#camp rewind

[rlmfanfic]

[posi-pan]

Reviewing Pan Rep in Books: Camp Rewind by Meghan O’Brien

Pan characters: Rosa Salazar. Canon, on page rep. Jamal. Implied/hinted rep.

When I started reading this, I had no idea that there was a pan main character, let alone a pan side character, also. I read this because of the social anxiety rep, and was blessed with surprise pan rep! How amazing is that? I was pretty pleased, overall with the pan rep in this book. I feel like this should be one of the more recommended books for pan rep.

The following is an abridged version of my Goodreads review, to focus on the pan rep. Full review can be found here. Warning for spoilers.

Rosa is a geeky, vegetarian, feminist writer. She is canonically pan, but she also tends to prefer not labeling herself. She describes her sexuality twice without using the word pansexual, and once with it.

...Having dated across the gender spectrum over the years.

She didn't bother to correct his precise labeling of her sexuality, though she usually resisted any and all efforts to sort her into any kind of box.

"If I had to label myself, I would say I’m pansexual, which basically means that I’m potentially attracted to any human."

I will say that after saying she's pansexual, she mentions that her ex boyfriend is trans. I feel like this was just...unnecessary. Pansexual does not equal dating trans people. Instead of the "I'm pan, I have/would date a trans person", I wish they had Rosa mention that she dated or hooked up with someone who didn't identify as a man or a woman, if not outright say a non-binary gender identity. Sort of like the first quote, about dating across the gender spectrum. That would've been more accurate. I hope we can move on from always having a pan character date a trans person, as if to prove they're pan, when that's not what being pan means. That's extremely ignorant.

Jamal is a camp counselor, described as, “bright, and personable, and adequately geeky”, who says he's "up for fun in whatever shape it happens to take". One of the main characters, Alice, says he's "into a lot of things" when asked if she knew he was into guys. So, like.........implied/hinted pansexual, yes? Yes.

All in all, the pan rep of this book was pretty good, and the book isn’t without faults overall, but I don’t know why this isn’t recommended more. 

[tiny-elyphant]

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7