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.
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