Nonbinary Gender Identity and Gender Dysphoria

The arc of the story in Gender Queer concerns author Maia Kobabe gradually coming to understand eir nonbinary gender identity. People who are nonbinary generally do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth or the opposite sex, meaning they are neither male nor female. In the early pages of the book, e writes about incidents from childhood and eir tween and teen years that caused em to realize this, many of which concern gender dysphoria — a feeling of profound discomfort when being misgendered or experiencing something that reminds them of their assigned-at-birth sex. Kobabe writes movingly of the distress e felt after e started menstruating, explaining that e did not change eir menstrual pads frequently enough and never used the school bathroom. E also felt upset about the prospect of shaving eir legs and wearing a bra. All of these...