Let's read: Gender Queer

[Inatrous]

I first became aware of this vastly overrated Tumblr scrawl a few years ago, and after thinking over it a bit, thought it might be fun for a let's read. So join me, as we follow one woman's journey through the tomboy destroying pipeline of gender-identity and homoerotica, hopefully with a laugh or two along the way.

(Part 1)



The cover, like it's contents, is a badly drawn, poorly thought out, performative attempt at earnesty. The two central figures, both of whom are Maia, are each outlined in a deep, shaky blue, which stands out obnoxiously against the hair and face, while nearly vanishing against older Maia's shirt and pants. The line weight itself varies little--You'll notice the lines defining the kneecaps are about the same thickness as the ones used to outline her figure, and the leg-hair is only slightly thinner than that.

Typically, line weight is often varied, especially in comics, because it makes figures feel more dynamic and helps draw the eye to certain details while diminishing others. The reader gains nothing from being forced to oggle Maia's poorly shaded knees, but she obviously lacks the ability to intelligently guide the eye through a peice. After having read through the comic, in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Maia was the sort to blame the reader for not looking where she wants, regardless of where her design is actually guiding them to go.

That would certainly explain why one of the most eye-catching parts of the cover is a young Maia's bright yellow shorts. Either that, or for some reason she actually wants me to stare at her crotch.

I'm also not a huge fan of how the linework is not consistent throughout the piece. In the upper panel, you'll notice that the blue outlines are only used for older Maia, then switched out for a pale blue to define the water in the midground, before swapping to a lineless style for the background, which is...I think an afternoon sky?

Contrast this to the lower panel, were that same blue outline is used to define both the foreground figure (young Maia), and the midground figures, strongly outlining several trees, which in turn define a pool, eschewing the white outline used to define the water in the upper panel for a more realistic technique of using the shadows cast by the forest to emphasize the edge. Then, because consistency is cisgender, immediately switches to a lineless style for the trees, before switching to outlines AGAIN for the clouds and mountains.

This probably seems rather nitpicky, but keep in mind that Maia isn't some random, this woman is a paid, published professional with an MA in comic design. She's supposed to know what she's doing. And if you happen to be an artist whose going for a deliberate mirror image/contrast setup, one of the things you're supposed to make sure of is that the two images differ only where they're meant to. Regular readers might not consciously pick on stuff like borked outlines or bad color choices, but other artists absolutely will. The level of thoughtlessness here, on what should be the best and most attention-grabbing version of her work, is astounding.

As a final smack to the face, a book that's all about how the author is supposedly neither male nor female somehow missed the chance to divide the title between the two panels while sticking the author's name right in between. I mean come on, that one should be a gimme.

I promise not to rant too hard about all the ways Maia is terrible at her job from here on out, but I just really needed to get that out of my system.

Part 1: Introduction

• After finally opening up the cover, we are introduced to our brave, be-pronouned protagonist, packing her car as she gets ready to head off to school and earn her master's degree, from which she will learn nothing.
• Also, the lettering is slightly crooked in every single panel and it's driving me insane. I know Maia's going for that hand-lettered, personal diary look, but it reads as one more obnoxious, saccharine little flair trying to distract me from how lazy this work actually is.
• We then skip to Maia in a biography class, in which she's ill tempered at being encouraged to share personal, unpleasant secrets as part of her class project.
• This determination lasts exactly one page, which is a pity, because I actually agree with her her here. Teachers who try to get their students to share things like that is, at an absolute minimum, slightly shitty, biographical focus or no.

• Maia decides everything she's written down is related to gender, because swimming is for girls, I guess.
• Maia is too fragile to handle the sight of her own squiggles, until--

BEHOLD! GENDER QUEER!

 

[I'm Retarded?]

View attachment 5472393

BEHOLD! GENDER QUEER!

*thunderclap, horses screech*

Spoiler

 

[Nancy]

My mind filled in the word in the last panel as "Bender" instead of "gender" and now this is all I can think about:



Bender Queer!

