I was just talking about YA books and now I'm here?
I will never get off my soap box.
[intro music]
Hello, I'm Jackson Bird and today I am doing the Representation Book Tag!
I was tagged by Iris Moon, who started the tag, and whose channel you should totally
subscribe to and check out.
They make really great queer and bookish videos.
So, if you are here watching this, you'll probably love their videos too.
Now this tag is all about seeing yourself represented in media and in books, which is
SO important and is like my number one issue because (clapping) if we don't see ourselves
represented, how do we know that we exist?
And we have potential?
And there are other people like us?
And how do we learn about other people who are different than us and get to empathize
with them and understand them on a complex level.
These are all things we need more of in the world and the way we get more is by having
responsible representation in lots of media.
So, on with the tag!
Number one: Introduce yourself!
What are your identities?
I'm Jack.
I am a queer bisexual trans man.
My pronouns are he/him/his.
I'm also a white, able-bodied American.
I am 27.
I am a Texan New Yorker… and those are all the identities I care to share on the internet.
(ding sound)
2.
What was the first book or media in which you felt represented?
So as a trans kid growing up and not really knowing that trans people existed, I was given
a lot of "girl books" to read and I didn't really identify with most of the girl characters
in those books.
However, I do remember in like first or second grade I found the Amber Brown series by Paula
Danziger and I loved those books because Amber Brown was more of tomboy and her best friend
was a boy and I was just able to relate to her moreso than any other character I'd been
exposed to in books yet.
Or, in anything, at that point.
A little bit later on in my life, the first gay book that I had the courage to check out
from the public library was Geography Club by Brent Hartinger, which was a YA book about
kids who start an LGBTQ+ club at their high school, but they call it the Geography Club
so that people don't know what it really is.
I was so paranoid that people would like catch me reading this book.
Like, they would somehow figure out what the book was about and they would make fun of
me.
Or, send me to a gay conversion camp.
I don't know!
It was Texas.
I was scared.
But fortunately the title of the book served the same purpose as the name of the club in
the book.
So like, no one ever suspected anything.
It was a great decoy.
Also, I just remembered.
Okay, there was a message board for that book, uh like a fan message board by the publisher
or something that I used to actually post on because I loved that book so much.
And the author would post on it a lot too.
And I had like a username and an avatar that were totally ambiguous.
Like they weren't my name or a picture of me or anything.
'Cause, this was 2003.
We didn't do that yet.
But like based on whatever I had said at various points, the author mistook me for a boy and
it was like, one of the best moments of my middle schools life.
Oh, it was so validating.
Little confusing.
But I was so excited by that.
As far as trans media representation…
I mean, I've yet to feel really represented by or like resonate with any fictional trans
characters.
Especially in books.
But even in like movies and tv shows.
I mean there's not like a big pool of trans guys in fictional media to pull from anyways.
And I do get excited and feel a little bit represented when I see trans guy characters
in things like in The O.A. or Transparent, but they don't usually resonate as strongly
for me as like documentaries or memoirs do.
Probably because often times for the fictional ones, cisgender people are controlling the
narrative whereas for memoirs, it's the trans person writing it themselves so they really
get into those small details that really make a difference.
Number three!
Is there a character in your favorite book or genre that represents you?
I mean, I think my favorite book genre is probably transgender nonfiction so, yes it
represents me.
But none of my other favorite genres do.
I like YA novels and mysteries and historical fiction… there's not too many queer trans
guys in those I mean, especially the last two.
Probably the only place that you're going to find trans guys is in YA novels.
But they tend to be straight and they're in high school, which was not my experience.
More on that in a minute.
Number four: What was the worst representation of one of your identities that you have ever
read?
Okay so I haven't read it, but I heard about it and like researched it.
I do want to read it so I can like fully make my own opinion of it, but also UGH, it sounds
like it's going to be painful to read.
It's a book called Adam by Ariel Schrag.
And it is a YA novel about a cisgender teenage boy who goes to stay with his lesbian sister
and ends up crushing on this lesbian cisgender girl.
And because she's obviously not interested in boys, he pretends to be a trans boy so
she'll like him.
What?!
No!
There is – bah!
There are SO MANY things wrong with that!
One, a lesbian should not be interested in a trans boy because he is a BOY.
He is a guy.
Yes, there are complexities where sometimes that happens everyone's like identity is a
lable unto themselves, but like let's stop the narrative that trans guys are just butch
dykes.
Because no.
And also what a douchebag is this cis guy to pretend to be trans in order to get into
the pants a girl who is NOT INTO HIM.
