My Brother's Name is Jessica

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I quite liked reading the books written for their age groups before passing them on to one or other of them, as long as it was a good story that was well-written with believable characters and I didn’t have to constantly remind myself that whatever I was reading was written for youngsters, as I did with John Boyne’s latest offering . Although according to this interview, he claims not to write with a particular audience in mind, that just doesn’t ring true with this book which, of course, I only bought because people were calling for it to be boycotted. If there hadn’t been a fuss made about it, it wouldn’t have been on my radar and how depressing it is that the would-be censors of today have learned nothing from the past.

YA novel about transgender teen Puffin defends John Boyne’s YA novel about transgender teen

In short, this book is not Jessica’s. It doesn’t belong to her. It’s about everyone else but her. And when you look at it like that, it’s not hard to see why the trans community has refused to embrace it as theirs.What those calling for the boycott of this book illustrate above all else is how the word ‘transphobic’ has become essentially meaningless. It has also become ineffective as a weapon brandished in an attempt to silence anyone who challenges the ideology and falsehoods promoted by trans activists. In Boyne’s case, this seems to amount to objecting to the prefix ‘cis’. The accusation of transphobia should be reserved for those who advocate and carry out discrimination and violence against trans-identified people. Most of those referred to as “transphobes”– including Boyne – don’t do that. In fact, Boyne is a self-declared supporter of the nebulous “trans community” and, as I said in my previous blog about him, he is so much in denial about the hatred, bigotry and violence promoted by so many of those who’ve adopted the ‘trans’ label, that he can’t bear to believe it’s true, in spite of the wealth of evidence. Again, having such a positive person is amazing to see. We’ve witnessed recently an American athlete being banned from competing as a woman because of the hormones she takes. I don’t recall any mention of the fact that gender dysphoria is not necessarily permanent and many teenagers get through it and become reconciled to being their biological sex. Nor is there any mention that some people of all ages live to regret their transition and end up detransitioning, some having already gone through irreversible physical changes. There is no discussion of ‘gender’ and what it actually means. What is it about masculinity that doesn’t sit right with Jason and why? Why can’t he just be a gender non-conforming man? What does he think it means to be a woman? We’re not told. Jason’s parents and Sam are horrified when he breaks the news to them about what I suppose trans ideologues would call his “authentic self”, a period of conflict ensues and Jason leaves the family home to go and live with his indulgent and eccentric aunt, where he is free to become ‘Jessica’.

Author John Boyne Faces Backlash From Trans - GCN Irish Author John Boyne Faces Backlash From Trans - GCN

He said he people had accused him of misgendering the book’s title, that it should be My Sister’s Name is Jessica instead. But, he said, the whole point was that the story was through the eyes of the transitioning character’s younger brother Sam. “To be so politically correct, some people … it must be painful to be so woke all the time.” He said that there was “no legal reason” for him to post the message, adding: “In fact, Graham will be as surprised by its appearance as anyone – but I’ve given a lot of thought to this and realised that all I did in that piece five years ago was add to the pile-on of a decent man in a vulnerable place, when I could have used my platform to defend and support him. Graham, without equivocation, without excuses, and without evasion: you were right, I was wrong, and I apologise.” Speaking out against trans activists

He expects The Echo Chamber will provoke something of a reaction but is braced for it. “I just turned 50. And as much as I don’t like drama, and I don’t like trouble, I do think that it’s important that your work should be strong enough that it inspires some kind of debate. And antipathy towards it is not necessarily a negative. At the end of this book, I mention Kingsley Amis’s line that if you’re not annoying somebody with your writing, you’re not doing anything right. And it’s not that I set out to annoy people, but I do want my work to be more interesting in that way than perhaps it once was. I want to think about the world we live in and to challenge it. And if that means upsetting some people, well, that’s what literature is supposed to do.” In response, Aoife Martin, a director of Transgender Equality Network Ireland, wrote that "cis" is merely a descriptor, like "straight" or "white". "Boyne, whether he likes it or not, is a cis man speaking from a position of cis privilege," she wrote. The inaccuracies, stereotypes and underlying transphobia made me uncomfortable throughout. I can't imagine how it made the trans community feel 💔 I work with Inclusive Minds, the group he claimed in his article to have consulted for his transphobic book. Having read this I immediately demanded to know what on was going on. The only time I refer to people as being cis is when discussing trans issues,” Martin has written in The Irish Times. “This is to distinguish them from transgender and non-binary people.

My Brother’s Name is Jessica – Book Review – Spoilers My Brother’s Name is Jessica – Book Review – Spoilers

This is a story that effectively promotes the false, offensive and dangerous notion that a girl can actually be born in a male body and Boyne seems to belong to that category of people who think that those who claim to be the other sex than the one they actually are should be indulged to the fullest. (And, yes, I know they call it ‘gender’ but gender and sex are conflated in this story as they are just about everywhere else). Boyne is squarely in the trans ideologues’ camp and any trans lobbyist who thinks otherwise and calls him transphobic is just daft.During this global COVID pandemic, we like many other organisations have been impacted greatly in the way we can do business and produce. This means a temporary pause to our print publication and live events and so now more than ever we need your help to continue providing this community resource digitally. Unannounced, the soccer coach arrives to discuss rumours regarding Jason to his parents. Everyone is on edge to hear what the coach will say. But perhaps the most frustrating and damning aspect in all of this is the portrayal of Jessica herself — or Jason, as she is referred to as throughout the novel, up until the very last chapter of the book. In Sam’s eyes, Jessica is always “my brother Jason.” He’s “the best brother” and it’s clear that Sam idolizes him. But Sam is not sympathetic to Jessica’s struggles. The only glimpses we get of Jessica’s take on all of this are pithy, generic quotes that seem designed to encapsulate the “trans struggle” (“I’ve always felt this way.” “Just because I feel that I’m a girl doesn’t mean I have to like everything that girls like…” “Don’t you realize that my gender has absolutely nothing to do with what’s going on in my pants?”), and a lot of crying. We see none of her interior world, none of her struggle, and it’s not her strength or her perseverance that wins out by the end of the book.

My Brother’s Name is Jessica’ by John Boyne | Peak Trans ‘My Brother’s Name is Jessica’ by John Boyne | Peak Trans

He was supported from the Hay audience by the Horrid Henry writer, Francesca Simon: “I am American and I am female and my main character is a little British boy.” He wrote: “Graham Linehan – who is without question one of our best screenwriters – has sacrificed enormous amounts in his support of women, children, gay men, and lesbians. He’s experienced trauma in his personal life, been vilified for his views online, in newspapers, and on television. He is currently unable to work in the industry he loves.”As a long-term ally and supporter of trans people, and the author of a new novel that seeks to help young people embrace both their own identities and the identities of their friends, I’ve been appalled by the response of people on social media towards both my Irish Times article and a book that not a single one of them has even read, since it’s not published until Thursday.” Aoife Martin, a trans woman and director of TENI, has interpreted Boyne’s unwillingness to use the term as a dangerous means of ignoring his cis privilege. But another cis person’s take is being lauded as brilliant trans representation, when we can tell, by the title of the book, that it’s not. I’d almost prefer no rep at all.”