 

[eDove]

You've broken it down perfectly, but I have to reiterate that the color scheme is so ass. Retarded pedophiles don't have any grasp on beauty or aesthetic.

 

[Merton J. Dingle]

Imagine writing a comic less entertaining and more self-absorbed than Sonichu.

 

[Ashamed of Yourself]

Thank you for this. I am very anti-censorship in regular libraries, but school libraries have never stocked this kind of bullshit, and should not. I read Henry Miller in high school, but I had to get that at the public library, and I had to buy the really filthy ones.


This is some really regressive shit.

 

[DumbDude43]

something about the way this shit is drawn (and the topic) reminds me of this

 

[MissyMissy]

I can't believe this bitch wrote a memoir and included that she wore the same pad for an entire school day and got called in to the guidance counselor's office for smelling like BO.

Obviously, i don't care if this book is in a library. But jesus, in a school library? There's nothing thoughtful or educational about it at all unless you're trying to push gender ideology and lack of hygiene onto kids.

I hate how people lump this book in with Catcher in the Rye and The Bluest Eye because those books had something you could take away from it and were well written. Gender Queer is nothing like the other "banned" books

 

[Amber the Hedgehog]

Good luck. I'm intrested to see what others think about this but god dam was this comic boring read to me. The cringe is fine but otherwise it's just a self centered girl thinking too much about herself and her problems while living boring life.

Honestly I didn't even finnish it because some point the self centered rambling just got better of me. As someone who has been is very similar artsy circles it just remainded too much about annoying people I have met in real life who I didn't want to think about.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

I can't believe this bitch wrote a memoir and included that she wore the same pad for an entire school day and got called in to the guidance counselor's office for smelling like BO.

Retards can't think ahead. It's similar to how James Rolfe shouldn't have revealed really embarrassing stuff about his youth that revealed his autism, but it's funnier and gross here simply because it's in the form of a comic and deals with bodily waste. (I never read this all the way through, she showed the dirty pad front amd center, yes?)

I'm glad someone's finally going through this in detail. My biggest thing about this outside of this being put in school libraries is that Maia reveals she's a fujoshi (anime fan, but mainly a fujoshi) and was a big Ranma ½ fan, and that warped her perception of sexuality because she's a retard. I'm sick and tired of these freaks using Ranma as their main flagship for their mental illness.

 

[Inatrous]

*thunderclap, horses screech*

Spoiler

You. You get it.

Imagine writing a comic less entertaining and more self-absorbed than Sonichu.

One of the arcs is a love quest, actually. I think that's where those naughty scenes are that got conservative media so riled up.

I can't believe this bitch wrote a memoir and included that she wore the same pad for an entire school day and got called in to the guidance counselor's office for smelling like BO.

Obviously, i don't care if this book is in a library. But jesus, in a school library? There's nothing thoughtful or educational about it at all unless you're trying to push gender ideology and lack of hygiene onto kids.

I hate how people lump this book in with Catcher in the Rye and The Bluest Eye because those books had something you could take away from it and were well written. Gender Queer is nothing like the other "banned" books

I'm against censorship, full stop, but the fact that there are adults out there who believe kids would benefit from reading this thing is absurd. There's a bit coming up where Maia flat out admits to a desire to cut pieces of herself off, and that's not even touching the fact that autoandrophilia is a fetish, full stop. Maia is lucky her comic is so boring and normie reading comprehension is so shit. It saved her from having to endure the public at large realizing how fucked up she really is.

Anyways, on with the show.

(Part 2)

• We start the comic with Maia at the age of three, with her, her sister, and her hippy parents moving into a house with no electricity and shit hydro. From the way she describes it, it sounds more like her early years were spent in a renovated barn than an actual house.

• Maia wastes no time revising her earliest childhood memories to justify her upcoming indoctrination into the gender cult.
• The fact that this is really a memory of her young, male neighbor, about her young male neighbor, rather than Maia herself is an early sign of this woman's personality.
• She turns a fairly normal event--big sisters using their little brother for dress up, and a little brother who goes along with it because he's THREE, into a portent, something meant exclusively for and about herself.
• Part of the fun of reading this comic is spotting all the little ways Maia's real self just keeps oozing through.

