Posted on Dec 8, 2023
'Transitions' explores the process of a mother's acceptance of her child's gender
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https://www.npr.org/2023/12/08/ [login to see] /book-review-elodie-durand-graphic-novel-transitions
In the opening to Élodie Durand's visual narrative, Transitions: A Mother's Journey, a mother in her early 40s sits with her newly 19-year-old at a therapist's office. The therapist is explaining the ways people in France are typically placed into oversimplified categories, boy or girl, from birth. "But in reality," she continues, "there are multiple possibilities."
The guarded mother only reluctantly engaging in this conversation beside her mostly silent teenager is Anne Marbot, a French university biologist who, until this point, as she later admits, has generally considered herself to be open-minded. Anne's teenager, who was assigned female at birth and has been living her life until recently as "Lucie," came out to her as a boy just a few months earlier. This session, with her child's therapist, is intended to help Anne become a better ally to her son because, until now, the mother has not taken the announcement well. Instead, through nonacceptance she has driven a deep rift between them.
In the opening to Élodie Durand's visual narrative, Transitions: A Mother's Journey, a mother in her early 40s sits with her newly 19-year-old at a therapist's office. The therapist is explaining the ways people in France are typically placed into oversimplified categories, boy or girl, from birth. "But in reality," she continues, "there are multiple possibilities."
The guarded mother only reluctantly engaging in this conversation beside her mostly silent teenager is Anne Marbot, a French university biologist who, until this point, as she later admits, has generally considered herself to be open-minded. Anne's teenager, who was assigned female at birth and has been living her life until recently as "Lucie," came out to her as a boy just a few months earlier. This session, with her child's therapist, is intended to help Anne become a better ally to her son because, until now, the mother has not taken the announcement well. Instead, through nonacceptance she has driven a deep rift between them.
'Transitions' explores the process of a mother's acceptance of her child's gender
Posted from npr.org
Children
Parenting
Transgender
Gender
Reading
Posted 6 mo ago
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One of the first things parents think about when this happens is what did they do wrong. Is something wrong with them. Next is what will the neighbors think. Last thing they think of is the child. I've experienced it and seen it happen over and over again.
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
...""I had no role model," she later admits. "I was not prepared."
Originally published in French in 2021 as Journal d'Anne Marbot, Transitions is a welcome addition to the growing number of graphic novels and comics exploring transgender as well as genderqueer identities. These include perhaps most famously Maia Kobabe's graphic memoir Gender Queer — which has faced challenges around the country — alongside works like L. Nichols' Flocks and Sabrina Symington's fictional First Year Out. A distinguishing characteristic of Transitions in relation to these other works is that the focus of the story is what Alex's mother refers to as her own different kind of transition, from shades of denial and rejection to unqualified support and acceptance of her child. As the therapist tells Marbot, who is riddled with anxiety, grief, and a host of other emotions for months following Alex's announcement: "You fear that Alex will be marginalized, but the first and foremost marginalization is family rejection. That is in your hands."...
...""I had no role model," she later admits. "I was not prepared."
Originally published in French in 2021 as Journal d'Anne Marbot, Transitions is a welcome addition to the growing number of graphic novels and comics exploring transgender as well as genderqueer identities. These include perhaps most famously Maia Kobabe's graphic memoir Gender Queer — which has faced challenges around the country — alongside works like L. Nichols' Flocks and Sabrina Symington's fictional First Year Out. A distinguishing characteristic of Transitions in relation to these other works is that the focus of the story is what Alex's mother refers to as her own different kind of transition, from shades of denial and rejection to unqualified support and acceptance of her child. As the therapist tells Marbot, who is riddled with anxiety, grief, and a host of other emotions for months following Alex's announcement: "You fear that Alex will be marginalized, but the first and foremost marginalization is family rejection. That is in your hands."...
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