![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Content creator Bookish Jono, aka m/m author Elliot Kyle, has recently repeatedly claimed that another m/m author is female and is misrepresenting themselves as a guy. People seem to be making the assumption that Jono has 'outed' the author as trans, but... there is zero reason to assume Jono has a fucking clue what he's talking about. Jono is an idiot and the author in question is very private.
Jono has de-activated his author accounts, apologized, etc. But we all know how this song as dance goes: he'll be in lockdown for a bit and then come back. So, if you want to avoid buying from a guy who sparked off a lot of people questioning the genders of various authors on threads and insta, might want to note that name.
An insta reel talking about the situation. I'm not on Threads or Booksta, so I didn't see this when it first blew up, just a lot of vagueing.
Jono has de-activated his author accounts, apologized, etc. But we all know how this song as dance goes: he'll be in lockdown for a bit and then come back. So, if you want to avoid buying from a guy who sparked off a lot of people questioning the genders of various authors on threads and insta, might want to note that name.
An insta reel talking about the situation. I'm not on Threads or Booksta, so I didn't see this when it first blew up, just a lot of vagueing.
no subject
Date: 2026-05-16 01:32 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2026-05-16 01:51 am (UTC)From:Do I need to make these people a powerpoint presentation? wtf
no subject
Date: 2026-05-16 02:20 am (UTC)From:This attitude is one I've seen before (trying to "investigate" another author's gender/identity to "out" them
and try to steal their sales in some fashion.) It's almost always very gross and a lot of bullshit.(There are some exceptions, where it's more a true catfishing type situation, but that does not sound like the case here, at all.)
no subject
Date: 2026-05-16 02:47 am (UTC)From:I've seen it happen a few times that someone was like 'this isn't what I think being gay is like / what gay community is like, they must be an outsider!' But in reality the accuser was just refusing to accept their experiences aren't universal. A true outsider POV tends to not annoy people, doesn't get under the skin.
Also, the other author in this case is known for being very private. It's roughly a thousand times more likely that Jono is considering that desire for privacy sus than actually has any sort of inside info.
no subject
Date: 2026-05-19 05:10 am (UTC)From:The whole idea of "there is only one way to be gay/trans/a woman/a person of color/etc." and using that to declare that an author (or reader!) can't be what they claim, because no "real member of that group would write or enjoy that" is just... the worst. One of the worst aspects of the sort of purity-culture-adjacent attitude that seems to have utterly taken over.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with an author who wants to be private about their private life. There's nothing wrong with using a penname. There's nothing wrong with not wanting to give a complete list of every bit of personal information. Acting like someone wanting some sense of privacy must be "hiding something" is such a garbage attitude.
no subject
Date: 2026-05-20 03:22 am (UTC)From:This whole situation is so bizarre. Jono needs to log off and figure out his own shit.
no subject
Date: 2026-05-23 02:30 am (UTC)From:Hopefully this asshole does actually figure his own shit out post-apology, though the assholes always do seem to resurface and keep going with the same playbook.
no subject
Date: 2026-05-23 05:33 pm (UTC)From:I hope he just goes away. There are plenty of people who want to write books and make content. Let some of them thrive instead of allowing rehab tours
no subject
Date: 2026-05-16 09:50 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2026-05-17 07:05 pm (UTC)From: