Girl Mans Up
Summary:
Pen has always felt more comfortable in ‘male’ clothing, preferring her brother’s clothes and the company of boys. Though Pen’s parents resent her expressions of gender identity, her older brother has always been supportive. Her friend Colby, whom she has known since she was nine, has also been accepting of how Pen expresses her gender, yet she is beginning to see that his loyalty and support does not come without conditions which are damaging to Pen and to other girls. The book follows Pen’s first relationship with Blake, and her new friendship with Olivia who is deeply in need of support and finding her own voice within a constrictive family sphere.
Edited by: Dublin City University
Comment:
Pen is a self-aware character who knows exactly how she feels and how she identifies in terms of her gender, but who is yet deeply uncertain, primarily due to the responses of the people in her life. She describes the gender norms that face children with accuracy, noting that people accepted her presentation when she was younger and could be labelled as a ‘tomboy’, but that as she gets older, the way she looks seems to take on greater weight. It is noteworthy that Pen does not label herself definitively, though she tries on various labels and rejects them. She knows she does not want to be a boy but her female body does not feel right to her either. Pen’s in-depth inner workings are contrasted with the base conclusions that others come to about her, which painfully includes her family. Other gender issues are explored throughout the novel, including her friend Colby’s deeply toxic masculinity which sees him use and abuse girls as he chooses, express desires of violence, and his anger at the fact that girls’ stories about boys are always believed.