• She then goes on to detail how she and this male neighbor kid were totally allowed to pee on the lawn together. (ew)
• By four, she develops a big interest in snakes.
• Age 6: Maia's family get a new house, I hope with 21st century plumbing, but since Maia herself doesn't bother to say, we don't really know.
• After being kept out of preschool and kindergarten, Maia first starts school around first grade.
• This is where things get interesting, because it's also where we learn that Maia has issues with things most kids really don't. Turns out getting homeschooled in a barn for her early years prevented her from learning certain complex life skills, like watercolor, and knitting, and let's not forget, how to fucking read!
• In a real biography, that was written by someone who had the humility and bravery to write about the things that truly did trouble them, we would know why Maia has these issues. Because, you know, I'm genuinely kind of curious. Was it how she was raised? Does she have a developmental delay? Mental illness? Or something else?
• Unfortunately after this brief hint at a struggle actually worth reading about, Maia immediately swings back into a much more important matter: All the ways she is totally not like other girls.

• Maia play's sports! She was confused for a boy! And being viewed as a male, that made her feel soooo good you guys! That's not a sign of serious self image issues at all!
• If this incident is even real, that is. The closer I look at this so called biography, the more I'm inclined to doubt it's veracity. So much of this is editorialized or twisted, I wouldn't put it past Maia to distort her own memories or even just out right lie.
• Like that whole neighbor-boy cross-dressing episode. This supposedly happened when she was three, well before the age most people can remember anything at all. Their brains just aren't developed enough to lay down long, complex memories like that yet.
• Despite this, Maia explicitly states it was a memory, but are we really sure so sure? Can we really be certain she isn't building off things she just thinks she remembers, or perhaps was told?

• Back to the comic, Maia continues to really struggle in school, suffering from high anxiety and social ineptitude throughout her early years. Being forced to wear a shirt while playing in the water instead of being allowed to go topless "like a boy" supposedly causes her quite a bit of grief.
• Maia persistantly draws herself as flat chested, but considering she was eight, I wonder if she was starting to get a little bit of chest. Not enough to wear bras or anything, but enough that adults would start to worry and encourage her to cover up.
• Fair or not, Maia's inability to get the social memo, especially in regards to how she dresses and presents herself, is a recurring theme, and something that has lead a few people to theorize she might be a no-shit autistic.
• Truthfully, I'm not sure. A lot of her issues seem to be a match, but stuff like her learning difficulties make me wonder if she doesn't have something else going on instead, or on top of, being a good old fashioned sperg.

• Maia hits fifth grade and becomes upset that other girls know what shaving is.
• So upset, that she will never wear a bathing suit around her peers again. Wow.
• Do you think the other girls gave her a genuinely hard time, or did Maia spaz out and shut down over some light ribbing? You decide.
• Maia is 11 and still can't fucking read. Everything seems hopeless--but then:

• Our magical lord and savior JK Rowling appears! This wonderful woman, who would definitely never, ever betray the be-gendered cause, allowed our hopeless case to finally become a ~*~A Reader~*~
• This is yet another part where I suspect Maia is fudging the truth. No way, no stinking way, do you go from struggling to sound out words to being literate in the space of one night. It doesn't happen.
• Considering the implications that Maia spent a lot of time in remedial classes, the way her parents went out of their way to read to her, and the later admission that she still uses audio tapes in favor of books at times, my money is on the bet that what really happened here is Maia didn't magically become better at reading, so much as this was the first time she ever really enjoyed it enough to do it as something more than just a school assignment.
• Which don't get me wrong, is a huge accomplishment, I'm just confused as to why Maia has to make it seem like her literacy problems were solved in 24 hours or less. This woman will draw pictures of toddlers pissing in a field with zero shame, but is somehow too embarrassed to admit that she struggled hard to piece together meaning from the written word.

