The twelfth chapter of “For a Girl” started off with a bang. Really. O2bxx wasn’t fucking around here.

Immediately in the first paragraph, Stephanie gets grabbed, punched, and then forced into a room where her hands get tied to a pipe. It all happens just as quickly for Stephanie in universe as it does for the reader out of universe.

And then, of course, in the midst of her torment, Stephanie raises her head to see her captor, Andy Marks.

Andy Marks, who started off the story as the classic bully character, has now gone completely mad and attempts to rape Stephanie. She even pulls a knife on her and threatens to kill her if she doesn’t cooperate. It was all around a pretty dark and intense scene, with the only relief being a kind of meta joke.

After screaming for help, Stephanie sadly remarks that no one will come because, unlike in Hollywood, there was no director to cue the hero. And then Hal immediately shows up, because there was an author to cue the hero. It probably wasn’t even written as a joke but Sierra still found it a little amusing.

The scene ends with one of the side characters, Mark Williams (who’s nicknamed “BMW”), successfully subduing Marks after Hal’s failure. Stephanie then refuses to report Marks to any authority, stating that she wanted her to get her comeuppance “on her own terms”.

And then the confrontation scene happens…

***

“Wait, that’s where this was all leading up to?” Elise asked.

“Yep.” Sierra answered.

“So that whole scene… the one where he tried to rape her… it was just building up to a twist where Andy Marks is… trans?”

“I wouldn’t put it that way.” Sierra responded. “But yes, the big twist with Andy Marks is that she is jealous of Stephanie and wants to be a girl herself.”

“That feels so forced.”

Sierra sighed. “It is, but this story was written almost twenty years ago. What can we do about it now?”

“Make fun of it.”

“Yeah, basically.”

***

Sierra’s problems with the Andy Marks subplot had long since been set in stone. From the very first time she read the story, she had known why she disliked it so much. And it all could be summed up with three specific problems.

First, it means that the only trans character is a rapist, which is obviously all kinds of problematic. And it actually gets even worse than that, because, by the story’s own explicit words, Andy Marks isn’t just a rapist who happens to want to be a girl, she is a rapist because she wants to be a girl. Her desire to be female is inextricably connected to her being a rapist. One could argue that the story was written in a different time, but how far does that excuse this really awful depiction of trans people?

Second, it isn’t developed believably. All Stephanie does is look at Marks’s facial expressions and somehow she is able to discern her entire motivation for every action she takes. It’s extremely contrived and hinges on Stephanie being a mind reader.

And third, the entire twist is revealed through a painfully unrealistic power fantasy. Stephanie simply shames and humiliates Marks in front of the entire school, and then she runs out into the hallway, balling her eyes out without a shred of dignity. The reality is that most rapists can not be shamed into submission. Even when one exposes their crimes they can still deny their guilt, or many times even gaslight the victim into thinking they’re delusional. The whole confrontation scene was just another contrived event that could only happen in fiction.

After the confrontation scene there’s one last paragraph where Stephanie hopes Andy Marks can create a new, better life for herself after high school. That she’ll get the help she needs and become a better person. After that, Andy Marks departs the story for good. And since she isn’t mentioned again in the epilogue, it’s as if she was never even there in the first place.

Perhaps that’s for the best. The story is almost over at this point and the reader shouldn’t be focused on what is such a messy subplot. Maybe if the story was written today, Andy Marks’s character would’ve been handled more tactfully, but as it stands, it’s a relic of an age when the only depictions of transgender people were that of psychotic criminals.

***

“This whole subplot, from the first time I read it, never sat right with me.” Sierra said. “Just like the principal spanking scene, it felt really wrong and out of place.”

Elise looked over to Sierra. “Can I ask you something?”

“What?”

“It hurt you, didn’t it?”

At first Sierra was confused. What was Elise trying to get at? Obviously this story hadn’t hurt her. She’d be an idiot to let a work of fiction affect her in such a negative way.

“What do you mean?”

“Andy Marks wants to be a girl, and is a rapist because of it.” Elise explained. “That made you feel bad about yourself, didn’t it?”

Sierra thought about it. Had she really felt that deeply about this subplot? That was ridiculous! It was just a fictional story.

So why did she have such a hard time denying Elise’s statement?

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Sierra said firmly.

Elise sighed. “Okay.”

***

After the Andy Marks subplot was finished, the next major part of the chapter was spent on Stephanie and Hal having oral sex for the first time. Specifically, Stephanie giving Hal a blowjob.

In a way, it could be argued that this was one of the most important scenes in the story. It marked the moment when Stephanie was finally willing to have sex with a man. The story had been building up to this for a while, and now it was finally here.

There was even a part where Stephanie was confronted with the old male voice of Jack, still inside her, demanding that she stop. And in spite of this, Stephanie manages to push through and give Hal that blowjob.

Even when the thoughts in her head try to bring her down, Stephanie still manages to be and accept who she is.

Perhaps Sierra could learn a thing or two from Stephanie.

***

“I can’t help but point out that this chapter was the first time that we, the readers, were ever told that GB victims could only get pregnant one year after their transformation.” Sierra said.

“You know, for someone who hates CinemaSins, you sure do criticize stuff like them.” Elise replied.

“I’m just pointing it out.” Sierra said in her defense. “I’m not here making shitty videos about it, pretending I’m better in some way. And I mean, this is worth at least pointing out right? I have a feeling this plot point was put in so Stephanie and Hal have an excuse to have sex without a condom.”

Elise laughed. “My god, CinemaSins gets you so fired up. Why do you hate them so much anyway? They just make silly joke videos.”

“Because they’re not funny at all, and their style of criticism has influenced how people critique media.” Sierra said. “In a very, very bad way.”

“Maybe online, but offline people seem to be doing fine.” Elise said. “Maybe if you didn’t spend ten hours on the internet every day you’d stop taking a youtube channel so damn seriously.”

Sierra scoffed. “Whatever.”