Freakboy
Title
Freakboy
Subject
A YA novel written in verse telling the story of three young people who explore gender identity and sexuality in different ways.
Description
Freakboy is a novel written in verse meant to engage with young adult readers. The format works to highlight the differences between the three characters as well as to convey tone and inner thought processes. For example, at times when Brendan’s thoughts are very active and he is anxious about his gender identity, the word “transsexual” is printed haphazardly throughout several pages of the book in large, bold font. This use of formatting helps the reader to “get inside” the character's head. Each character in the book has their own font and they trade off narrating the story of Freakboy. At times, these passages read almost as journal entries from each character, detailing their days.
The author of Freakboy is a white cisgender woman who has a genderqueer child. Clark talks about her positionality in a FAQ style piece published on tumlr.com where she asks “who am I to be telling this story?” I think Clark’s reflexivity is crucial to the placement of this book in a transgender cultural archive. She goes on to explain that she asked questions along the way and wrote it with her child looking over her shoulder. Doing your research, so to speak, is is crucial to writing about people who are different than you, especially when those differences are marginalized. Equally important is the author’s note that acknowledges the diversity and number of “trans stories” making it clear that she is not trying to tell the trans story or to have this book speak for all trans identities.
Clark doesn’t do such a good job at “doing the research” when it comes to race and racial descriptions of the characters. One character Angel, is coded as Latinx/Black with the language used in her sections of the book. One example is the use of the word “Girl” during Angel’s section when it feels like Clark is trying to index Blackness through casual language rather than examining how racial identity affects Angel’s life and experiences. Some of this could be read as Clark trying to code Angel as “mature” or older than Brendan and Vanessa, but Clark’s intentions still remain questionable. Further, the racial coding of Brendan and Vanessa seems non existent (read: white) leading me to believe that Angel was intentionally coded as non-white. Clark would have benefitted from researching the language surrounding characters of color and paying closer attention to the ways she is consciously and/or subconsciously coding her characters.
The author of Freakboy is a white cisgender woman who has a genderqueer child. Clark talks about her positionality in a FAQ style piece published on tumlr.com where she asks “who am I to be telling this story?” I think Clark’s reflexivity is crucial to the placement of this book in a transgender cultural archive. She goes on to explain that she asked questions along the way and wrote it with her child looking over her shoulder. Doing your research, so to speak, is is crucial to writing about people who are different than you, especially when those differences are marginalized. Equally important is the author’s note that acknowledges the diversity and number of “trans stories” making it clear that she is not trying to tell the trans story or to have this book speak for all trans identities.
Clark doesn’t do such a good job at “doing the research” when it comes to race and racial descriptions of the characters. One character Angel, is coded as Latinx/Black with the language used in her sections of the book. One example is the use of the word “Girl” during Angel’s section when it feels like Clark is trying to index Blackness through casual language rather than examining how racial identity affects Angel’s life and experiences. Some of this could be read as Clark trying to code Angel as “mature” or older than Brendan and Vanessa, but Clark’s intentions still remain questionable. Further, the racial coding of Brendan and Vanessa seems non existent (read: white) leading me to believe that Angel was intentionally coded as non-white. Clark would have benefitted from researching the language surrounding characters of color and paying closer attention to the ways she is consciously and/or subconsciously coding her characters.
Creator
Clark, Kristen
Publisher
Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers
Date
2013
Rights
Copyright 2013 by Kristen Elizabeth Clark. All rights reserved.
Format
Book
Language
English
Original Format
Book
Citation
Clark, Kristen, “Freakboy,” An Archive of Trans Culture, accessed October 13, 2024, https://transcultural.oberlincollegelibrary.org/items/show/16.