Author’s latest book shoehorns trans identified male into women’s friendship group.

[mylittlekomododragon]

I have the latest audio book by an author whose books I usually enjoy, but am struggling because a trans identified male has been shoe horned into a women’s friendship group, a menopause group no less, and is welcomed with open arms by simpering handmaidens, apart from one big bad terf who is painted as an out of touch bigot. The character goes on to discuss menopause symptoms, saying they understand, but it felt so jarring. So disappointing, as in a previous book this author had made a comment that made me think she was gender critical, but the pandering to this trans character is staggering. The whole character arc felt contrived, and coming from a 60 year old woman, was almost as disappointing as Margaret Atwood!

Yes, I'd have liked to meet other menopausal women but no way, as if it's advertised like that it's probably full of , "be kind", types with blue haired kids.
I'm honestly only interested in hanging out with Terfs, I go to as many Women's Rights things as I can partly for that reason.

I worked with a TIM volunteer who wittered on about periods and weaseled his way into an International Women’s Day poetry event droning on about how he bled from his entire being. I couldn’t be in the same room as him.

Ffs. Is prostate cancer for all ages and all genders?

Will make sure to avoid. I find most of the 'popular' female writers are crap anyway, with poor writing and incorrect grammar.

if it’s detective fiction you like, Elly Griffiths dr Ruth Galloway series is very good 😊

Am I being naive to say stick with anything written before, say, 2015?

I like Milly Johnson too, that’s disappointing

I second this recommendation! I also like her Brighton series too. That took me longer to get into, but very satisfying once I was in the swing of them. She also has a smaller series around Harbinder Kaur which I also enjoy.

Jane Casey’s Maeve Kerrigan series!

The Ruth Galloway books do feature a TIM character. A bit part and the trans side feels irrelevant to the actual character, but I was a bit disappointed that a flipping forensic archaeologist who absolutely knows the difference between male and female would mindlessly accept this character as a woman.

MW Craven -Washington Poe books are good, as are the Kate Atkinson Jackson Brodie series.

Thank you all for the book recommendations!

Which character is this? I've read all the books and can't recall this character??

@misscockerspaniel another recommendation for the Maeve Kerrigan series by Jane Casey. It was recommended to me by someone on here as I was looking to fill the Strike void after the last book - and I’m now completely hooked (we’ve got our own thread 😁)

Janet someone. Appears in maybe 2 or 3 books.

Irvine Welsh wrote about using a “sensitivity reader” for one of his recent books involving a trans character.

Has anyone ever heard of an author using a sensitivity reader for a book involving a woman?

I googled to see if Milly Johnson was a pen name, and apparently it is, for the writer Sue Moorcroft. So you may want to avoid Sue's books too. Who knows how many aliases she has?!

I was watching a TV series recently with a trans character who seemed "shoehorned" in. I don't have any objection to a show having a trans character per se, but this trans woman was close friends with a female character, and it just didn't work - the trans woman was all make up and heels, and came across as very fakey, while the female character was more natural. A bit like having a female lecturer with no interest in fashion, with a close friend who is all fake tan and nails, they're just different tribes.

There was a TIM in the second season of Squid Game, who I felt was shoehorned in to please the western audience (not sure a Korea is really on board with/cares much about trans) , but in fact although everyone treated the character as a woman there were a couple of scenes that really drive home that he was and always would be male.

Some good feminist novels I've read recently are Vox, and the 2 novel series, Moths and Toxxic. Both dystopian fiction. Vox is about a world where women are only allowed to say 100 words a day, and Moths/ Toxxic is about a virus that only affects men!

I don't know why that is underlined!😂

The historian Janet Meadows.

It's really interesting that you've read all the books and can't remember there being a trans character because that shows it was really nicely done. I actually think it's a masterclass in how to include a trans character in your books without hijacking your own plot or pissing people off.

The first time Ruth meets Janet is in a professional context and she immediately clocks that Janet is a male to female transsexual. And Janet sees that Ruth has noticed and says, "Yes, that's right, I used to be a man." There's no coy pretence that Janet passes or that you can't even tell, which would be irritating in any book but particularly in a book where the protagonist routinely digs up skeletons and pronounces them to be male or female.

The purpose of Janet's character is to provide historical context, and that's generally what happens. The fact that Janet is trans is usually only referred to each time the character is reintroduced in a new book and it feels like it's just to serve as a reminder of who Janet is. But it's completely peripheral to the plot and it never gets political. (I'm currently on book 13 and hoping it won't turn into the "Janet Meadows is a real woman" show with a token evil TERF in it before the end of the series.)

There was a trans character in one of the early Cormoran Strikes books too. If we agree that trans people should be allowed to exist in society (which I do), surely it's OK for them to be represented in literature too?

If I were a writer and wanted to include a trans character in one of my books, this is how I would do it.

But it's made absolutely clear that both Ruth and Janet understand that Janet is male.

What would you rather, that Ruth said, "Oh, I'm not going to talk to you or listen to your professional expertise because you're a man pretending to be a woman"?

Yes @MissScarletInTheBallroom i have no problem with trans characters in books. It’s when they’re shoe horned in and used as a device to enable the author to expound at length that they are totally actual women & anyone who doesn’t agree is an evil bigot.

They should really see a doctor about that...

I was reading a US romance with ghosts in it (yes trashy but fairly well written) - a very minor character was always referred to as 'they/them' - as it was already a bit supernatural I spent ages wondering if this person (who was never given much of a physical description) was actually 2 people or a person possessed by a ghost - but it never came up so I assume was meant to be non-binary. In written prose they/them for 1 person is very confusing!