Meg-John Barker

Dr. Meg-John Barker, PhD (MJ for short ) is a writer, writing mentor, creative consultant, speaker, and independent scholar. They have written a number of anti-self-help books on the topics of relationships, sex, and gender, as well as the graphic non-fiction books, Queer: A Graphic History and Gender: A Graphic Guide, and the book The Psychology of Sex. They also are a founding member of the bisexual organization BiUK.

Dr. Barker said in a 2017 interview that their writing was influenced by "some of the great queer and trans activist authors like Kate Bornstein, Riki Wilchins, and Julia Serano".

Quotes
"Some people embrace 'pansexual' as a term because they worry that the word 'bisexual' implies that there are only two genders, which can be seen as transphobic given that many people – like me – experience themselves as between or beyond the gender binary. However, bisexual people themselves generally don’t define 'bisexual' in this way. Usually they talk about having 'attraction regardless of gender' or 'attraction to more than one gender', and they understand the 'bi' part to mean 'the same gender as me and different genders to me'. So really there is a lot of overlap between bisexuality and pansexuality, with both terms referring to folks who aren’t limited to one gender in terms of their sexual attraction."

"In a culture which assumes heterosexuality and cisgenderness unless a person 'comes out' as otherwise, queer friendships can enable queer people to breathe easier and have a sense of just being themselves. Another important thing for mental health is being accurately mirrored by the people around you – particularly the close people. It's important to feel that friends accurately read in your gender, get your relationships and how they work, and see beyond stereotypes of queerness. It's vital that they're not always asking ignorant, intrusive questions, making jokes, or using inaccurate language."

Selected books

 * Sexuality and Gender for Mental Health Professionals: A Practical Guide (2013, co-authored with Christina Richards)
 * Queer: A Graphic History (2016)
 * How to Understand Your Gender: A Practical Guide for Exploring Who You Are (2017, co-authored with Alex Iantaffi)
 * Non-Binary Lives: An Anthology of Intersecting Identities (2020, editor)
 * The Psychology of Sex (2018)
 * Gender: A Graphic Guide (2019)
 * Life Isn't Binary: On Being Both, Beyond, and In-Between (2020, co-authored with Alex Iantaffi)
 * Sexuality: A Graphic Guide (2020)