I just wanna do a chill discussion post today. I don’t have anything critical or insightful to say, no big message, I just want to ramble a bit and chat about nonbinary characters in books. It seems like there are more and more books coming out with nonbinary main characters, in a way that feels casual and genuine, and that makes me happy. (At least, in the sci-fi/fantasy genres. I guess I can’t speak much for other genres since they’re not my focus.) So let’s talk about it!

I’ve read quite a few books about nonbinary characters, so I’ve seen all different types of rep. Books where the character explicitly uses a label, books where they don’t, books where they explain the definition, books where they describe (either in narration or to another person) what gender is like for them specifically, books where gender is something that plays a big role, books where characters simply use they/them or neopronouns and gender is never mentioned beyond that. And I appreciate all of it. I don’t think any of that is inherently bad rep.

I’m nonbinary myself, and there have been some characters whose experience or feelings about gender were super similar to mine, which is always nice to find. To know that there are other people out there who share your feelings. Not necessarily the author, I don’t assume any author’s gender based on their books, but if the author could imagine those feelings or if they based their character on real people’s experiences, it still means there are people who get it. There have also been characters I didn’t relate to, and that’s fine too. Nonbinary people aren’t a monolith. In fact, one of my favorite things about books with nonbinary characters is seeing how different and unique people’s feelings about gender can be.

I’ve even read some books about characters who can shapeshift to appear more typically cis man or cis woman or androgynous, since I read sci-fi/fantasy. And I’m not mad about that rep either. I’m jealous 😅 but not mad. It’s a neat idea to explore.

Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever been mad about any nonbinary portrayal I’ve come across in books. Maybe I’ve just been lucky to only find ones that seemed to be genuine. That’s not to say there are no books with bad rep out there. It’s also not to say every book with nonbinary characters that I’ve read has been entirely without issue. But I think the issues I have come across were not malicious, just a product of the time the books were written, when this wasn’t being talked about as much and info wasn’t so easy to find. I’m pretty sure my first encounter with the concept of genders outside the binary was seeing some photos of a genderfluid person on Pinterest around 2010 or so. I don’t think I’d seen/heard the term “nonbinary” until years after that. So the fact that some authors were trying to include or explore that in their books in a positive way, even when it wasn’t being talked about much, is great, and I can look past some things.

Of course there can also be nonbinary characters in movies, games, and other forms of media. I’m just focusing on books here because that’s what my blog is mostly about, and it’s where I’ve seen this rep the most, and it’s a format that usually lets you in on the character’s thoughts in a way other media often doesn’t.

Anyway, I know I sometimes say I’ll do a recommendation post about a topic and then forget, but I really do want to do one for this, I have a lot of books to recommend, so I won’t include that in this post. I’ll just wrap this up by saying I’m really glad there are some great books about nonbinary characters out there and even more still being written!