Frankkissstein is the Worst Book I've Ever Read

This book sucks. It doesn't make any sense. It was written by a boomer TERF named Jeanette Winterson.

TW: R*pe

Trans Representation

There is a sliding scale of representation when we look at characters in media. By that, I mean, how much is a character meant to be an individual and how much are they meant to represent a group of people varies depending on the content and context of the book. Is your book written by a black person containing all black characters? Chances are that each of those characters is an individual character and not representative of all black people. Does your book contain a single conservative character who only talks about their conservative views and has no other discernible features? That's probably meant to be a representation of all conservatives. Of course, no character is always on one end of the spectrum or the other, they're always balancing between the two extremes.

This guy was an example of a character meant to be a representation

In Frankkissstein, there are a lot of...peculiar things happening with characters and representation. For one, there's only black character, (which I know because Winterson points out her skin color and only her skin color) there's a Welsh character who seems to be the grossest person on the planet, and besides the two main characters, who are British, every other person seems to be American for some reason. But the one I want to talk about is the transmasc character, Ry.

Ry's characterization is weak, to say the least. There isn't anything that the reader actually learns about Ry and their past, their goals, what they like or dislike. Ry is just...floating through this novel which seems directionless enough as it is. But mainly, the other thing that we know about Ry is that he is transgender.

Now, like I said, there's a sliding scale of representation. There's a possibility that in reality, there exists, somewhere a transman who thinks and looks like Ry. The problem though is that he's the only trans character in a book written by a non-trans writer, where their key attribute is just being trans. In this situation, even if the author didn't intend for this character to be a stand-in for all trans people, it's going to be viewed that way. (And, just to be clear, I believe she wrote this character as a stand-in for all trans people.)

That said, the way that Ry is characterized has some, let's say, issues. First of all, Ry is short for the name given to him by his parents, which was Mary. This makes zero sense to me, as I think most trans people just choose a new name, and I think they choose more common names as opposed unheard of nicknames for their deadname. He describes himself as being a "hybrid" who "lives with doubleness". In one particularly egregious line, Ry declares of himself, "I am fully female. I am also partly male." This stands in sharp contrast to most real-life trans people (at least those I've heard from) who say, unequivocally, they are their preferred gender. "Transwomen are women" and "Transmen are men" are refrains that we've heard before, and are true. "Transmen are hybrids" is something that I would expect the lowest, most vile transphobe to utter.

Ry's appearance raises some eyebrows. He has top surgery, but not bottom surgery, which is fine. A lot of trans people make that decision. The book doesn't have much to stay about his appearance except to say that he has a slender and short (read: feminine) build with a ponytail. This by itself is also fine, but I think that most transmen and transwomen do not have the luxury that we all do of being able to play a little bit looser with gender stereotypes. Again, I'm not trans, so I can't speak fully to this, but I imagine it must be quite a struggle to have to affirm your gender day in and day out, in a thousand different, nuanced ways. They're probably not going to be focused on looking like a dainty little twink with a ponytail, but instead try to be as masculine-presentating as possible.

Google image search for "transman"

I don't want to gloss over this fact either. The word nonbinary exists and it exists for a reason. If Winterson wanted to create a character who identified as nonbinary and blurred the lines between genders and referred to themselves as having "doubleness" or whatever her boomer mind was thinking, that was a possibility for her. But no, instead, she chose to create a trans character who self-identifies as trans in her novel, but writes him as though he were closer to a flat-chested crossdresser.

Pat Manuel, a transman

And if you think I'm making a big deal over nothing (as I usually do) then imagine what this situation would be like if this character were a transwomen, described as having a chunky, bodybuilder frame, with beard stubble and short hair, who identified as "fully male, partly female," calling themselves Ryanita or some shit like that. Would that feel like positive trans respresentation to you?

Male Sexuality

As with most detestable media, this book is hateful. Two of the three targets of its spite are transmen and transwomen, and the third is men.

Now, ok, wait. I can hear you clicking off because you're assuming that I'm some sort of Men's Rights Activist or something or this is an article about the redpill or whatever, and I assure you, I'm not. I am, overall, highly critical of toxic masculinity and patriarchy, especially in terms of male sexuality as it relates to women. I've probably even joked before that I hate men. But believe me when I say, this book hates. men.

