Spiders
Spider imagery is everywhere in this novel. This should not be surprising at all since an important event driving the narrative involves the story told in Charlotte’s Web. The imagery, however, only starts with class study of that children’s classic. From there it broadens out just like a web to infiltrate the narrative in many different ways:
“A tear dropped onto George’s book and spread into a spiderweb on the page.”
“George was delighted when it was time to switch back. She climbed majestically up to the peak of the bed, stretching her limbs out like a spider’s”
“George hung up and twirled around the house, like Charlotte spinning a glorious spiderweb. She, George, was going to be Charlotte onstage!”
When Cross-Dressing Becomes Merely Dressing
One of the first steps in the process of the male-to-female transitioning timeline is wearing “girl clothes.” It begins as cross-dressing because, well, that’s what people call it and it is hard to break with so much tradition. Eventually, there comes a point when wearing such clothing is no longer viewed as cross-dressing but becomes simply dressing. Often, in place of shame there is a newfound sense of pride. It is a signature moment and the boy named George is on the verge of that turning point with this imagery that pretty much only just nails it:
“Kelly sounded like a clerk at a high-end clothing boutique. She dashed to the closet and pulled out a flared skirt of purple swirls and rummaged through a drawer for a hot-pink tank top. She laid the clothing in George’s hands. The top was soft, softer than any boys’ shirt she had ever worn. And she had never held a skirt in her hands like this before. Together, they felt magical.”
Ten Years Old
A classmate of Melissa named Jeff is the primary antagonist of the story in terms of representing transphobia. Here is another case where the author nails it but so subtly that it can’t hurt to come right out and be explicit about it. Jeff is a ten-year-old elementary school student and that is his excuse for being a comprehensive idiot. All the adult transphobic idiots who behave just exactly like him do not have the luxury of that excuse:
"`You think you’re funny, don’t you, freak? You think you can mess with me? You’re such a freak. You’re a freak. Freak. Freak.’ Jeff flicked his finger against George’s forehead with each freak. His words crawled under her skin, settling deep into the crevices of her bones.”
Public Restrooms
The epicenter of the most violently argued and often distinctly unfair debate over transgender student life is, amazingly, the public restroom. The debate is, of course, misguided and based entirely on the invented premise that transgender individual are, by definition, sexual deviants. Melissa’s first engagement with a woman’s restroom is—count on it—far closer to the reality than all those imagined perverts preying on unsuspecting kids:
“Kelly pushed open the heavy metal bathroom door as if it were nothing and pulled Melissa in. The air was cool, wet, and smelled of musk. The tiles were gray and green, not pink as Melissa had imagined. Most noticeably, there were no urinals, only a row of stalls on the left and a row of sinks, mirrors, and dispensers oozing pink soap on the right…Melissa locked herself in a stall, delighted for the privacy. She lifted her skirt to see her underwear, covered in tiny red hearts. She pulled it down, sat, and peed, just like a girl. She didn’t even tell Kelly afterward. That part of this magnificent day was her personal secret.”
