I recently heard the news that Adam by Ariel Schrag will be getting a movie. I read the book myself about a year and a half ago and I cannot stress enough just how problematic it is.
Adam is a book about a cis boy pretending to be a trans man in order to trick a lesbian into dating him.
Adam goes to New York to stay with his lesbian sister for the summer, and while he’s there he meets trans men who consider themselves lesbians. At a party he meets a lesbian he thinks is pretty and in order to get into a relationship with her he lies and tells her he’s a pre transition trans man. Let’s make a list of some of the highlights from the book, shall we?
At the very beginning of the book his sister and her girlfriend visit home and Adam and his friend spies on them having sex.
Almost all the trans men in the book identify as lesbians, implying that they are still women because they haven’t transitioned yet.
Adam, a cis straight boy, tells a lesbian that he is a trans man to trick her into dating him.
Incidentally Adam is 17 I believe, pretending to be 21. His girlfriend is in the 23 range, I don’t recall exactly.
There are explicit sex scenes, the first of which involved Adam using an ace bandage to hold his erection down and using a strapon to have sex with her.
In the second one he claims to be using a strapon but is, in reality, using his actual penis.
Which is fucking rape.
The book doesn’t try to justify this, it somehow manages to do something worse.
This second scene is one of the last in the book. After he pulls out he lays down next to her and confesses that he’s not trans. She responds “I know.”
She says after they first had sex she started fantasizing about him as a “real guy” (yes quote) and that the image stuck in her mind and she started subconsciously imagining him with a penis.
And it gets worse.
So he goes back to ohio and she sleeps with other girls (because for some reason she decides not to break up with this cis 17 year old who lied about his identity literally raped her) and one night he gets drunk and calls her a bitch and a fucking whore and whatever, and THAT’S apparently the point she thinks that maybe they should break up.
And one day they message eachother to catch up i think maybe he graduated at this point idk but hes planning on visiting his sister in new york and they wanna meet up and
She tells him about her new boyfriend.
Get ready for it
Cis. Man.
So. We have
An underage cishet boy lying about being an adult trans man in order to trick a lesbian into dating him!
A scene in which he actually rapes her!
The lesbian in question becomes attracted to cis men making Adam, essentially, conversion therapy!
Do NOT support Adam (2018)
I honestly don’t have the stomach to look into this because it’s already making me physically upset, but I would warn against rushing to use this against Alison Bechdel or thinking that she supports this because the quote used is extremely vague. Keep in mind that many books, movies, and video games will often use out of context quotes, and in the case of books they may even quote reviews of the author’s other, entirely separate works.
Isn’t this exactly what gender worshippers want? The lesbian in this book dates trans men already, right? So why is it any different if it’s a “cis” man? Why are you defining people based on genitals 😕😕😕
The last two points especially don’t make any sense in the context of “sexuality is based on gender.” Why is it relevant to say that her new boyfriend is “cis” when she was already dating people who identified as men anyway? According to basing sexuality on gender, she already wasn’t a lesbian, so why is it conversion therapy?
This story line is literally a male pretending to be female to get with a lesbian. Why does the identity change it from being progressive and trans affirming to rapey and transphobic? Why is this conversion therapy but telling lesbians they’re disgusting bigots who deserve to die because they don’t want trans women isn’t?
There have always been and always will be females who identify as trans men and still recognize themselves as lesbians. It works just fine if you acknowledge biological sex and realize that sexual orientation is based on it. The only reason this book is at all offensive is because sexual orientation is based on biological sex. If it’s based on gender, there’s nothing wrong here. Especially because so many of y’all say it’s transphobic to expect trans people to tell their potential partners that they are trans.
A trans woman leading a lesbian to believe that they are a “cis” woman is perfectly fine, but this man telling a lesbian he’s a trans man isn’t? A trans woman tucking their penis and using a strap on to trick a lesbian into believing they’re female is ok, but this man doing the exact same thing isn’t? A trans woman secretly switching over to actual penis is fine, but this man doing the exact same thing isn’t?
If you’re offended by this book, please remember it the next time you wanna scream TERF at a lesbian for not wanting to fuck/date a male who identifies as a trans woman, or for being concerned about trans women not revealing the fact that they are trans and pretending to be biologically female.
Choke.
Why not instead of sending pointless threats you answer the questions I presented? I’m actually curious about the mental gymnastics required to be offended about this book but also perfectly accepting of trans women who do the same thing as this man.
Big Mean Sweaty Dyke 