 

[MissyMissy]

Retards can't think ahead. It's similar to how James Rolfe shouldn't have revealed really embarrassing stuff about his youth that revealed his autism, but it's funnier and gross here simply because it's in the form of a comic and deals with bodily waste. (I never read this all the way through, she showed the dirty pad front amd center, yes?)

I'm glad someone's finally going through this in detail. My biggest thing about this outside of this being put in school libraries is that Maia reveals she's a fujoshi (anime fan, but mainly a fujoshi) and was a big Ranma ½ fan, and that warped her perception of sexuality because she's a retard. I'm sick and tired of these freaks using Ranma as their main flagship for their mental illness.

I read it out of curiosity back in the summer, and yeah she drew her dried up pad. Also her and her brother squatting down and pissing as kids. And of course, the infamous dildo sucking panel.

I think she's got Lena Dunham syndrome where she thinks that people will see nasty shit she did as a kid and go "oh you're so brave for sharing this! This challenges what I think about sexuality. Kudos!" And I guess in part that's true for the freaks pushing this book... but not to anyone with a brain and a sense of decency.

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Which don't get me wrong, is a huge accomplishment, I'm just confused as to why Maia has to make it seem like her literacy problems were solved in 24 hours or less. This woman will draw pictures of toddlers pissing in a field with zero shame, but is somehow too embarrassed to admit that she struggled hard to piece together meaning from the written word.

Her being an illiterate retard thanks to her hippie parents explains so much about how this "comic book" is written.

I say she's illiterate not because she struggled to read, but because she struggled with reading comprehension if someone's not there to read it out loud and explain it to her (and no way she ever asked questions throughout). She could've been a dyslexic, but her parents and teachers clearly never cared to get her looked at for that. You just know she took to manga as well as she did because it had pictures for her to follow (shocked she never had actual superhero comics with her being a tomboy and all, but did she ever read newspaper comics?). And based on her panel of all the manga she was surrounded by, she didn't read mature manga that actually challenged your mind, it was all escapist fiction for teenage girls. Paradise Kiss was probably the closest she ever got to mature storytelling, but you just know she only focused on the one tranny who wanted to dress in beautiful fashion instead of the complex, adult relationships.

This'll most likely come up in the next post by OP, but it's still a crucial thing to point out why exactly she's the way she is now and why she doesn't represent the average manga reader even for the time-period she read them. She was obsessed with fandom, and everything listed there has a huge Tumblr following (actually I don't know about Off Beat and Crescent Moon), and Tumblr turned her into a genderspecial because Tumblr warped those manga into something they're not.

 

[I'm Retarded?]

If this incident is even real, that is. The closer I look at this so called biography, the more I'm inclined to doubt it's veracity. So much of this is editorialized or twisted, I wouldn't put it past Maia to distort her own memories or even just out right lie.

all troons do this. one of the most central components of the Troon Conversion Event is the dawning realization that your entire life has led to this moment. this is the result of a long process of retcon in which events from your past are cherry-picked and editorialized to fit your new narrative of being in an incorrectly gendered body. because troondom is the ultimate catharsis that solves all of your internal contradictions, all memories of your past life have to be smoothed over to remove any prickly thoughts that might challenge your boutique identity and lead you down the dread path of introspection. this comic is obviously an attempt to lay out that heavily retconned narrative, ostensibly as a public service to others, but actually to use the audience to reinforce the author's retarded, incoherent self-image.

Our magical lord and savior JK Rowling appears!

READ A DIFFERENT BOOK

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

.

This'll most likely come up in the next post by OP, but it's still a crucial thing to point out why exactly she's the way she is now and why she doesn't represent the average manga reader even for the time-period she read them. She was obsessed with fandom, and everything listed there has a huge Tumblr following (actually I don't know about Off Beat and Crescent Moon), and Tumblr turned her into a genderspecial because Tumblr warped those manga into something they're not.

As you can see from the image, it's always amazing how pooners don't see themselves as the average burly men but rather androgynous characters from anime that half the time turn out to be an actual woman.

