Audiobook

Read this one because it's one of the challenged books in our local school district.

From my POV the only flaw is that in 2023 it's jokes and pop culture references are out of date but the actual substance of the book itself is great. I think this is exactly the kind of book that SHOULD be on shelves in school to answer questions about things that everyone wonders about but doesn't know who to ask for clarification. ( )

Sì, questo libro è gay e, viste le sue premesse, non è proprio un gran complimento. Juno Dawson si prefiggeva di scrivere il manuale per tuttə, ma per lo più ne ha scritto uno per chi è omosessuale: il resto viene giusto citato, senza dare spazio alla cultura che ogni lettera della comunità ha creato intorno a sé.

Probabilmente non ci avrei fatto troppo caso se, nel primo capitolo, l’autrice non avesse specificato con squilli di trombe che questo libro era per tuttə, a prescindere dalla tua identità di genere o dalla tua preferenza sessuale (che già preferenza sessuale sembra richiami a una possibilità scelta e m’è parsa subito un’espressione infelice, e non è la sola, purtroppo… tipo sesso gay non si può leggere, visto che il sesso è sesso, non è che ha un orientamento).

Il punto è che non puoi scrivere un libro inclusivo se ti ricordi delle varie parti della comunità LGBTQIA+ solo quando ne parli in maniera esplicita. Per esempio, quando si parla di uomini, sarebbe bene non dare per scontato che tutti abbiano il pene. Oppure, quando si parla di relazioni, sarebbe il caso di ricordarsi che non tuttə ne vogliono una romantica. O ancora, non è che le persone bisessuali sono uguali a quelle omosessuali quando stanno con qualcunə del loro stesso genere e uguali a quelle eterosessuali altrimenti.

Poteva essere un libro carino e pop su cosa voglia dire far parte della comunità LGBTQIA+, ma se non siete uomini gay, è probabile che troverete diverse mancanze in questo libro (pure le donne lesbiche o le persone trans, secondo me, non troveranno granché utile la lettura di questo libro, pur essendo le categorie più citate dopo gli uomini gay). ( )

No...

The book started off great, I was getting really into it and I felt very validated. But after about a third of the book, the information became severely outdated to the point where some of the information seemed inappropriate to modern day, which was very confusing because at one point in the book there is a mention that this book was reviewed or edited in 2020. I can appreciate the efforts to bring awareness and proper education to LGBTQ for when this book was published, but I would not recommend that anyone reads it for accuracy or education in 2022 or the years to follow. ( )

I wish that there had been far less slang. Young people would be better served to read formal names of body parts and terms that describe acts. It's hard enough to try to learn about something that is not easily discussed openly without trying to decipher the slang. The problem is compounded because the readers are international and their local terms may be very different from the ones the author uses. In addition, some of that slang changes over time. The glossary is very helpful, but the author doesn't use some of those terms in the text. ( )

I didn't rate this book low because it's bad. I rated it low because it's male-oriented and has little guidance for females. As a male, I was very represented by this book. But the females are MTFs were not represented well in this at all. I want equality in my media, and that means the book should cover both penises and vaginas.

Not just penises.

It covered trans fairly well, but also roughly. "Some boys want to be a girl", no, some girls are born in boy bodies. There's no want, they are born like that! So the trans area sort of washes it into "wanting" not they are born trans and trapped in the wrong body. This was where one star went. I cannot abide by this ignorance in a book like this. A book, mind you, that young children are reading. They need to understand transitioning and such is not a mere want or desire, it's a serious situation.

I can see people taking the trans part of this book out and weaponizing it.

Now as for the lack of vaginas. There's not enough talk about the female side of STDS and bad sex. Females are definitely not this book's focus. I guess by "gay" we mean only gay men. Not gay women. Aight.

So we barely cover periods, UTIS, etc. We don't cover vaginism, hymens, bleeding, etc near enough if at all. Very disappointing. There's literally nearly or nothing about vagina problems, PCOS, etc that's the reason another star vanished.

These are serious things girls should be taught about. Along with pregnancy, how consent works, and more. As a person who grew into an adult before this book, this book could have saved me UTIs and bad sexual experiences, and it needs to be more inclusive. But it's not.

I hate this book being banned from schools, even if there are some harmful angles, this book is not worth banning. For some people, like myself, it could have saved us from terrible misinformation online or trying to figure things out ourselves.

3 stars. ( )