Maia Kobabe on the changing statements of the librarians

July 16, 2024 8:17 AM

Maia Kobabe, for The Nib, on the changing statements of the librarians who come to see em and talk about Gender Queer.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (11 comments total)

Unhelpful first comment: OMG someone else who uses Spivak pronouns!
posted by hoyland at 8:51 AM on July 16 [5 favorites]

Book banning seems so antiquated but here we are, banning books because reds are afraid of people being free. These librarians are doing good work and I'm glad we have them fighting for what's right. Just sad they have to at all.
posted by GoblinHoney at 9:07 AM on July 16 [4 favorites]

Great work by so many librarians, but as GoblinHoney says, it's a real shame that they're having to fight so hard, and sometimes not being able to keep the book on the shelves. I've read Gender Queer and while it wasn't a favourite of mine, I know it's been really important to many of my friends - and even speaking as someone who wasn't that much of a fan, it's ridiculous to see such an outcry over a sweet and heartfelt book.
posted by eternalhedgehog at 9:23 AM on July 16 [4 favorites]

Thanks for sharing. This librarian was feeling awfully demoralized today and just so tired. This helped <3 .
Keep going, friends.
posted by pantarei70 at 9:40 AM on July 16 [13 favorites]

I've read Gender Queer and while it wasn't a favourite of mine, I know it's been really important to many of my friends - and even speaking as someone who wasn't that much of a fan, it's ridiculous to see such an outcry over a sweet and heartfelt book.

I feel the same about it. I'm glad this book is out in the world. It's a very frustrating situation within library circles because the book itself is so useful and important and yet it has a few graphic illustrations which get decontextualized (the context is really necessary) and then the book gets villianized by people who don't know the context and, honestly, don't care.

I mean, I know there are people who want to ban/block access to it for garden-variety homophobic reasons and as a profession we are really more united in a "fuck them" approach. Genderqueer has been a little more difficult and has required deeper conversations, I feel, to get to a point where we as a profession support it in the same way. There are issues of "what's okay for children/teens?" and I think those are useful conversations to have, but sometimes difficult to have in public because young person sexuality is a weirdly fraught topic (in the US especially).

My rule of thumb in libraries (supported by research) is that kids sort of gloss over what they don't understand or isn't what you might loosely consider "age appropriate" when they read (in the case of this book, the author having a fantasy iirc about having oral sex) and if they're interested in a thing, that usually means it's age appropriate for them and it would be good and useful for parents or other caregivers to engage the young person on those topics.

I'm glad we have this book on the shelves of my library and I'd be excited to fight with someone who felt otherwise. Thanks for sharing this piece.
posted by jessamyn at 11:05 AM on July 16 [6 favorites]

I haven’t read Gender Queer, but I just looked - my local library has 14 copies, not counting ebooks, with 6 checked out. I put a copy on hold.
posted by bunderful at 12:10 PM on July 16 [1 favorite]

Man, the lede is really at the end of the comic: Most of the thousand book ban requests came from just 11 people.
posted by kaibutsu at 2:32 PM on July 16 [5 favorites]

Gender Queer is near and dear to my heart. After I bought my own copy and read it, I sent copies to my parents and my brother - all of them cis and straight - so they might get *some* clue about what it really feels like inside to be trans. I think Binnie's Nevada does the same from a transfemme perspective.

But it was Gender Queer that's really helped me understand the 'other side of the aisle' in the trans community. A bit of a 'a-ha' moment for me when I read about Kobabe's inner feelings and experiences - I realized that the transmasc community has a *lot* in common (in some or many cases - not all, I am sure) with someone like me, in the transfemme world.

I try to challenge myself frequently to walk in their shoes, to make sure I keep up my pole of the big tent of our LGBTQIA+ world. It's critical. And Kobabe helps me do that.

And when I hear people getting critical of the oh-so 'explicit' nature of Gender Queer, I get upset. I feel awash in a sea of heteronormativity. Straight and/or cis kids *know* what is expected of them in sexual roles. Trans kids have *no idea*. Books like this aren't any more explicit than what society is already forcing on kids every day - they're trying desperately to balance the scales a tiny bit.

So thank you, Maia. We need more brave writers exactly like you.
posted by Flight Hardware, do not touch at 6:03 PM on July 16 [2 favorites]

But it was Gender Queer that's really helped me understand the 'other side of the aisle' in the trans community. A bit of a 'a-ha' moment for me when I read about Kobabe's inner feelings and experiences - I realized that the transmasc community has a *lot* in common (in some or many cases - not all, I am sure) with someone like me, in the transfemme world.

I'd be curious if you'd be willing to elaborate on this. Was is that thinking about transmasculine experiences just didn't compute and were therefore a blank or were you labouring under some fundamental misconception?
posted by hoyland at 6:31 PM on July 16

I had been wondering what it was like for Maia Kobabe to be the author of a book which so many facists have a hate-on for. I can't imagine how much harassment e must get. Yet, e keeps it positive and I came away from this feeling energized and hopeful that we can beat the fascists back. Support your local libraries and get involved in your kids' schools, folks!
posted by signsofrain at 7:59 PM on July 16

I'd be curious if you'd be willing to elaborate on this
Sure! Just the feelings expressed by Kobabe. The descriptions of what goes on in your mind before you realize you're trans. The desires, the dreams, the longing. Not a universal thing for every trans or non-cis person at all - but clearly these experiences are there for various flavors of us. I felt a great deal of kinship when I realized the connection, and I really apprecaite that Gender Queer communicated that to me.
posted by Flight Hardware, do not touch at 6:06 PM on July 17