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bookdealmaybe t1_irwygfl wrote

Oh, fam, I could write a thesis on "The Art of Being Normal".

Kate does all kinds of research on being trans to show her parents? Still calls Leo being stealth as 'in disguise'.

Leo, a trans person, DELIBERATELY Deadnaming Kate cause he was mad at her?

The fact that Kate on her first time ever dressing in public is a beautiful girl who passes perfectly?

If nothing else, how about the fact that Kate SPECIFICALLY asks her friends not to out her at school, and so they throw a big event with her in girl mode that peeps from her school come to? When Kate finds out she was outed she's not mad? Like at all?

Her little sister is *super* transphobic about Leo being trans, but as soon as Kate comes out of the closet, she's 100% okay with Kate being trans with NO lingering issues?

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Fam, I have a lot of problems with this book. I'm a trans writer, and when I read this book, I was of a similar mindset to you. The book is written wonderfully (as in the prose, dialogue, and general pacing of the book was v good), but without even doing any research on the writer, I knew she was cis. I just recently researched her cause I was thinking about the book again, and it turns out she was an ADMINISTRATOR at an NHS clinic for trans kids. She *should* know some of this stuff.

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hayzulhay OP t1_is7l8av wrote

I didn't even think of a lot of these points to be honest, but I completely agree. Kate putting on her "girl cosplay" as it's presented in the book is far too idealized, and it creates a false idea for closeted trans girls. I find your point about the ball at the end interesting, and I didn't even think of it that way.

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BigShoots t1_irx0udf wrote

> Leo, a trans person, DELIBERATELY Deadnaming Kate cause he was mad at her?

So both you and OP have mentioned this. Is it not something that could absolutely happen during an argument that involves a transgender person? And so doesn't the author have a right and a good reason to include it as part of the story?

If you expect a realistic book about trangendered people to be scrubbed clean of all transphobia, then you're not living in reality and just looking for things to be upset about.

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bookdealmaybe t1_irx1tni wrote

Someone deliberately deadnaming a trans person can 100% happen.

A trans person who knows how being deadnamed feels deliberately deadnaming a trans person usually doesn't. I won't say never, but most trans people would NEVER deadname someone deliberately if for no other reason than it opens them up to getting deadnamed.

Transphobia in books about trans issues is fine. I'm not saying there's any issue with Alicia having an issue with Leo being trans. I'm not saying there's any issue in anything in Almost Perfect (another book about trans teens) even though the trans character gets beat the fuck up.

This issue is that only a cis writer would have a TRANS character deliberately deadname another trans character.

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