I wonder if there is a connection between them and femcels who worship kpop stars, with the pooners going the extra step and try to make themselves as the other half of the yaoi pairing.

 

[Inatrous]

I think she's got Lena Dunham syndrome where she thinks that people will see nasty shit she did as a kid and go "oh you're so brave for sharing this! This challenges what I think about sexuality. Kudos!" And I guess in part that's true for the freaks pushing this book... but not to anyone with a brain and a sense of decency.

What makes this even more absurd is how obvious it is that all this gross shit is both abnormal and symptomatic of a mind that is legit retarded/sick somehow. Maia is so socially inept, and so defensive when confronted with truths she doesn't want to hear, I think she's genuinely fails to grasp how ugly this makes her look.

The people publishing her on the other hand, either belong to the TLC school of exploiting freaks, or are just as deep in the cult as as she is. I struggle to see how this could have been disseminated to the public any other way.

I say she's illiterate not because she struggled to read, but because she struggled with reading comprehension if someone's not there to read it out loud and explain it to her (and no way she ever asked questions throughout).

That's a really good point. I'm not very familiar with a lot of what she reads, but did notice a lot of the stories I could recognize were very...basic in terms of character and plot. I would not be surprised at all to learn that even as her speed improved, Maia's actual comprehension continued to lag.

Just for fun, I managed to find a picture of the author's face IRL.


Source

Now, with that face in mind, we now move on to the bit everyone has been waiting for: Maia vs. puberty.

(part 3)

• We aren't given an exact date, but the author claims that it happened a little after JK Rowling taught her to read, so 11-12ish, between the years 2000-2001.
• Maia was evidently taught periods through children's fantasy novels, specifically Tamora Pierce's Alanna the Lioness series.
• For the record, this is one of the books in Maia's collection I've read, and while it's not a bad little fantasy series, it is absolutely not a female puberty guide. As I recall, Allana's monthlies are dealt with in the first book, and only in as much detail as absolutely required.
• The first Allana book, now that I think about it, is also yet another tick in a very early interest and exposure to crossdressing.
• Not a big deal for normal children who are probably more engaged with Allana's kingdom-saving, old-god dueling, adventure-having ways. But for Maia? I have a funny feeling that wasn't the appeal.
• Either way I really hope this is just another case of Maia fibbing a bit and she had at least a little bit of real puberty education before getting a visit from dear Aunt Flo.
• Because despite knowing it was something girls had to deal with, Maia flips the fuck out as soon as she starts to bleed. Admitting that she never really thought it would happen to her.
• She then proceeds to try and run away from her own period for THREE DAYS.
• No one likes their period, but her response to this is so over the top, it's almost laughable. I'm actually sitting here trying to think of the male equivalent to this. I guess freaking out every time you catch a glimpse of your own morning wood? I'm not a man, so that's not my wheelhouse.
• Point is, it's fucking weird.
• Eventually, she caves and calls her mom, which is what any normal girl would have done right from the start.
• Maia's parents try to ease the stress by turning her puberty into something to celebrate by giving her a little flower necklace.
• Maia shows her appreciation of their efforts by refusing to wear it and continue obsessing over how much she hates herself instead.
• Oh well, sorry hippy parents. Points for trying IG.

• Just like MissyMissy said a few posts up, Maia continues to avoid dealing with her period in the grossest possible way. She leaves her pads on until all the blood dries up and crumbles into "Coffee grounds".
• In addition to being vile, this is also a health risk. Maia is very lucky she managed to avoid infection.

