like a boy but not a boy
like aboybut nota boy
Navigating Life, MentalHealth, and Parenthoodoutside the Gender Binary
andrea bennett
LIKE A BOY BUT NOT A BOY
Copyright © 2020 by andrea bennett
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any part by any means—graphic, electronic, or mechanical—without the prior written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may use brief excerpts in a review, or in the case of photocopying in Canada, a licence from Access Copyright.
ARSENAL PULP PRESS
Suite 202 – 211 East Georgia St.
Vancouver, BC V6A 1Z6 Canada
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts Council for its publishing program, and the Government of Canada, and the Government of British Columbia (through the Book Publishing Tax Credit Program), for its publishing activities.
Arsenal Pulp Press acknowledges the xwməθkwə
“Like a Boy but Not a Boy” was included in the anthology Swelling with Pride, edited by Sara Graefe (Halfmoon Bay, BC: Caitlin Press, 2018); “Mom, Dad, Other” was published as “I’m a Non-Binary Parent. There Still Isn’t Space for Me,” Xtra, May 10, 2019; “On Class and Writing” was published as “The Year in Work,” Hazlitt, December 9, 2015; and “Tomboy” was published as “The In-Between Space,” Hazlitt, September 18, 2018.
Gwendolyn MacEwen’s “Certain Flowers” copyright © to the estate of Gwendolyn MacEwen. Permission to reprint lines from this poem provided by David MacKinnon, executor for the estate of Gwendolyn MacEwen.
Cover and text design by Jazmin Welch
Edited by Shirarose Wilensky
Proofread by Alison Strobel
Printed and bound in Canada
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication:
Title: Like a boy but not a boy : navigating life, mental health, and parenthood outside the gender binary / andrea bennett.
Names: Bennett, Andrea (Andrea Kathleen), author.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20200211609 | Canadiana (ebook) 20200211692 | ISBN 9781551528212 (softcover) | ISBN 9781551528229 (HTML)
Subjects: LCSH: Bennett, Andrea (Andrea Kathleen) | LCSH: Gender-nonconforming people. | LCSH: Gender identity. | LCSH: Gender nonconformity. | LCSH: Gender-nonconforming people—Mental health. | LCSH: Sexual minority parents. | LCSH: Parenthood. | LCGFT: Essays.
Classification: LCC HQ18.55 .B46 2020 | DDC 305.3—dc23
CONTENTS
8. THE BOTTOMLESS PIT OF SELF-LOATHING / A PEAK
9. WHAT I LEARNED TRUEING BIKE WHEELS
INTRODUCTION
LIKE A BOY