Gender Inappropriate
Warning: This book review, and the attached PDF, contains inappropriate topics and images for children.
Action Tip: Be aware and informed, this book is being used in public schools and libraries to indoctrinate children.
Gender Queer
By Maia Kobabe
Warning: This book review, and the attached PDF, contains inappropriate topics and images for children.
Gender Queer is the graphic (comic-style) memoir of Maia Kobabe, published by Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group and released in 2022. We are told that the 256-page book was originally written for adults but it seems to this reader that it is aimed directly at middle-grade students. The book won the American Library Association Alex Award for its “special appeal” to teenagers, but is it appropriate for school libraries and children? That is the question I want to answer for parents as I review the book.
Kyle with a library copy of Gender Queer
The memoir begins when Maia was three years old and her family moved to an off-grid home in Northern California. Kobabe writes that the property “was powered by a mix of solar, hydroelectric, and generators. We had a bathtub but no shower. We filled our outdoor washing machine with the garden hose. There were two outhouses, home to many spiders. Galen (a neighbor boy about her age) and I often just peed in the yard.” A drawing is provided of them doing so. The book continues in roughly chronological order.
Kobabe, says, “It’s very hard to hear people say ‘This book is not appropriate to young people’ . . . There are people for whom this is vital and for whom this could maybe even be lifesaving.” She was born female but now identifies as non-binary and asexual and uses the Spivak gender-neutral pronouns of “e/eim/eir.” Kobabe admits that several images in the book may not be appropriate for elementary school children. I believe there are many images inappropriate for a K-12 school setting.
There are also topics that are inappropriate for a school setting. On page 120, she states that “Interest in erotic gay fiction has been so prevalent in my friendships, one could mistake it for a prerequisite.” On the next page, she quotes a friend saying, “I thought gay porn was universal!” On page 142 she discusses her first experience with a sex toy.
Download quotes from the book
Sex is the dominant theme throughout the book and Kobabe does not hold back on any discussion of it. For example, at 25 years old, Kobabe records a chat with a girlfriend stating that, “penetration is a HARD NO for me” and, “I probably wouldn’t feel comfortable going down on you…” Later she discusses transitioning with a person going from female to male. Masturbation, oral sex, porn, and sex toys are all topics in Gender Queer. These are not subjects for a school library or any taxpayer-funded library.
In the last portion of the book, Kobabe discovers how she wants to present herself both in clothing and with pronouns. It is then that she chooses e/eim/eir. This subject, along with her fears of coming out publically, covers more pages than any other single topic.
I confess that I learned more about growing up gay. In an interview with NBC News, Kobabe insisted that the frank accounts were “integral to showing readers an experience growing up outside of cisgender and heterosexual norms.” However, it isn’t wrong for parents to protect their children from sexual topics and images like those covered in Gender Queer. This isn’t homophobic hate. It’s love for the most vulnerable in our society—children. In an age of failing government schools, teachers need to focus on improving math, science, and reading scores and leave sex toys, sexting, oral sex, and porn out of the classroom.
Is Gender Queer in your local school or public library? Have you read the book? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
