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A review by roxanamalinachirila
An Unsuitable Heir by KJ Charles
4.0
"So what's this gender dysphoria thing anyway?" I asked at one point. "Can someone explain?"
"It's when women wish they were men and men wish they were women," someone replied, apparently not very accurately.
"Why?" I asked.
And thus began long conversations about what it means to not identify with your own gender, and looking around online for people explaining what it's like to be gender dysphoric. Honestly, nearly everything people said was so vague that it could mean anything from, "I feel like people perceiving me as the opposite sex would offer me more advantages in life", to "I like another type of fashion more", to "I feel like I'm a human being who woke up among the Wookiees, looking like a Wookiee".
Not at all understanding what the fuck being gender dysphoric *meant*, I asked a friend who's studying to be a psychiatrist about it.
"Well, you and I won't know," he said,"because we don't have it. But it's a discrepancy between the way your body is and the way you perceive it to be."
"So it's not like, "I wish I had or did not have breasts"," I said, squinting.
"No."
"More like, "I have a phantom limb and another limb grew there instead of it"?" I ventured.
"I... suppose."
I thought about it and thought about it and realized I probably won't ever really get it, for various reasons (not really giving a shit about the male/female division in the first place is one of them). And I gave up on understanding. And then came "An Unsuitable Heir", which is all about a character who lacks a limb, and a character who's gender fluid. And I'm starting to sort of understand what the hell this thing is.
It was a somewhat uncomfortable read, because the characters didn't appeal to me that much - one was somewhat of a bastard who decided to force things, instead of attempting to persuade others into doing the right thing. The other seemed somewhat selfish and passive - people are dying, he himself is in danger, and he mostly mopes about wishing he were doing something else. Luckily, the plot sorts things out for him, because otherwise he was heading towards a miserable life at full speed.
But it was also a somewhat enlightening read, even if it's not one of my favorite books by KJ Charles.
"It's when women wish they were men and men wish they were women," someone replied, apparently not very accurately.
"Why?" I asked.
And thus began long conversations about what it means to not identify with your own gender, and looking around online for people explaining what it's like to be gender dysphoric. Honestly, nearly everything people said was so vague that it could mean anything from, "I feel like people perceiving me as the opposite sex would offer me more advantages in life", to "I like another type of fashion more", to "I feel like I'm a human being who woke up among the Wookiees, looking like a Wookiee".
Not at all understanding what the fuck being gender dysphoric *meant*, I asked a friend who's studying to be a psychiatrist about it.
"Well, you and I won't know," he said,"because we don't have it. But it's a discrepancy between the way your body is and the way you perceive it to be."
"So it's not like, "I wish I had or did not have breasts"," I said, squinting.
"No."
"More like, "I have a phantom limb and another limb grew there instead of it"?" I ventured.
"I... suppose."
I thought about it and thought about it and realized I probably won't ever really get it, for various reasons (not really giving a shit about the male/female division in the first place is one of them). And I gave up on understanding. And then came "An Unsuitable Heir", which is all about a character who lacks a limb, and a character who's gender fluid. And I'm starting to sort of understand what the hell this thing is.
It was a somewhat uncomfortable read, because the characters didn't appeal to me that much - one was somewhat of a bastard who decided to force things, instead of attempting to persuade others into doing the right thing. The other seemed somewhat selfish and passive - people are dying, he himself is in danger, and he mostly mopes about wishing he were doing something else. Luckily, the plot sorts things out for him, because otherwise he was heading towards a miserable life at full speed.
But it was also a somewhat enlightening read, even if it's not one of my favorite books by KJ Charles.