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"Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe"

 


I am going to start this off by saying that this is one of the best books I've ever read. From the moment I picked it up I couldn't put it back down. It gave me insight into a world that I had never seen before. What it really made me realize was that what a privilege it is to never have to deal with coming out to the people around you. It's this unsaid rule in our society that being straight is the default sexuality until proven otherwise. Straight people never have to worry about coming out, being accepted based on who you like, and never have to grapple over feeling ashamed or as if there's something wrong with you because of a preference. 

After reading this book I wondered to myself if it would have had the same effect for audiences if it would have been centered around two girls. For myself personally, I don't think that this would have had the same effect. This book not only touched on being gay, but something that I think is also very important to discuss, toxic masculinity. I don't think that tackling this topic with two females wouldn't have been the same. I think that toxic masculinity greatly effected how Ari saw himself and added to his feelings of shame when he realized that he was gay. If the main character would have been a lesbian the journey to self discovery would have been different and wouldn't have addressed the issues of toxic masculinity from a boy's perspective. 

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