“Unveiling the Hidden Truths: How Nicole Graev Lipson’s Memoir Transforms Fictional Characters into Real-Life Revelations”
The surprising reaction of one of her male students, whose inability to complete a homework assignment to write as a member of the opposite sex reveals his own struggles with gender identity, allows Lipson to segue into writing about her oldest daughter’s early identification as nonbinary. The essay moves seamlessly in and out of considerations of Shakespeare’s heroine, revisiting popular culture stories of girls masquerading as men (think Disney’s Mulan), and recollections of her own questioning as her daughter often eschews all things traditionally feminine. Lipson thoughtfully and respectfully considers the changing nature of gender, offering no pat conclusions. Instead, she muses, “Maybe, in this way, my story isn’t a new story, though its details are particular to our era. Maybe it’s the story shared by parents everywhere, for time immemorial, who’ve had to accept, as their children grow, that they are not them.”