• Maia admits that periods give her nightmares all the way into her 30s.
• The way she draws said nightmares offends me. She didn't even swap the white negative area behind the panels for black.
• That's like, "how to let the audience know it's a flash-back/dream sequence" 101.
• And the sheer blandness of it, even more than the cover, is such a stark example of how uncreative this woman really is. I mean come on, it's a dream, a nightmare. If you want to really hammer home how much periods upset you, this is where you should do it.
• Make the toilets huge, draw it so everyone is staring at you while you bleed. Give those feelings of insecurity and fear something a normal person can understand by making all those female bits you hate larger and larger until your very humanity is consumed.
• The loss of opportunity of it all, the sheer, fucking waste. The ability to turn the mundane or the ordinary into something new and frightening is one of the things horror is for. You had the chance to truly get the audience to see things the same way you do and you motherfucking blew it. You absolute pussy. You lazy, cowardly bitch.

• Things SJWs want children to read: Crazy woman who never get over their desire to self harm.
• The menstruation shit is so overtly gross that it makes this page, which comes immediately after, easy to skip over. Which is a shame, because it highlights that her issues were definitely not solved by abdicating womanhood and switching pronouns. She flat out admits she wishes she could get cancer just to have an excuse to yeet them teets, and continues to have it all the way into the present day.
• Later on she'll show herself bringing her younger sister with her to shop for bras, because she needs someone to dissuade her from picking something too tight.
• The bit about boys being unravaged by puberty strikes me as a "grass is greener on the other side" type of deal, although that could also be her autoandrophilia talking. Paraphiliacs are notorious for idealizing and objectifying those who fit the parameters of their particular "kink."
• The next several pages is some more moaning about leg hair and some woe-is-me over being stuck with an explicitly feminine name.

• Maia now begins with part one of her love quest. Considering this is all preschool/elementary, I really doubt she was actually afflicted by any real sexual attraction, but Maia herself seems to disagree.
• From an outside perspective, I find it interesting that she refers to childhood infatuations and adult relationships essentially the same way.
• Am I the only one who finds it weird that Galan, the kid she only seems to have known from 3-6, is repeatedly brought up, but all of Maia's friends from elementary on are hardly even named? She had friends then, and was at one point popular enough to get invited to a hot tub party, but except for those points where she has no other choice, pushes everything about them completely out of the way.
• I also feel pretty bad for the poor blond. All of about ten years old, and having to suffer uncomfortable questions by the local weirdo who definitely does not bathe.
• Maia continues to go through a phase of lusting after handsome girls and pretty boys, and seems pretty put out when she's told that this is a normal phase for girls her age instead of the confirmed sign of lesbianism like she seems to think.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Either way I really hope this is just another case of Maia fibbing a bit and she had at least a little bit of real puberty education before getting a visit from dear Aunt Flo.

Her parents apparently didn't even teach her how to fucking read right, no doubt they weren't actually teaching her about her body. Her mom probably subscribes to "free bleeding".

She flat out admits she wishes she could get cancer just to have an excuse to yeet them teets, and continues to have it all the way into the present day.

So she's just a psychotic cunt who never grew up. I would love to hear her tell that to breast cancer survivors.

That's actually fucked (if true) that her neighbor's sisters were pushing them into kissing like that because it was enjoyable for them. Yeah, they're kids, and kids will do stuff like that because "Well everyone else does it", but that's not usually accompanied by teenage girls cheering you on.

Is she ever going to explain why she crushed on some tomboy, outside of "Wow, she's just like me!" even though she clearly had no identity issues with being out-going? Did she never ask this girl questions about her gender identity and think to herself that it's okay that she was "not like other girls"? How much of this autobiography is bullshit fantasy? Find out next time on Gender Queer Z!

I don't even know if she actually is a lesbian, honestly, or even bi. She's just a nutcase warping her childhood into something sexual much like every other groomer/snowflake out there who talked themselves into being "gay". Maybe had her mother actually sat her down and talked about puberty to her as a kid before she got it, she wouldn't have come to hate her body like she does now. What kind of hippies are her parents, anyway, that they didn't give her some kind of education in her informative years? 'Cause I don't think it's all that common for hippie parents' children to grow up to become genderspecials.

 

[Kiwisee]

That pad story is just fucking vile; you'd think sitting in your dirty pad and smelling dirty vaginal fumes would actually reinforce dysphoria more than anything. Its straight up mental illness to sit in your own filth like that; normally shit you'd see victims of CSA do because they think it makes them less desirable to their abusers.