The book opens with a conference about AI...or something? It's not totally clear because the reason for the conference is that the foundation of Memphis, Tenneesee, and the publication of Frankenstein were only a year apart, and that...means something? And also, AI is about creating artificial life right, and I'm pretty sure the novel is explicitly against that notion. I can't get bogged down with details like this because there's a million small things in the novel that don't make any sense, and I don't have the patience to list them. (It's like listening to Ben Shapiro. So many things don't make sense, but you only have enough time to focus on the transphobia.) 

Ry is there to interview the owner of a sex robot company. (Why? Ry isn't a journalist and he has nothing to do with the sex industry or robots.) The sexbot guy is called Ron Lord and he is the gross Welsh guy I mentioned earlier. Physically, Winterson would like you to know that she finds his fat body to be disgusting, and she wants you to know that he pisses himself. (The fact that she continually brings up his Welshness also makes me think she's prejudiced against Welsh people as well.) Ron is openly transphobic and misognistic in such an over-the-top way that is meant to satirize people in the sex industry, I guess?

It is not just that this guy is gross or misognistic, it is that he is successfully gross and misognistic. His products are described as the tall, busty, blonde, 1980s pornstar look, with speech patterns that are somehow even less realistic than actual porn. This is a real quote from the sexbot: "BOOBS. NIPPLES. COCK." I shouldn't have to say this, but this is na overly simplistic view of straight male sexuality, not to mention myopic. A simple Google search, Winterson, and you would have found a wide variety body shapes, sizes, styles, and personalities that men are attracted to. (It may even shock you to discover that porn featuring transwomen is becoming more popular.) And more importantly, straight men are actually attracted to things that are a bit more sublte than "FUCK ME, DADDY." It's true.

But in Winterson's mind, straight male sexuality is crass, simple, and base. The sexbot industry is really popular, apparently, making tons of money, and when the sexbot appears at the convention, all of the men in the audience are completely enamored by it. "Some of the boys are really enjoying this. I can tell by the rise in their jeans," Ry says. (I genuinely, genuinely hope that she's using the word "boys" here as a pejorative and not meaning "teenager".) The message is clear: Men want to fuck vaginas, and they do not care about the circumstances.

The Shower Sex Scene

Ok, so now that the pieces are in place, let's start talking about how this book hates trans people. I'm going to describe a scene in the book, and like I said before, I can't stop to go over every bit of nonsense that Winterson writes because if I do I'll be here all day. If the explanation sounds illogical, that's her fault. Not mine.

Ry meets the other central character, Victor Stein (GET IT? DO YOU GET IT?) at a conference or something. (Again, totally unclear what this situation because Ry has nothing to do with AI or robots or whatever.) They start talking and Victor convinces him to go for a drive in the desert. They stop at a restaurant, and then decide they don't want to eat yet. The waitress says that it's about to rain, so they decide to go for a walk. They get surprised when it starts raining, so they hide under a rock, and lightning strikes nearby, so they hug a little bit.

They're wet from the rain so they walk back to the restaurant. (In the middle of the lightning storm in the desert.) When they get to the restaurant, the waitress offers to let them use the shower at the restaurant. (???) They have sex in someone's bedroom in the restaurant.

Ok, I know I said I wasn't going to stop, but I have to pause here. I think the most shameless Korean drama screenwriter wouldn't even put this scene on paper. Like, "Oh it's about to rain, let's go for a walk. Oh no, it's raining please hug me. Wow, time to hop in the shower." This is sub-Twilight level of contrived romance storylines here.

Oppa~

Ok, so terrible, illogical plotting aside, this is also where her hatred of male sexuality and transpeople starts coming into full force. From the events that I just gave you, you may have assumed that Victor was trying to seduce Ry. I'm a straight man, and if I met another man at work, I wouldn't be thinking about taking him on a long drive, hugging him in the rain, and taking a shower with him on the first day that I met him or ever.

All arrows point to Victor being gay. However, he doesn't seem to, like, make a move on Ry until he sees him naked and sees his vagina. Ry is taking a shower by himself when...

I didn't notice Victor had come in until I stepped out of the shower. He handed me a towel. Then he saw me. He saw the scars under my pecs. I watched his eyes work down my body. No penis. [...] "I thought you were a man," he said. "I am. Anatomically I am also a woman." [...] "I'm not gay," [Victor] said.

Then they start having sex. 

So, let's break this scene down, shall we? From Victor's perspective, in a charitiable reading, he viewed Ry completely platonically. That's why he can stand outside of the shower when he's in there, wearing a towel, waiting for him to emerge, and feels comfortable waiting to see him naked. (In an uncharitable reading, he wants to fuck this guy so he's waiting for him outside the shower. Creepy.) In the platonic reading, he suddenly becomes attracted to Ry when he realizes that Ry has a vagina.

