Content Warning: This section discusses forced transition and gender dysphoria, discrimination and violence toward transgender people, domestic violence, child abuse, anti-gay bias and discrimination, and suicide.

The masculine series of pronouns will be used in this section of the guide to discuss both Paul and Perfect, as the protagonist most closely identifies with these pronouns at the end of the novel. From the very beginning, Perfect Peace closely examines gender and sexuality, both of which are commonly misrepresented by society as being part of an immovable binary. Through the characters of Paul, Mister, and Johnny Ray, the author challenges such limited expectations of gender expression and sexuality and studies the impact that these expectations have on reinforcing detrimental social norms.

Paul’s journey and character development express the fluidity of gender and gender expression, as well as how the wider social understanding of these two concepts can negatively impact those who do not fit into traditional gender expectations. Despite being assigned male at birth, Paul is raised as Perfect, a young girl who identifies with being a young woman. However, after Perfect is forced to become Paul, a young man whose sex is expected to match his gender expression, he feels extreme dysphoria—a feeling categorized by unease and anxiety—about the gender-related expectations placed upon him.