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FrustratingMangooose t1_irxvmy2 wrote

Reply to comment by bookdealmaybe in The hidden transphobia in "The Art of Being Normal" by hayzulhay

I am going to need an excerpt of that because I reread from page 950 onward, and what you were saying and what I was reading gave different reactions; Kate was not okay, so even though she said she was “okay,” we as readers know she was not.

“I nod. But I’m not OK. This is too much too soon. I try to keep moving but my limbs feel heavy and clumsy.

  The next time I hear it. I spin around. A group of kids from the year below are standing in a semicircle, staring at me, their lips curled in disgust.

  ‘Tranny,’ one of them says.

  The others dissolve into giggles.

  ‘Yeah, are you like a drag queen?’ another asks.

  Leo appears as if from nowhere and cuts them off.

  ‘Piss off, why don’t you. If you can’t be cool then you may as well go to the other ball.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Essie chimes in. ‘If you’ve got a problem with anything you see, then you’re not wanted here.’

  ‘Well?’ Leo growls. ‘Got anything more to say?’

  The Year 9 kids look at one another before wandering off, throwing dirty glances over their shoulders.

  ‘Idiots,’ Essie mutters. ‘You OK?’

  ‘Fine,’ I say, although I’m shaking.

  ‘Thanks,’ I murmur to Leo, as the next song kicks in.

  He shrugs.”

“Is it always going to be like this?’ I ask.

  ‘For a while, yeah. But it’ll get better, I promise, it already has for me. And this comes from someone with a bit of experience.’

  I nod gratefully, relieved to find I’ve stopped trembling.”

None of that suggests that she was okay with the experience. She experienced a negative emotion unless you are speaking about something else.

I also do not think they outed her, but I can see how it seems like that. Truthfully, this pays homage to a realistic experience that most of us never have the ideal coming out story, and a lot of us are not comfortable with it, but she had friends that defended her, and although it was a lot for it, you can tell that she realized that she was not in danger. She was safe to be herself. This is a reasonable experience, and as a trans person, this was my experience too. I was afraid of coming out, even though my support system was strong. It takes courage and a little bit of a push to find yourself, and I think Kate needed that push to see that she can be herself.

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bookdealmaybe t1_irylth0 wrote

Hey! This finally showed up for me. Yeah, you and I are talking about two different things. You're talking about being 'okay' with transphobia. that's not what im talking about.

I'm talking about she's oddly okay with the fact she got outed, even though she was specifically worried about it. Yeah, the transphobia hurts, but she's not at all worried that the transphobes that just called her a slur might spread around the school? Even though she specifically said she wasn't comfy being outed?

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FrustratingMangooose t1_iryr1m2 wrote

I think she might have been transferring. Although, I might be incorrect and would need to read the last chapter again.

However, since I am not sure about that, I will agree that it is odd, but not enough to where I feel that it does not represent the experience. What I will say is that the author never spoke about it in the last chapter, which would have done it some justification if there were some ramifications. If I put myself in Kate’s shoes, I probably would not be nearly upset. You cannot hide it forever in school, not unless you transition after graduating. I suppose you can transfer, but realistically, who can do that? Between having someone call her out in school versus an exclusive, small place where not everyone in her school was there, the second one sounds like the lesser of two evils. That does not mean I am defending it, though. Since I have to do guesswork that the author should have explained, this point is valid, and I agree with you.

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