(no subject)

[apiphile]

identity cards and kthe body politic

you don't write "trans poetry"
you just write this stuff about
birds and cities and dirt and
anyone could write that it's not
unique it's not saleable it's not "trans";
if you're going to have this gender agenda
you have to talk about your
body
you have to strip down
to your bones
and show us your
guts
and your
body
and your cunt
and your sadness
and your alienation
satisfy our curiosity
satisfy our voyeurism
satisfy our needs our desires
show us your pink bits
perform every kind
of strip tease
if you don't fit in with these
demands on your language
why should we care;
your truths are narrow
you are your body
just a body
not a body of work;
only one type of person
gets to be
an unseen commentator
on the nature of nature
there's only one kind of experience
that's allowed to be universal
and it's
not
yours

my sincere and open-handed apology
but every word that's flowed
from these trans paws
these little gay hands
is tinted and tainted with
what's hinted and painted in the hue
of my own language
that has evolved on the tongue
of a trans
in the head
of a trans
of a man
who didn't begin
as the universal experience
that is no such thing;
it isn't my fault you're impounded
by your own unbounded universality
and too wide-eyed blinded to notice
that every bird and dirt and city
every urban pastoral and stellar pangoric
every burdensome longing and
prosodic elegy for the departed friends
is composed through the filter
that's printed with an identity
i cannot not claim
my own universe
my own me.

Comments

[wolfy_writing]

Ooh, really interesting!

[apiphile]

thank you :)

[konsectatrix]

"Too wide-eyed blinded to notice" yes yes yes

the whole thing gave me a shiver, but especially the second half.

[apiphile]

Interesting I think the genesis was actually reflecting on how, at least in publishing, poetry from poets of colour is always "language & family" and NOTHING ELSE IS ALLOWED, and kind of expanding it to see what One Subject anyone else who isn't Easy Setting is allowed to write about.

[konsectatrix]

Maybe that's why it resonated so hard for me, and I could empathize with what you were saying about your experience even though the nuts and bolts of it are different from mine. It just rang... very true. I think it's like that in lit fic and fine arts and film (dear fuck does film have a huge problem with this--and it even extends to audience expectations) as well.

[apiphile]

I think there's crossover as well; certainly there's a lot of stuff in Wimmin's Lit that's 100% YOUR BODY IS THE ONLY THING ABOUT YOU THAT MATTERS, JUST TALK ABOUT YOUR SAD WOMB which certainly has its parallels in "literally the only thing that matters about you is the physical process of transformation, you CIRCUS FREAK" thing in Trans Lit.

[konsectatrix]

Ah yeah. I legit forgot about the WIMMINS. I think lit has rules you can only be one thing at a time? COLORED FIC & WIMMIN FIC at once might break something. Anyway, I just uh, noticed that this is a whole other thing, so I subscribed. I like your poetry.

[apiphile]

... possible misogyny? :D or just, idk, that autism thing of "what is a gender, they sound boring, i would rather have a baked potato thank you". (and yeah absolutely; also i think grace nichols is like, the only poet who was allowed to be both).

[konsectatrix]

Is it better to be a try-hard edgelord and say I'm a hater, or that you caught me having an autism? Dammit XD

I keep legit skimming past that stuff without it touching me at all. Also when I think of Women's Lit I automatically think a certain sort of aggrieved middle class/upper middle class white lady? So totally misogynist AND racist, yo. Except I don't think that's inherently wrong/bad/terrible (the association, not being an 'ist!' Dammit English!).

I mean, I gather that they're typically told to sit down and shut up too, and it sucks that it's more socially acceptable to hate them, it's just... otherwise completely foreign to me/doesn't include me, I am not that (and I'm not mad about it--it sounds miserable!) I don't think about it, because it's not for me. It's cool if things are not me or not for me, as long as folks stop assuming it's universal/default for the category, that's all.

Baked potato would definitely be preferable. Nachos or pizza would be best.

[apiphile]

Or just yell "internalised" before "misogyny". SOCIETY'S FAULT.

Also when I think of Women's Lit I automatically think a certain sort of aggrieved middle class/upper middle class white lady?

I think you're meant to. Fragmenting identities and erasing them, etc.

as long as folks stop assuming it's universal/default for the category

BELIEVE ME I KNOW THIS FEELING *WELL*

I'll take the baked potato, you have the nachos. Deal?

[konsectatrix]

I think you're meant to. Fragmenting identities and erasing them, etc.

I guess that's when we examine who's defining, gate-keeping, and doing the marketing for the publishing genres/categories in the first place, I suppose. I imagine I'll be shocked by the results.

I'll take the baked potato, you have the nachos. Deal?

SOLD.

[apiphile]

I guess that's when we examine who's defining, gate-keeping, and doing the marketing for the publishing genres/categories in the first place, I suppose.

*clasps hands to side of face* I WONDER WHO IT COULD BE