By Troxel and Viseppó

Writings by Bea Troxel @beatriceclaretroxel
Visuals by Yaníra Vissepó @yaniravissepo

Imagine yourself on a trail. You see a snake. No matter the coloring, shape, or size, the reaction is to jump back or freeze. That which is unknown often brings out fear. In our book, we look at Maia Kobabe’s graphic novel “Gender Queer: A Memoir” and how the reaction to unfamiliar gender expression is often one of fear. How might we lean into the unknown? How might we learn?

Snakes and Gender

by Bea Troxel

1. In Greek mythology, Tiresias sees a pair of snakes mating in the woods and throws a stick, breaking them up. He is turned into a woman—for injuring the female snake. And lives eight years as a woman in the world. He sees the snakes again and is transformed back into a man.

2. In Gender Queer, Maia sees two snakes as a child: [transparency of snake on page]

3. The metaphor is clear: in Maia’s world, one cannot hold both genders at once.

4. Snakes being used here is apt. Snakes represent the original sin; they invited Eve to eat the apple. The bible cursed them. They move in a way that is unsettling, unknown, frightening. We fear snakes.

The snake: gender, or what gender we can hold is to be feared.

5 I research snakes in Tennessee—everyone talks about the venomous Water Moccasin, the venomous Copperhead. But what I find is that people are twice as likely to die of a wasp sting, more likely to be struck by lightning than to die of a snake bite.

6 We treat snakes as constant dangers, when really they’re less dangerous than wasps. But their movement is unfamiliar.

Which is why Gender Queer frightens; it offers genders unknown.

7-8 It takes courage to examine the self, especially if we have to admit a new truth about ourselves that will not please others. When I came out to my mom, she cried, afraid of what her friends might think. She was afraid of me holding multiple selves that did not fit her version of me. But she has come around, what she thought were new movements, were always there and already known. Didn’t recognize.

9-10 Watch the snake and how it moves. Hope to see it until you do see one in the wild. But instead of running, pause. It slides, slithers through the woods, eats small rodents, and keeps the peace of the wilderness. Such a small creature with such a strong presence. See if you can begin to understand it. Not as a threat.