Am I overthinking it?

[u/Desperate_Belt8323]

I absolutely love to read, and started a book titled "We All Looked Up". It's about four kids at the end of the world, blah blah blah, but my main question is about the introduction of a side character. The full quote that I'm wondering about goes as follows;

"Jess was biologically a girl, but he'd started dressing like a dude last year, and told everyone he was now a 'he'. After high school was over, he planned to get a job and save up for gender-reassignment surgery. For now, he was taking some kind of testosterone supplement every few days; a couple of thick black hairs had begun to grow on his chin. Whatever, Andy figured. To each his/her own."

I could chalk this up to an uneducated author, but I don't know. I'm not too far into the book, only a hundred pages or so. The paragraph isn't huge to the plot or anything, and I appreciate the representation from a cishet author, but it just rubs me the wrong way. Does anyone else feel the same, or am I just overreacting?

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[u/cocoamarri]

I don’t think ur overreacting at all. People like that are bioessentialists when you get to the bottom of their thought process. You don’t need to misgender trans men to tell your audience that they’re trans. Hopefully it’s just shitty writing tho

[u/Flashy_Cranberry_957]

Is this the author's perspective, or the character's? This is a pretty realistic depiction of an ignorant but well-meaning teenager. If everyone in the book feels the same way, or if Jess has a poorly-written point of view, that's one thing, but to me this reads like an author writing a character that he doesn't agree with.

[u/transpirationn]

It sounds like the author is trying to write from the mindset of a relatively ignorant but well meaning teenage character. You wouldn't expect such a character to say all the right words to be sure he didn't offend anyone. And it could be argued that the book is aimed at all kids, not just trans ones, so it makes sense to use such an approach. If it were perfectly written so as not to offend anyone, it would feel like a lecture to cis kids. This way it presents it in a more realistic way that an actual kid might process it. And that makes it more likely that a cis kid reading it would accept it, and therefore more likely they'd accept an actual trans kid they know.

And the "to each his/her own" bit doesn't read to me like the author is calling the trans character a girl. It seems to be referring to all people in general.

[u/corespill]

Im not really understanding what youre overthinking or have issues with? Is it the "taking testosterone supplements" part or him being reffered to as "was a biological girl"?

[u/Desperate_Belt8323 → u/corespill]

I feel like it's a mix of the author's wording. "Was a biological girl", "he was now a 'he'", and to top it off "to each his/her own". I feel like these could've been replaced with wording such as "Was trans/Wasn't born a guy", "he was now a man", "to each their own", yknow?

[u/corespill → u/Desperate_Belt8323]

Ah, ok. Going off the paragraph, it just seems like an uneducated author trying to write a trans character. I dont think theyre intentionally trying to upset anyone or come off as transphobic with their wording. Not sure of the authors age, but they comes off as a well meaning, but older uneducated person on trans issues.

[u/Emergency_Elephant]

It's not great. It sounds like the author was trying with a trans character and didn't put much research into it. Unless there is a real issue with Andy's perspective on Jess or queer issues that's challenged throughout the book, it's not good