"Symptoms of Being Human" by Jeff Garvin

Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin

“Boy or Girl?  Yes”  LET’S TALK NON-BINARY

Summary:  Riley Cavanaugh is a gender-fluid teen.  To be gender-fluid refers to feeling like a boy some days and a girl on other days.  There is nothing wrong with being gender fluid; however, like Riley Cavanaugh’s character, many people who are gender fluid are misunderstood, mistreated, and even targeted for harassment. 

The novel opens up with a blog post from Riley.  Riley begins a blog at the request of Riley’s psychiatrist, Dr. Ann.  The blog is anonymous and is supposed to help Riley connect more with people in the LGBT community and help deal with the depression and stress and anxiety that Riley feels on a daily basis for being gender-fluid without having anyone to talk to.  The anonymity is also necessary because Riley’s father is a CA congressman who is up for re-election.  The re-election could be bad if Riley were to come out.

Riley has recently transferred from a private Catholic school to the public Park Hills high school after an attempt at suicide and having spent a month in a psych hospital.  The hope for Riley is that public schools, like Park Hills, will not be as judgmental as his former conservative high school.  To Riley’s disappointment, on the very first day of school, the students at Park Hills are just as cruel as smaller private schools.  Riley dresses in neutral clothing as to try to fit in and not make waves.  This decision of Riley’s backfires as students pick Riley out of the crowd of 4,000 other people to harass and call Riley names such as “tranny,” “fag,” and “dyke.”

Riley eventually makes a friend in Solo.  A 6ft and 300lb football player who was once bullied because of his obsession with all things syfy fandom and wearing a Chewbacca backpack one time.  At first, Solo is against making waves and advises Riley to conform to the social standards at the school if Riley wants to avoid further harassment.

Bec, another friend who mistakenly referred to Riley as a boy when they first met without understanding that Riley is gender fluid.   Both Riley and Bec, (whose name is a nickname given to her by her French classmates as a joke, [bec means beak in French and refers to Bec’s longer nose]) make an instant connection.  It is later revealed by Bec that she feels connected to Riley because Bec’s sister was transgender.  Bec introduces riley to the Q, a support group for LGBTQ members. 

Now, with the support of 50,000 followers of his blog and the support group at the Q, Riley starts comfortable around others.  While the blog was therapeutic at first, Riley now has connected to other people who understand more about what it means to be gender fluid.  Alongside Solo and Bec, another student at Park Hills – Andie – reached out to Riley because she wanted to kill herself.  Andie is a transgender person and had a bad reaction from her parents when she came out to them.  After reaching out to Riley, Andie has since rescinded her decision to kill herself and is proud of her decision to live her life as an out transgender person.

At the Q, the group leader, Mike/Michelle, recognizes that Riley is the anonymous blog poster and invites Riley to speak as part of a panel.

Riley’s life soon begins to fall apart after someone finds out that Riley is the anonymous blogger.  Not only is he being harassed at school, but now the harassment follows him home as well.  Whoever hacked his blog also posted online that the congressman’s kid is this gender-fluid person.  Because of the lack of knowledge and the misunderstanding that people have of being a gender-fluid person, people mislabel Riley as a “tanny” and being “transgendered.”  Until the media found out about Riley’s identity and the press questioned Riley’s father about it, Riley had never come out to either parents.

After that night when the press and media found out about Riley, Riley’s parents did not know how to react to Riley’s identity and Riley left in the dead of night.  Riley is found by Vickers – a high school footballer and all around a**hole.  In a drunken stupor coupled by previous encounters with Riley, Vickers and several of his teammates assault Riley in an attempt to find out Riley’s gender.  Unable to cope with being a victim, Riley avoids his family and has little contact while recovering in the hospital.  Riley also avoids giving a statement of the event.   

Through a series of talks with Solo, Bec, and eventually Riley’s parents, Riley finds the strength to face the binary-demons that society demands teens like Riley to conform to.  Riley finds a true friend in Solo, a new love-connection with Bec, a new (if not sometimes set in their binary ways) system of support through Riley’s parents, and the courage to speak out about what it means to be a gender-fluid teen and surviving and assault.

Rational:  I chose this text because there is little voice for LGBT teens in the classroom.  Symptoms of Being Human can be used to help students understand the LGBT community from the point of view of a teenager.  Today, there are many issues with being LGBT in America.  While most students have an understanding what gay, lesbian, and bisexual are, there are fewer teens who understand what it means to be a transgender person or gender fluid – as is the case with Riley Cavanaugh.  Jeff Garvin’s novel on the Lexile scale sits at 760.  On the Lexile scale, this novel would be appropriate between the ages 14-17 and is good for reluctant readers who are discussing age-appropriate topics and sensitive issues.  Symptoms of Being Human is an appropriate book for students because it deals with the sensitive issues revolving around LGBT students that some schools tip-toe around. 

Teaching Ideas:  Riley’s gender – the gender that Riley was born with – is never identified anywhere throughout the novel and the author does his best to use non-binary or gender neutral pronouns in regards to Riley’s character.  High school students are commonly exposed to a world of binaries.  In terms of gender identity, there is a level of masculinity and femininity that students understand to be the set standard at home and at school.  However, students are equally exposed to a world that blurs the lines which define what is masculine and what is feminine; whether it be through social media or through pop culture.  A way to teach this novel effectively would be to have students critically analyze this novel through critical literary theory with feminism as the methodology.  Students would discuss what they know defines a masculine and feminine quality and identify the ways that a person or a character could portray both qualities through the lens of critical literary theory.

Obstacles:  Symptoms of Being Human presents many obstacles when considering to teach it in a class.  The first and probably the most challenging would be getting it approved for teaching through the school board.  The material discussed in this novel is very heavy and in some schools boarders on taboo because it deals with how a teen identifies their gender.  Many conservative schools today are not as inclusive as other more schools that allow students to express the gender that they identify with.  It is my hope that introducing this sort of material to a class will leave students – and faculty – enlightened about the LGBTQ community, what it is to identify as a gender fluid person, and the long term physical and psychological effects bullying has on others.