Confinement. This is the prevailing narrative that surrounds transgender people – that we are souls born into and entrapped in the wrong body. I myself do feel confined – but not within my body. What it is that I feel imprisoned in is society’s perception of my body. I am not uncomfortable with my femaleness, I am uncomfortable with the connotations and the stigmas of femaleness. I feel stuck under a microscope, and that any eyes that look at me are seeing a girl, just for the simple fact that I have this body.

It is this pervasive, ingrained perception that traps me. I would likely be fine with the vessel I was born into if it weren't for the expected gender roles and standards in contemporary society that have been fabricated over thousands of years and have penetrated almost every aspect of our culture. No matter how much I seek to show the world my true self, I will always be seen as the girl of my body before I am seen as just a person. When a viewer walks into Confinement, I am offering them this choice of perception – a choice they subconsciously make everyday. Yet this time, I am offering it to them consciously. What will you choose to see? And how will that choice change your reality? And perhaps more importantly, how will it shape mine?