An engaging, inclusive, and informative guide to this crucial topic.
Stryker offers a conversational and informative teens’ guide to discussing issues of consent.
From the outset of this guide, the author, a journalist and consent activist, is clear that it’s intended for teen readers: Preceding the main text is a “Note to Adults” that recommends strategies for getting the book into teens’ hands and beginning conversations about a subject that can be difficult to broach. Stryker is extremely clear throughout that consent is not just about sex. Early on, she defines the book as “part mentorship, part critical-thinking guide, part self-exploration, part challenge to the things we learn culturally as ‘just how it is.’” She acknowledges that there’s no “One True Answer” when it comes to consent—the book is intended as a jumping-off point for further thought and conversation. Within those parameters, Stryker tackles consent in all its various forms. The author presents each chapter as a question that she answers by using definitions, cultural context, clear examples, and suggestions for incorporating the ideas discussed into readers’ lives; the Q&A format makes the difficult topic more accessible for teens (or anyone). Some questions she considers include “Why is consent so often treated as a gendered thing?”; “Is consent sexy?”; and “What’s the difference between coercion and consent?” Stryker also delves into potential “what ifs” teens may think about, such as, what if “someone doesn’t respect your boundaries?” and “What should I do when I’ve crossed someone’s boundaries?” Keeping these heady questions accessible for her adolescent audience, Stryker answers them using ample personal examples and practical advice. This combination of lived experience and actionable counsel makes the material feel authentic and useful. For reasons laid out in the introductory chapters, the author draws more from personal experience and narrative examples than academic research, as she finds much of the literature on consent to be excessively gendered and narrow. Stryker is able to be more inclusive in her book, specifically discussing how these issues might differ for LGBTQ+ teens.
An engaging, inclusive, and informative guide to this crucial topic.Pub Date: April 26, 2024
ISBN: 9781990869518
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Thornapple Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Small but mighty necessary reading.
A miniature manifesto for radical queer acceptance that weaves together the personal and political.
Eli, a cis gay white Jewish man, uses his own identities and experiences to frame and acknowledge his perspective. In the prologue, Eli compares the global Jewish community to the global queer community, noting, “We don’t always get it right, but the importance of showing up for other Jews has been carved into the DNA of what it means to be Jewish. It is my dream that queer people develop the same ideology—what I like to call a Global Queer Conscience.” He details his own isolating experiences as a queer adolescent in an Orthodox Jewish community and reflects on how he and so many others would have benefitted from a robust and supportive queer community. The rest of the book outlines 10 principles based on the belief that an expectation of mutual care and concern across various other dimensions of identity can be integrated into queer community values. Eli’s prose is clear, straightforward, and powerful. While he makes some choices that may be divisive—for example, using the initialism LGBTQIAA+ which includes “ally”—he always makes clear those are his personal choices and that the language is ever evolving.
Small but mighty necessary reading. (resources) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09368-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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