The Myth of Hardwiring
We often speak of ourselves as having certain instinctual behaviors as being hardwired into our DNA. This may be true in some sense, but it is most assuredly not true in others. One of those elements of humanity in which the truth of hardwiring is turning out to be an enormously misunderstood myth is related to gender. The damage, however, is already done as the expectations of these myths contribute to anxiety know as gender dysphoria:
“I feel like there are all these wires in my brain which were supposed to connect body to gender identity and sexuality. But they’ve all been twisted into a snarled mess.”
Pronoun Trouble
For most of its history, the classic cartoon where Daffy Duck identifies the root cause of Elmer Fudd continuing to shoot him in the face as “pronoun trouble” the very idea of the trouble with pronouns being related to identifying males and females would have been laughable. But here we are many decades later and “pronoun trouble” has become a central means of revealing how language has been a far more dominant force in constructing and defining gender than actual science:
“Getting called `she’ feels like discovering a rock stuck in my shoe. Or getting scratched by the tag at the back of my shirt.”
Hogwarts and Menstruation
Over a very short time, the author learns to read and experiences the onset of puberty. The ability to read seems to happen overnight which is very much in keeping with the content of the book responsible. Learning to deal with the ramifications of menstruation will prove to be much more time-consuming:
“By morning something magical had happened. I had become a reader. A much less welcome change was just around the corner.”
Flaxen and Waxen but not Knotted or Polka-Dotted
By the time the author gets a very first professional haircut, the hair has grown well in excess of 14 inches. It is time to make a statement with the long, beautiful hair. No longer desiring to have it long, straight, snaggy or shaggy, a severe shortening is order. The idea is to make it look less girly, but this desire must be conveyed through code:
“Can you make it not too grown up?* Like, kind of boyish?*
*(not too feminine) *(kind of gay)
One Direction
Some people have been disturbed by the content of this book. So disturbed that they have successful fought to have it removed from schools or banned from libraries. The odd part is that none of these attacks on the books cite the most disturbing section as cause for concern: the author’s willing leap into the darkness of going ga-ga over the music of One Direction to the point of writing 100,000 words of fan fiction about the members:
“Before I knew it, I had been sucked into the fandom.”
