Each person lies within the spectrum of natural human variation, both unique and within a widely-diverse continuum of bodyminds. As this is the case, nothing seemed more appropriate for discussing body schemas and the intersection of identities than a literal assemblage piece — layered and gathered letters, words, and phrases. All of the magazine lettering was torn from a single fashion catalog in one sitting*.

I would love for this to be all I wrote about it, but as it’s also academic work and because alt-text is access, there will be unpacking:

This is a multimedia piece assembled on a piece of unlined, brown notebook paper. In a combination of handwriting in black ink and in torn magazine letters, words, and phrases, the left column is headed by the handwritten phrase “body schemas” and reads:

O Beloved
Beauty is
in the details
– yes a genuine
vast field
of
natural variation
– drape it loosely
or wrap it
around yourself.

The right column is headed by handwriting stating, “There is no accounting for other people’s perceptions.”** The torn magazine text says:
BI and KIKI
two gender-and-sexuality labels. KIKI is outdated, but in the 1950s it meant a feminine (woman) who was interested in other feminine (women); this was considered taboo in butch-femme normative relationships for white lesbians. Basically a queer femme who was ‘queering’ wrong. It was also an adolescent nickname of mine, given by my parents, who were aware of the derivation, having been in or adjacent to 1950s white lesbian culture. One of my parents meant it affectionately and I can enjoy it on that basis. (As far as I can tell, this is the same kiki or ki that has been picked up by drag culture to describe a queens’ hen party. But don’t quote me without better citations.)

Next is a handwritten alphabet in block capitals and the words “firebird” and “phoenix”. I often write the alphabet to loosen up for writing; the words were from an audiobook and are of no intentional relevance.

Below that is written a quote from the English novelist, Terry Pratchett***, who commented on humanity that we are “between the falling angel and the rising ape.” This was brought to my mind by Dr. Sunara Taylor’s statement that “Disability is between health and death,” and Judith Butler’s comment that gender is also between — between male and female. So many betweens for us all to navigate in!

Beneath that are magazine words,
Open landscapes &
possi – Visi – bilities
The word possiblities is torn in half and divided to reveal a doodle about Bi Visibility Month, Week, Day. It’s Bi Visibility Month! This is both revealed and concealed much like bisexual and biromantic identities are, depending on circumstance and observers’ perceptions. It is, in fact, Bi Visibility Month at this writing.

Another line of handwritten text is obscured by the magazine phrase
“from walking to dancing”
How do we do bodies? How do they move? We all have a technique, says Butler, of walking — and of dancing, of eating, of lying down, of all the different ways of movement that answer Jean Deleuze who asks, “What can a body do?” As well as being unique to each individual bodymind, These answers are also circumscribed and molded by cultural expectations of ethnicity, gender, or ability.

Across both columns at the bottom of the page read the magazine-torn words,
RANSOM NOTE
under which is hand-written
“Found: an assemblage of identities. Describe to return”

the piece is signed, in a combination of handwritten and magazine letters
— an educated bat

*This catalog deserves its own unpacking as a Swedish company that uses a lot of Asian designs in its line

** I spent much more time than I would like to admit attempting to track down the absolutely wonderful speaker I heard this from: Black trans woman once upon a YouTube algorithm rabbit hole view binge. If anyone finds this, I would appreciate knowing to whom to attribute this.

*** who was also quite fond of footnotes, and whose work on gender, neurodivergence, and physical differences I would also like to unpack.