UGH!
Oh, I'd love to give this book the benefit of the doubt, but everything I have read does
not like make this a teaching moment or give it any redeeming qualities.
It's just so probelmatic.
Oh why did it get published?
I know why it got published because there's not enough trans people in publishing and
editing who can shut this kinda thing down.
And that is a problem.
We gotta teach more people.
We gotta get into these positions of power.
We gotta break down the systems that aren't letting us get into these positions of power.
Oh, there's a lot of work to do.
Why – I was just talking about YA books and now I'm here?
I will never get off my soapbox.
Which is probably good because I'm short.
Number five: What is the best representation of your identities that you have ever read?
So, I love Elliot DeLine's writing.
I especially enjoyed this collection of essays, No Poster Boy.
He's a queer trans guy, who transitioned as a young adult, like after high school.
A lot of trans representation in books tends to be like people who always knew they were
trans, and who are straight, and who transitioned in high school.
And none of that applies to me.
So I love reading accounts from people for whom that also doesn't apply and who talk
authentically about confusion and stereotypes and paradoxes and dysphoria and social pressures
from within the community, and all that complex, messy stuff that isn't talked about as much
or nearly as marketable.
And in that category, I'll also recommend uhm Just Add Hormones.
Oh I've got some notes in here.
What is this note?Oh no, it's a page falling out!
Oh that's so sad.
Oh page 155, I don't want to lose you!
Just Add Hormones by Matt Kailey.
Any reading by Matt Kailey.
And also Man Alive by Thomas Page McBee.
Number six: Do you think your identities are misrepresented or underrepresented in the
books that you read?
In the books that I very purposefully and intentionally push myself to read, I'm represented
okay.
In books at large, I feel underrepresented.
Absolutely.
Trans people make up a growing, but still minuscule subsection of literature.
And books about trans people written by trans people, even less.
And then trans books breaching difficult, non assimilationist topics, even less.
So underrepresented.
I feel undrrepresented.
That said, I do have other identities.
Please refer to the beginning of the video.
But being trans is a part of my identity that I crave representation of the most because,
growing up, it wasn't there at all.
And because it is so complex and all-encompassing and neverending and so it's, just it's nice
and comforting to get to read other people's accounts.
And y'know, as I've gone through this tag I think what I've realized is that the best
representations of trans people I've seen, the most realistic, the most responsible,
the most relatable – are the ones created by trans people, whether that be memoirs or
essays or fictional books or youtube videos.
So, if we want to see ourselves represented better, we gotta do it ourselves.
We gotta become writers and publishers and filmmakers and podcasters.
I promise my podcast is coming back.
We've gotta take hold of our narratives and seize the means of production to get them
out there.
So let's all go out there and start creating!
And also, purchasing and amplifying the things created by trans people.
Alright, so as for who I am tagging, they're not all booktubers, but they are people who
sometimes talk bookish things and from whom I'd be really curious to hear the representation
side of things – even if it's more media and less books.
Number one: Ahsante the Artist, who is on the ace spectrum and I would love to hear
more about how an ace feels under represented, as I presume will be the answer.
And next up, Rikki Poynter, who is Deaf and an activist in the D/deaf and hard of hearing
communities.
She's always talking about representation.
So, Rikki, do this tag.
I think it would be awesome.
Third, Rowan Ellis, who is a queer woman who I think will have some very intellectually
stimulating respsonse to these questions.
And fourth, Amanda Finlaw of Fandom Matters, who always has some fan activist-y social
justice-y hot takes on her channel.
Annnd y'know what to throw out some more booktuber-ish people in there, I'm also going to tag Lucy
Moon and Rosianna Rojas.
They might not do this tag, but I think it would be cool if they did so I'ma tag 'em
anyway.
If you are interested in checking out more transgender books, you can watch my Ultimate
Trans Book Recs video and also peruse my always-updating Trans Book Recs shelf on GoodReads.
In the comments, I want to read your answers to these questions!
Or even better, make a video response to this tag and leave the link to it down in the comments.
It might get flagged as spam at first if you have a link in it, but I'll try to keep an
eye on 'em.
Clear 'em through the filter.
If you liked this video, please be sure to give it a thumb's up and share it with people
you think will also enjoy it.
And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss a new video, consider supporting me on
Patreon at patreon.com/jacksonbird, get some of my merch at dftba.com/jacksonbird, annnnd
you can follow me on twitter, instagram, all the places at jackisnotabird.
Alright, that is it for today.
Thank you so much for watching.
I'll see ya next time!
[outro music]
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