Blossoming into the Desired Body: A Phenomenological Approach to Ely
Shipley’s Boy with Flowers
Aimee Merrydew | Phd in English Literature
This paper explores Ely Shipley’s 2008 poetry collection, Boy with Flowers.
The selected poems recount the life of an unnamed transgender speaker and
the consequences that come with navigating the borders of normative gender.
Poetry is seldom analysed in transgender studies, yet I argue that it is precisely
because the poetry is written by trans people that it provides first-hand insights
into the lived experiences of being trans. My attention to lived experience is
informed by the principles of phenomenology. Phenomenology returns
authority to subjectivity and counters the heteronormative assumption that
biology single-handedly determines the truth of one’s self, or experience of the
body. Using phenomenology, I aim to provide a reading that aids researchers
and social scientists in reconsidering what ‘counts’ as a body, whilst
simultaneously remaining respectful of the speaker’s self-perceived gender. I
am particularly interested in the use of floral imagery and how Shipley utilises
flowers not as a symbol of ‘femininity’ as we would expect, but as a metaphor
for the speaker’s body and transition into masculinity.
Key words | Ely Shipley, transgender, poetry, phenomenology, the body
Poetry has become a popular medium for transgender people to create visibility for their
experiences and take charge of the gendered image that they portray. Yet research into
transgender poetry remains comparatively sparse. This paper argues that it is precisely
because this poetry is written by trans-identifying people that it provides a wealth of unexplored
insight into trans experiences. In doing so, I will examine four poems from Ely Shipley’s 2008
collection Boy with Flowers: “Memory”, “Magnolia”, “Boy with Flowers”, and “Etymology”.
These poems map the experiences of a female-to-male transgender speaker and the
consequences that arise from traversing the borders of normative gender.
In addition to generating visibility around trans poetry, this paper also highlights some
of the challenges facing gender-nonconforming people in the contemporary United States.
From the beginning of his presidency, Donald Trump has unapologetically worked to curtail
the power and agency of LGBT Americans. In under a year his administration has endorsed
numerous executive orders that remove federal protections for the transgender community:
from sanctioning ‘bathroom bills’ to more recently reinstating the ban on trans military recruits.
These regulations inevitably impact how trans people are treated by wider society. Bathroom
bills, for example, legalise prejudice against trans people by reinforcing the concept that
gender can only be experienced as two distinct and birth-assigned forms: male or female. Any
identity that strays beyond this binary is considered deviant and requires policing.
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