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kandicez 's review for:
The Danish Girl
by David Ebershoff
I've put off writing this review so hard that I hadn't reviewed any books I read after this one. This was the selection for a RL Movie/Book Club in which we only read books that also have a film or television adaptation. We read and watch and then compare and discuss. I did not like either this month.
I understand the medical importance of the first physically successful sex change operation. My distaste for this book (and film) comes from the idea that Einar/Lili is a trans individual. They are not. Einar/Lili is mentally ill. She, (and I am going to refer to her that way from here on out since it's what she preferred) has dissociative personality disorder at the very least, and multiple personality disorder at worst. Einar was not a person raised as a male that felt only female inside. Einar saw Lili as a completely different person.
From the beginning, Einar refers to Lili in the third person, seems not to understand or remember what Lili has done in Einar's absence, and otherwise presents as two distinct individuals. Furthermore, Lili commits adultery while still married to Gerta and thinks this is acceptable because it's Lili, not Einar. Einar is married to Gerta, but Lili is not. Einar would never have betrayed Gerta in this way. You need no further evidence that we are dealing with two very separate entities.
Mental illness is real. Sometimes mental illness is present in a trans person because of the trauma associated with that state of being and the unacceptance of those around them. Einar/Lili is mentally ill in a very different way. I feel this book is dangerous in that people unfamiliar with anyone who is genuinely trans, will be lulled into thinking that being trans is a mental illness in itself. It is not! I cannot stress that enough.
The doctor who performed the successful surgeries would not have done so today. Before gender reassignment surgery there is a battery of mental tests that must be performed to ensure the individual undergoing the surgery is not mentally ill. Einar/Lili would not pass these tests. I believe this doctor, although a visionary revolutionist in the field of medicine, was performing these operations, not because he should, but to see if he could. Never a good reason.
I understand the medical importance of the first physically successful sex change operation. My distaste for this book (and film) comes from the idea that Einar/Lili is a trans individual. They are not. Einar/Lili is mentally ill. She, (and I am going to refer to her that way from here on out since it's what she preferred) has dissociative personality disorder at the very least, and multiple personality disorder at worst. Einar was not a person raised as a male that felt only female inside. Einar saw Lili as a completely different person.
From the beginning, Einar refers to Lili in the third person, seems not to understand or remember what Lili has done in Einar's absence, and otherwise presents as two distinct individuals. Furthermore, Lili commits adultery while still married to Gerta and thinks this is acceptable because it's Lili, not Einar. Einar is married to Gerta, but Lili is not. Einar would never have betrayed Gerta in this way. You need no further evidence that we are dealing with two very separate entities.
Mental illness is real. Sometimes mental illness is present in a trans person because of the trauma associated with that state of being and the unacceptance of those around them. Einar/Lili is mentally ill in a very different way. I feel this book is dangerous in that people unfamiliar with anyone who is genuinely trans, will be lulled into thinking that being trans is a mental illness in itself. It is not! I cannot stress that enough.
The doctor who performed the successful surgeries would not have done so today. Before gender reassignment surgery there is a battery of mental tests that must be performed to ensure the individual undergoing the surgery is not mentally ill. Einar/Lili would not pass these tests. I believe this doctor, although a visionary revolutionist in the field of medicine, was performing these operations, not because he should, but to see if he could. Never a good reason.