My Own Complicated Body (working title)

The narrative depicted in the storyboard is a cartoon representation of myself, from a previous class “draw yourself” exercise. With this cartoon I visually represent the feeling of being misgendered and the lack of self-correction. It starts in the bathroom because that was the space that I first comfortably acknowledged that I was non-binary. The fish and ocean are a representation of the sinking and all-consuming feeling that comes with being misgendered and all the pink is the incorrect gender that is pushed on me. I know it's not the traditional narrative of trans people, with most works talking about them coming out or their own internalized feelings but the biggest part of my gender that makes it “complicated” is that I'm queer and outside of the gender binary and that can only be fully taken in by the misgendering I experiences. This work was hard to produce emotionally but it was important to me that this part of me be shown in this way.