a big mistake

“Writer, musician, and bicycle advocate/planner with a tendancy towards big mistakes” (please note, the misspelling of tendency is not mine) reads the website of Darwin S. Ward (http://www.darwinward.com) the author of “Becoming Alec,” a newly self-published book through lulu.com. Without a doubt, “Becoming Alec” was one of those big mistakes.

This is by far one of the most poorly written, and misogynistic books I have read in quite some time. “Becoming Alec” is the story of a young transsexual man named Alec as he struggles to find his way through the intersections of life, love, career, family, and community. I had really high hopes for the book, but those hopes were swiftly dashed as in every chapter I was confronted with clunky backstory and dry poorly constructed dialogue.

Perhaps what alarmed me more than anything was the blatant misogyny, which ran rampant within the text. The transmen in Ward’s novel seem destined to prove their manhood and “normalness” (a frequently mentioned goal) through degrading women. Characters repeatedly referred to female characters as “chicks” and even took issue with women’s desire for sexual pleasure. As such, far from break new ground, this novel played directly into oppressive and patriarchal stereotypes of who men are and how they should behave. While I would like to expect that all men biological or otherwise in our supposedly enlightened society to refrain from blatant degradation of women, it’s particularly unexpected and unacceptable from those men who previously experienced sexism firsthand.