Structure

Gender Queer's narrative structure is centered around author Maia Kobabe's coming of age, from childhood through adulthood, as e came to understand eir gender identity and sexuality. The book begins with a brief introduction in which Kobabe is preparing to depart eir parents' home to attend graduate school at age 24. In this introduction, the author notes that e struggled with writing about eir “demons” (6) in a class on autobiography, demonstrating to the reader that e has overcome a great deal of discomfort in order to write this graphic memoir. From there, Kobabe flashes back to eir life at age three, and then tells eir story in a roughly linear path. E explores milestones of eir youth, particularly those that relate to eir gender identity and dysphoria. These milestones include beginning to menstruate, developing early romantic crushes on both boys and girls, and cutting eir long hair to...