I think there's a lot of different ways that this could have happened. At first, I really thought Victor was gay, making the moves on Ry, and then got surprised by the whole vagina thing. It could have been a sweet moment where Victor says, "Ya know, I was really hoping for a weiner, but I like you so much that I'm willing to make this work." It's a situation that I think must be common for a lot of trans/cis couples. "Your genitals don't matter to me. Only you do."

However, in Winterson's novels, only the genitals matter. Ry is not seen of as a sexual object until his vagina is exposed, and then he is only a sexual object from there on out. I cannot stress this enough, Victor wasn't planning on doing anything until he saw a vagina. The message that Winterson wants to get across is repeated: Men want to fuck vaginas, and they do not care about the circumstances.

The Rape Scene

At some point when I was reading this, I started wondering, "Is this a joke?" And then later on, I thought, "Ok, yeah, she's being hyperbolic to make some kind of point, but she's a bad writer so I don't get what that point is." But then after the rape scene, I realized that, oh no, Winterson is deadly serious about this.

So, there's a rape. It happens out of nowhere, it has no consequences to the story, it never gets resolved or dealt with in any way, and it is handled with the exact amount of subtley and putridity that you would expect from Winterson.

Again, if the recapping of these events seems strange, that is because it is strange in the source material. I'm doing my best here.

Ry is out at a bar (conincidentally the same place where he had sex with Victor the first time, but again, we can't stop for every nonsensical thing that happens in this novel.) He goes into the men's room. There's a guy at the urinal, and Ry goes into the stall to pee. The man at the urinal gets offended (???) that Ry went into the stall because Ry assumed that he was "a faggot".

There was a guy at the urinal, older, heavy, unsteady on his feet. I glanced at him and went into a cubicle. I heard him finishing up. He heard me peeing. He kicked the door and shouted, "YOU THINK I'M A FAGGOT?"

Can't make this stuff up, folks.

I ignored him. A second later he had crashed out of the restroom, the door swinging back and forth. I zipped up, came out, and was washing my hands when he crashed back in. "WHAT'S SO PRECIOUS ABOUT YOUR FUCKIN' COCK THAT YOU KEEP IT TO YOURSELF?"

This is a published author, writing dialogue.

So, that's it, that's the impetus for the rape. I didn't edit any of this.  Ry went into the stall, and the guy wants to see his cock, because he's not gay, and then grabs at Ry's genitals, and then when he finds out that Ry has a vagina, rapes him.

Did that make any sense to you? If it did, you might be a TERF.

The back cover of the book mentions that this story is meant to be a modern retelling of Frankenstein. It has nothing to do with that. This rape scene, apropo of nothing, is the real reason Winterson wrote this novel. This is what she wanted to get off her vile, hateful chest: Men want to fuck vaginas, and they do not care about the circumstances. 

Let's summarize the message in this novel:

-Trans people are hybrids. They are fully and anatomically their birth gender, but only partly their chosen gender.

-Men want to fuck vaginas, no matter what.

-Rape happens in public restrooms by men for no reason.

THEREFORE

Transwomen are men, who will rape women if we allow them in women's restrooms.

Words rarely fail me. I don't think I can come with a sentence that expresses my disgust at having read something like this. It's one thing when transphobes are open about their hatred. I can handle that. It's another thing when it sneaks in through fiction like this, where it can infect people's minds. This is vile, vile stuff, and I hate that it exists and people are hailing it as being progressive. Go fuck yourself, Winterson.

Don't Even Try

After all that, there's still more. I wanted to give this it's own section, because I think it's just as terrible as Winterson's hatred of transwomen.

After the rape:

I was aching and sore. [...] This isn't the first time. It won't be the last. And I don't report it because I can't stand the leers and the jeers and the fears of the police. And I can't stand the assumption that somehow I am the one at fault. And if I am not at fault, then why didn't I put up a fight? [...] Is this the price I have to pay...? For... for what? To be who I am?

Here's how I read this passage: If you are a transman, you will be raped. Repeatedly. And there will be nobody to help you and everyone will be against you. You will forget why you ever wanted to be a man in the first place. So don't try. Don't bother. Don't transition.

Jeanette Winterson is a disgusting human being.

Thanks for reading. Sorry for ruining your day.