I Don't Want to Be Understood

By: Espinoza, Joshua Jennifer

Book Overview

A transsexual woman pieces together fragmented details of a repressive religious childhood and an unsupportive family, drawing from autobiographical experiences of the poet's life.

I Don't Want To Be Understood is a work of resistance against the conventional trans narrative, and a resistance against the idea that trans people should have to make themselves clear and understandable to others in other to deserve human rights. This is a compelling, urgent collection about the body and survival that asks how we learn to love in a culture where normal is defined by exclusion and discrimination.

These poems stretch from childhood to the present day--resisting typical narratives of self-discovery, resilience, and personal growth--and instead asks what it means to be granted or denied personhood by the world around you. It is a personal archive of a trans life laid out in all its messiness and unknowability, and is a book for anyone who has questioned why we place so many limitations on who gets to be considered a human being. These poems do not celebrate survival, but rather ask why transsexuals and other gender non-conforming people must fight so hard to survive in the first place.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1949944638
• ISBN13: 9781949944631
• Release Date: August 2024
• Publisher: Alice James Books
• Length: 100 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 8.9"