Detransition, Baby

In Chapter One, Peters writes about “the Sex and the City Problem,” a theory that Reese has that attempts to explain how women relate to societal structures of femininity. How does the Sex and the City Problem impact the characters in Detransition, Baby? In what ways do they strive to reinvent womanhood for themselves?

In what ways does the novel present cis gender as involving the same kind of performative actions as trans gender?

Though Reese, Ames, and Katrina each have traumatic events occur in their lives, they respond to these traumatic events in markedly different ways. Compare and contrast how trauma manifests in their lives, and how it shapes their characters.

In Chapter Three, Ames describes to Katrina how he imagines that trans women are akin to juvenile elephants. In what ways does the novel suggest that are trans women similar to juvenile elephants? How does this relate to the novel’s larger explorations of motherhood and kinship?

Does the novel present a hopeful or a pessimistic view of alternative family structures? Provide examples and explain why they have this effect.

Heteronormativity is a concept that refers to the myriad ways that society treats heterosexual relationships as normal while reacting to queer relationships and identities as though they are strange, deviant, or unnatural. How does heteronormativity appear throughout Detransition, Baby? What impact does it have on the lives of the characters?

In what ways does masculinity serve as a defense mechanism for Ames? How does this influence his decision to detransition?

What possibilities do non-biological and non-nuclear family relationships offer the characters in Detransition, Baby? What difficulties arise in these forms of family?