Review: George

George by Alex Gino
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is going to be a difficult review. The topic of transgender kids still is a bit uncomfortable to me. Part of the reason is that the idea of gender for kids is often much too stereotyped for my liking. When my own children were little, each one of them went through what I call the gender identification stage - the stage where, even though previously all they wanted to wear was pants or shorts, they now needed to wear dresses. I am not sure where they got the idea that girls needed to wear dresses; I VERY seldom do. Then, they each got over that stage and went back to wearing mostly pants. Neither one seemed especially interested in the makeup part of femininity, because I don't use makeup either. But dresses and makeup seem to be often the whole outward manifestations of femininity. So, to some extent, I find that cultural expectations are tied up with the transgender choices. And it makes me think: what is it that makes a child feel like they are the wrong gender? This book doesn't really answer that question for me. It assumes that the outward manifestations of gender - clothes and makeup - are the most important parts. If that were true, then I should identify as male, since I prefer pants and don't use makeup. I do not wear high heels and I do not enjoy shopping. There has to be more to gender identification than those outward signs, but what. Motherhood, certainly. But what about people who don't have children? What does femininity mean?

I guess I have to give the book credit for at least causing me to wonder about all of this.

View all my reviews