Under Construction @ Keele Vol. IV (1) | Page 28

evidence of physical presence. Secondly, it also symbolises the speaker’s identity. The handprint will be unique to the speaker and is therefore a visual representation of hirs identity. Consequently, by staining the dictionary pages with the flower, which I have argued is a symbol of the speaker’s body, the speaker not only ‘stains’ dictionary (and thus cultural) definitions of femininity, but hir also claims an identity for hirself: this is hirs ‘mark’ on the world. Stains are not easily removed, and despite society’s attempts to wipe away the speaker’s deviant gender expression, hirs trans identity is fundamentally engrained into hirs very being. A phenomenological reading of Shipley’s poems helps this being – this ‘felt sense’ of the body – to materialise. This leads on to the suggestion that prior to and/or without surgery it is possible for the speaker’s body image to be imbued with significance when understood phenomenologically. This is because phenomenology, as this paper has shown throughout, returns authority to subjectivity and takes as its foundation the lived experience of the body. The speaker has always known that hir is a boy, mentally, and it is this felt sense that ultimately confirms hirs masculinity. Whilst Boy with Flowers recounts the speaker’s life pre- and post-transition, it does not necessarily mean that their journey is finished. According to Shipley, it would be an illusion to think of our (gender) identities as ‘whole, static, or complete’. 13 For Shipley, gender expression is not fixed but rather ‘moves in relation to ever shifting contexts’. 14 The collection re-emphasises the fluidity of gender and identity by positioning “Etymology” as the final poem – its title reminding readers that the forms and meanings of words change over time. Many would agree that our identities continually evolve as we progress through life and grow as people. The same process and growth applies to the speaker. Shipley’s speaker may have completed hirs surgical transition into the desired male body, but this is just the beginning, the etymology, of hirs existence. 13 14 Shipley, “Transformative and Queer Language,” 198. Ibid. 21