Art Metropole

#16384

As Glamorous as a Rotting Animal: Queerness and Mental Health

Artist

Be Oakley

Date

2023

Publisher

GenderFail

Format

Monographs

Size

11 × 18 cm

Length

62 pp

Genre

Queer Art & Artists, Disability and Chronic I

As Glamorous as a Rotting Animal: Queerness and Mental Health looks to the often unknowable strength that mental health has on our queer and trans identity. This book is a symbol of solidarity for sick, disabled, and mentally ill queer, trans, and non-binary people that often don’t feel seen in ableist queer spaces.

This analysis is not based on a glamorous or ableist romanticization of queerness; instead, it looks to reclaim and reinterpret mental health as an unexpected source of strength. Depending on one’s privileges, be they white, economic, able, or cisgender, one experiences mental health issues in different ways. These feelings of generalized anxiety, panic attacks, agoraphobia, depression, and others are tangible bodily experiences that define my experiences of the world and my relations within it. Although these experiences are often horrifying, they can be a part of an unexpectedly empowering experience of being queer in the world, one that is often harder for us that are non-binary and trans.