoric intentional or otherwise hurts countless people who do not identify within a binary system that can and has cause numerous people gender dysphoria. As well, what is wrong with being a cis female who doesn't present as femme? There is nothing wrong with dressing and presenting how you feel. Gender is a myth. As for the confused boy line, HOW DARE YOU. How DARE you even potentially insinuate that if a child who outwardly looks masculine dresses in a feminine manner for any reason simply be confused? That may possibly be the case but there are so SO many people who do such things as a child because dressing that way makes them feel safe, comfortable, etc. Again, this kind of writing is toxic and dangerous. If this nonsense got onto someone's hands that feels dysphoria and is susceptible to this stuff it could cause untold harm. Maybe not, everyone is different and feels differently, but I honestly do not think a chance should be taken.
This writing is an insult and I cannot believe this was deemed publishable. I really think a sensitivity reader could have been used, because WOW. Yes it is only seven pages into a book and I am not an own voices reviewer, but I am ready and willing to defend anyone and everyone.
You need to do better