But no, she doesn't even have that excuse. Sounds like she had zero social skills or enough self awareness to take care of her fucking hygiene.

It brings me some comfort knowing that most kids would put the book away because of just how repulsive it is; or just gawk at the gross content within it as a means to see how long they can read without vomiting.

She sounds like an undiagnosed autistic with retarded hippie parents that never took her to a behavioural therapist or psychiatrist to look her over.

 

[Amber the Hedgehog]

That pad story is just fucking vile; you'd think sitting in your dirty pad and smelling dirty vaginal fumes would actually reinforce dysphoria more than anything. Its straight up mental illness to sit in your own filth like that; normally shit you'd see victims of CSA do because they think it makes them less desirable to their abusers.

But no, she doesn't even have that excuse. Sounds like she had zero social skills or enough self awareness to take care of her fucking hygiene.

It brings me some comfort knowing that most kids would put the book away because of just how repulsive it is; or just gawk at the gross content within it as a means to see how long they can read without vomiting.

She sounds like an undiagnosed autistic with retarded hippie parents that never took her to a behavioural therapist or psychiatrist to look her over.

She is actually showing signs of clinical retardion. I mean that she probably has a developmental disorder and low IQ. Learning to read that late is so far behaind her peers when she had access to education isn't anywhere near normal. Most kids learn to read by age 7 although they may still struggle with more complex tests. 11 isn't normal even for kids with dyslexia.

The fact that her art language is super simple and she has extremely limited understanding of social skills and hygiene just reaffirms this. I think she has at least something like autism going on and probably really isn't that smart.

 

[Inatrous]

Her parents apparently didn't even teach her how to fucking read right, no doubt they weren't actually teaching her about her body. Her mom probably subscribes to "free bleeding".

I'm a little reluctant to completely blame Maia on her parents. Yeah, they're hippies, and they definitely let a lot of stuff slide that they really shouldn't have, but Maia also comes across as a genuinely troubled child, the kind normal parents would be prone to messing up with and struggle to raise. It's worth noting that her sister seems to share none of her issues, and they seem to have gone out of their way to put Maia through a lot of remedial schooling, too, so they didn't completely drop the ball.

It helps to remember that this was the 1990s and early 2000s, a few years shy of widespread autism awareness campaigns had a massive impact on how kids like Maia would be treated. Maia herself is also self obsessed and untrustworthy. There's a chance her parents did more for her than we can see, and the selfish bitch just didn't bother to bring it up.

I think she has at least something like autism going on and probably really isn't that smart.

That's my feeling. Maia isn't gender anything, but she is very legitimately unwell. Yet another case of a real, serious disorder or mix of disorders getting pasted over in rainbows and left to fester beneath the shine.

I don't even know if she actually is a lesbian, honestly, or even bi. She's just a nutcase warping her childhood into something sexual much like every other groomer/snowflake out there who talked themselves into being "gay".

She is 110% not a lesbian. I've been slinging around the word autoandrophile, which is something Maia herself will flat out admit to being here in a bit, but the funny thing about it is autoandrophilia, like it's counterpart, autogynophilia, is a straight person's disease. It describes a state where someone's natural inclination for the opposite sex gets twisted in on itself, so you become sexually attracted to your own mirror image as a male/female instead.

(Part 4)

• When last we left off, Maia had discovered what romance was, and had started inflicting herself on random classmates accordingly.
• One of these crushes seems to be bad news, according to a friend who Maia has rather deliberately drawn offscreen. Once again, Maia tries to frame it as though what's going on is a 100% straightforward case of her cruel, mean friend trying to "sabotage" her love life, but the fact that she was too cowardly to even write what said person actually said gives away the game.
• This isn't even a strawman, it's an entire person shoved out of frame and belittled in a way that allows Maia's worldview to flee the very idea that there's something there she needs to face at all. You could have legitimately taken every word this person said, replaced it with a <<redacted>> label, and still given more respect to their argument than Maia has here. She is such a bad friend.
• Thinking on it a little further, Maia strikes me as the kind of person who will glom on the people who tell her the things she wants, while stressing out and shutting down whenever someone she's close to tries say things she doesn't like. Failing to understand, of course, it's often this latter group that are the most honest and genuine of any given social circle. I don't know who this based friend of hers is, but I hope they found someone better than Maia Kobabe to hang out with.
• Maia is then pulled from school and placed in a homeschooling program during eighth grade for reasons she will never explain.

