Valentijn Hoogenkamp, ​​author: “Gender is an option in childhood until you get to school and decide to be as normal as possible” | Culture | EUROtoday

In February of this yr, the Non -Binary Dutch author Valentijn Hoogenkamp (Zaandam, 39 years previous) ascended to the highest of the Kedarkantha mountain, in India. He was the one European in a gaggle of 29 folks, some from the south of the nation and who noticed snow there for the primary time. It was a therapeutic journey after a turbulent interval of his life. A tragic occasion, the demise of his mom in 2018 on account of most cancers related to the BRCA1 gene, which has inherited, led him to ask for a bilateral mastectomy in 2021 to scale back the chance of affected by it. The surgeon who was going to function him decided to persuade him that with out breast implants his physique could be “aesthetically undesirable.” That conflict made his childhood emerge, “when gender is an option,” he says. “Until you get to school and, to have friends, you decide to be as normal as possible.”

The confusion generated by his change amongst his associates, household and ex -partner grew to become Antiboyan essay printed within the Netherlands in 2022. Now translated into Spanish by the Bunker Books publishing home, this week has been offered in Barcelona and Madrid, and the creator is worked up.

In the course of a video name made shortly earlier than beginning that journey, Hoogenkamp explains that he’s studying Spanish to soak up the interpretation of Antiboy, who all of the sudden confronted his private scenario. The ebook, written with poetic breath, matches the denomination of coming of gender (Arrival to the style), and displays the insecurity concerning the change and disgrace that this generates. In the Spanish model, he had to select from the primary second between the male and the feminine. He opted for the masculine. “In the original in Dutch I did not have to choose because grammar is different, and that better reflects my confusion. I learn the complexities of the genre as the narration progresses,” he says. “In Spanish there are few words to define that I do not feel that I have a genre,” he says, with a duplicate of the Spanish version in his hand. He spoke along with his translator, Catalina Ginard Féron, and advised him that “if we used neutral pronouns such as Elle or Elles, there would be no emphasis on shame and confusion of Antiboyand that would change the tone of the text. “I think it was a good choice,” because my pronoun as Valentijn is also he [hij/hem] in Dutch. ”

The author explains that he grew up in a household with a sure funding of conventional roles, since his mom was in bike and climbing mountains and his father wished youngsters and beloved to deal with his sister and. Both dad and mom labored full time and there have been three different girls who raised them. “You can say that there were many mothers: the three children and my father, and my mother, who was climbing mountains.” The mother or father has supported him from the start in his gender transition. With nice delicacy, Valentijn remembers that, in childhood, “your exterior appearance has nothing to do with how you feel inside.” Upon arriving in school, nonetheless, it was offered for years “with the most feminine image possible” to suit.

The understanding got here with the mastectomy, which voluntarily underwent. When the physician advised him that they might rebuild his chest with some prostheses, he resurfaced all his upbringing. “It seemed to me that an implant would be like a woman’s costume, and I didn’t want it permanently,” he remembers. He was afraid as a result of he didn’t match within the imaginative and prescient of the physician: “When I told him that I wanted to stay flat, he replied that it was aesthetically undesirable.” It was very onerous, as a result of he snapped that he was overcitled if he didn’t rebuild the breast, and left his case within the palms of one other colleague. “I would like to go to a doctor and not have to justify that I do not feel a woman and that I do not want implants, and that they respect him,” he says. To then underline: “If someone does not know how to explain well in gender issues, society should be kind and show curiosity, instead of fear.”

All this Vartebra tour Antiboy, which displays the complexity of approaching even very expensive beings once they really feel threatened by a change like that of the creator. “Welcome to the part of the book that collects the reaction of my ex -partner,” he says with half a smile. They spent seven years collectively and it’s a properly -known author within the Netherlands. The work known as Pier and firmly regrets the lack of her accomplice as a girl. “He tried to simplify the situation, and when I returned from the medical consultation, confused by a surgeon who acted as if it were a father declaring what is good for you, the fear itself to cancer and gender confusion, my partner told me it was a lesbian.”

Hoogenkamp stored asking questions, after which spoke with an examination who’s at present a trans man. In the work his title is Slimane, and he requested Valentijn if he thought it was not binary. It was a discovery. “I returned home to tell the one who was still my boyfriend who was not a lesbian. It was not binary,” he remembers. “I love lesbians, but my complex situation had nothing to do with my sexual orientation but with my genre.” It couldn’t be, as a result of the complexity of the scenario exceeded his ex -partner, who burdened that he solely favored the ladies and that they needed to break. “After the operation, he told me that the person I was before had died. I was cold and silently thinking that I had just amputated my chest to avoid death,” he says. He breathes deeply, he throws reddish hair again and provides: “I was sore by the operation and it was a mentally delicate moment, and he told me that I was dead. And I knew I couldn’t convince him that he was alive,” he acknowledges.

I like lesbians, however my advanced scenario had nothing to do with my sexual orientation however with my style ”

His Dutch editor, Suzanne Holtzer, supported him earlier than and after the intervention. “With my father and my ex -boyfriend I couldn’t present concern as a result of they might use him to inform me to not function. With Suzanne, quite the opposite, I might be myself. And he additionally supplied me the opportunity of carrying a diary: Antiboy“, Recalls. Holtzer feared to have pressed.” But this challenge took me away from bed after the operation, “he says. The tear of the lived gives way to a bright present. As if a window was opened, he says he feels very good after a slow healing” for all this private tumult “, and that in the Himalayas he felt” that he was again. “

Valentijn Hoogenkamp studied psychology at the University of Amsterdam and writing at Utrecht University. During that stage he wrote plays and poetry, and in 2021 he published his first novel, entitled Woring Louis Claus (Worshiping Louis Claus), without Spanish translation for now. He has received literary awards in the Netherlands, and explains that he wanted to translate his work into English and Spanish because he dreams of going to the countries of the languages ​​he speaks or wants to learn, as well as Japanese. He loves to learn new languages, since he writes in Dutch, “which is small, and for a go to to a different place to be superficial, you need to communicate the tongue.” In English, Antiboy It appeared in November 2024 translated by Michele Hutchinson. In the farewell, he says: “Actually, we’re all collectively writing a terrific poem.”