by WB Intern Kate Dowdy
Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, is currently the number one banned book in the US. And I am so, so glad I read it. Here’s why...
This graphic novel is a deeply personal exploration of the author’s gender identity throughout eir life, all at once gentle, charming, and horrific. In one vibrant page, when Kobabe discovers David Bowie for the first time through eir dad’s cassette tape, suddenly e is flying through the air, transported by the music and the lyrics. It’s an explosion of the sudden feeling of being seen: This was the first time e heard queer people referenced in song. In another moment, Kobabe depicts eir first pap smear. It’s something that e explains can only be lived bodily. Next to these words, e is illustrated, stabbed through with a blade.
Every page is about moments like these, both the isolation and terror of living in the margins, and the joy that can be found there, in community and recognition. This novel is a friend, a guide, for gender queer and nonbinary people, as well as their families as friends – but I promise you, regardless of your identity, you will connect with this book. Books can never be a direct look into someone’s mind, but Kobabe’s honesty makes you feel like that’s what you’re getting. Other times though, it feels like looking into your own head, from your childhood, or yesterday.
Gender Queer is necessary reading right now. It’s about an experience we don’t have all the words for yet, but Kobabe does have the story for. It’s art that can’t be summarized. It’s how people in the margins educate, connect, and thrive. It’s the middle point, the place between the beach and mountains that Maia ultimately finds eirself in in eir explorations of gender. And it’s why we all need to read and to give marginalized books a platform. Story is vital to our lives. We have to fight for it.
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About the Author
Kate Dowdy is a senior at St. Edward’s University studying Writing and Rhetoric. She’s also an Austin native you can find at any bookstore in the area. Her favorite genres are sci-fi and romance, especially if they’re combined. As she works towards publishing her first book, Kate hopes to dig into the connections that make a disconnected world worth living in.