• Back in school during her freshman year, Maia is introduced to a guy named David, who wants to found a gay club.
• Actually, it's a Gay-straight alliance, but that's too many words for what is, really, just a gay club.
• Maia makes the Gay club guy so ugly that I thought he was thirty on my first read through.
• He's actually seventeen, and Maia persistently gives UwU face in an effort to mitigate his looks, but it doesn't help. David still looks like a fat, beer-guzzling, hard worn thirty.

• Is it just me, or is Maia's art style getting worse as the book goes on?
• The last panel in particular sticks out in a way that looks suspiciously traced. That's not an angle I've ever seen Maia draw before, the hands are correctly drawn (as opposed to the hideous mittens to which I've grown accustomed), and the shoulders look like they have some actual attachment going on and aren't just glued to the chest like a doll.
• It also looks like a person jumping, rather than someone raising their arms in excitement, which is what I think she was going for.
• The flesh colored voids Maia uses as mouths are starting to really bother me. There is no doubt in my mind that this is getting colored digitally. But somehow, no one could bring themselves to spend the the two seconds it would take to add a bit of color and make the faces slightly less uncanny.
• Anyway, this Queer-straight alliance thing seems to be where Maia first really got into homoerotic fiction. She gets so into lesbian romance during this time, in fact, that one of her friends sends her a not asking her to please shut up.
• But that's okay, because that friend later ends up joining the cult Gay club too!
• By the end of the year, though, it's been transformed into a fujoshi club.
• Which that David guy frankly should have anticipated. That's what happens when you let crazy girls into your gay club, you poor fat fool.
• Should've stuck to real homos instead.
• I am reminded that this is taking place in the early 2000s because Maia drops a Lord of the Rings reference. So much of this comic is packed with current year ideology, it's easy to forget this was all a while ago. Tumblr hasn't even been invented yet, and won't be for the next couple of years.

• We now move onto the subject of Maia's BO.
• LOL dat neck. I've seen more natural mannequins than whatever pose panel one Maia has going on there.
• This is another event Maia doesn't give an exact time frame for, but I feel pretty safe in guessing that this is still her freshman year, so 14-ish.
• Another pathetic and revealing attempt to control the framing of how an event went down. Maia wasn't doing anything weird, honest! She was just a little sweaty from playing sports! THE WAY A BOY WOULD BE.
• And maybe it would have worked, too, had she not just gone into graphic detail about her favored methods of period management a few pages back.
• Dollars to donuts this chick smells like mold.
• Instead of taking the bath she probably needs, Maia opts solve her problems by slathering some deodorant on her pits and calling it a day.
• Maia's body is so accustomed to being dirty, that it rejects her attempts at hygiene and immediately begins to protest by forming a rash.
• In a repeat of her prior behavior, Maia allows this issue to fester instead of getting help. She gets to the point of suffering snowfalls of human skin dander before she once again caves and asks her mom for more help.

• LOL at that seething resentment. She's not mad, she's just upset about it.
• So upset about she never really lets it go.
• Ever.
• For years.
• Maia implies that asking the councilor would have been an option, if only she'd thought of it, but if the teacher had any sense, it wouldn't have mattered. High school isn't a time where kids are typically jumping at the bit to squeal on each other, and they know full well the social repercussions of doing so. Maia must have smelled well and truly awful to get reported like that, and had neither a reason nor a right to know who talked. I think the teacher would've understood that, and likely kept mum.
• Seriously, stop moaning and take a shower already, would you? It's fucking gross.