John Boyne/YA novels

[wesleycrusher]

 Has anyone been following this?  If you have some time:

John Boyne deletes Twitter account after trans article backlash

www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/john-boyne-deletes-twitter-account-after-trans-article-backlash-1.3862249

Here's a link to the original article:

www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/john-boyne-why-i-support-trans-rights-but-reject-the-word-cis-1.3843005

ETA: and an excellent response here: www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/whether-john-boyne-likes-it-or-not-he-is-a-cis-man-with-cis-privilege-1.3860808

and here is a follow-up from his publisher defending the book.

www.thebookseller.com/news/puffin-defends-john-boyne-s-ya-novel-about-transgender-teen-992776

This reminded me of an article I read last month in Slate: slate.com/culture/2019/03/ya-book-scandal-kosoko-jackson-a-place-for-wolves-explained.html

A YA sensitivity reader watched his own community kill his debut novel before it was ever released.

I have always really enjoyed John Boyne's books.  I'm not trans, so can't speak to that, but the book is written from the brother's (who is not trans) POV and Boyne said he used "inclusion ambassadors" who were presumably okay with the book....Can a book truly be sensitive to all though- it seems that someone will always be dissatisfied because minority communities are not a monolith, so what may be fine to one is not okay to others.  (like I am in a group for people with LGBT parents and the term "queerspawn" is currently being discussed. some people really identify with it, some really hate it.)  I don't read a ton of YA, although I do read some, but I had never heard of "sensitivity readers" and "Inclusion Ambassadors" prior to this. It seems like they're eating their own?

[ufcasey]

So I did hear about the controversy about this book - mainly stemming from the title, "My Brother’s Name is Jessica" since the book hasn't been released yet. I mean, that title doesn't scream "sensitive to the feeling of the trans community" because if someone is named Jessica, chances are you need to call them your sister, not your brother.

I really have loved several books from this author, and so I want to give his article and the book itself (though I obviously haven't read it yet) the benefit of the doubt. But the bolded part of this paragraph from his article is where he sounds a bit dismissive:

"And while I wholeheartedly support the rights of trans men and women and consider them courageous pioneers, it will probably make some unhappy to know that I reject the word “cis”, the term given by transgender people to their nontransgender brethren. I don’t consider myself a cis man; I consider myself a man. For while I will happily employ any term that a person feels best defines them, whether that be transgender, non-binary or gender fluid to name but a few, I reject the notion that someone can force an unwanted term onto another."

To me, that came across badly - almost the equivalent of someone saying "I don't consider myself as having white privilege; I consider myself as just being white". I mean, how would you define a person as NOT being transgendered without using a hurtful label that would not 'other' the transgender person? There needs to be a word for it that doesn't have any positive/negative connotations, which is how 'cis' became an acceptable term. But I think what Boyne was trying to say is that just because he is not transgender does not mean he is necessarily 'cis' - what if he feels more gender fluid? Who are you to label his identity just because he has certain genitalia and wears clothes that traditionally matches the social norms for people with that genitalia? I can understand maybe what he is trying to say, but oddly enough considering he is a writer, I don't think he said it well in that bolded sentence.




That article from slate that you posted was very interesting. I myself have been critical of a book that was not #ownvoices (a hashtag I just learned from that article). Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult - is a book written by a popular white female author about an african american nurse who is blamed for the death of a white baby whose parents are white supremacists. It delves into issues of racism obviously, and while I supported the idea of a book trying to enlighten white people about everyday racism that those in the AA community has to deal with (though I thought that was done with a very heavy hand in the book), I did find it weird that a white author was going to benefit financially from a story about racism that she herself has never experienced.