Rae Spoon

Rae is one of two main protagonists of the book, and writes half of the chapters from their perspective. Rae is a white Canadian transgender folk singer who goes by the pronoun “they.” Rae has short hair and glasses. Rae explains in the first sentence of their chapter “Introduction:” “I was assigned female at birth and socialized as a girl in a Pentecostal family in Calgary, Alberta” (17). Rae grows up in a strict household with a strict mother and describes their father as schizophrenic in the chapter “Cowboy.” In “Prairie Gender,” Rae talks about growing up on the prairie in Canada, and watching the unfair expectations and burdens on women in their town. In “God Failure,” they go into detail about how sexism played a role in reinforcing these unfair burdens against women, and why they left the church. Rae also struggles with their own body image...