Aggregated Discontent: Confessions of the Last Normal Woman

(Hardback)

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A searing journey through the highs and lows of twenty-first century womanhood from an award-winning journalist beloved for her unflinchingly honest and often comedic appraisals of pop culture, identity, and disillusionment A searing journey through the highs and lows of twenty-first century womanhood from an award-winning journalist beloved for her unflinchingly honest and often comedic appraisals of pop culture, identity, and disillusionment "Adelicious reading experience-like hearing your smartest friend eviscerate the worst person you know."-Sabrina Imbler, author of How Far the Light Reaches "Such abrilliantwriter, with so manysurprisingmoves."-Torrey Peters, author of Detransition, Baby After a brief fling with corporate stability in her twenty-something cis era, Harron Walker has transitioned into a terminally single freelancer and part-time shopgirl. She's in the throes of her second adolescence and its requisite daily spirals. She wants it all, otherwise known as- basic human rights, a stable job with good pay and healthcare benefits, someone to love, the ability to feel safe and secure, the pursuit of satisfaction and maybe even contentment. And when she starts to acquire those things-well, as The Monkey's Paw famously asked, "What could go wrong" In sixteen wholly original essays that blendmemoir, cultural criticism, investigative journalism, and a dash of fanfiction, Walkerplaces her own experiences within the larger context of the pressing and underdiscussed aspects of contemporary American womanhoodthat make up daily life. She recounts an attempt to evisceratea corporation's attempt at pinkwashing their way into bath bomb sales while simultaneously confronting her "pick me" impulse to do so. She interrogates her relationship to labor, from the irony of working in a transphobic workplace in order to cover gender-affirming surgeryto the cruel specter of the girlboss that none of us ever think we'll become. She explores the allure and violence of assimilating into white womanhood in all its hegemonic glory, exposes the ways in which the truth of trans women's reproductive healthcare is erased in favor of reactionary narratives, and considers how our agency is stripped from us-by governments, employers, partners, and ourselves-purely on account of our bodies. With razor-sharp, biting prose that's as uncompromising as it is playful, Walker grapples with questions of love, sex, fertility, labor, embodiment, community, autonomy, and body fluids from her particular vantagepoint- often at the margins, conditionally at the center.

Reviews

In Aggregated Discontent, Harron Walkerunapologetically and vulnerably weaves together erudite observations on identity, media, and society. The work is the culmination of a journalistic career that hasnever been invested in the status quo.Raquel Willis, author of The Risk It Takes to Bloom: On Life and Liberation

Harron Walker is such abrilliantwriter, with so many surprisingmoves. She cantake the narrative sidewaysin a matter of sentences oraccelerateit into suddenmoments of insight,all to deliverthe rarest thing in writing: the kind of essay that makes you reconsider your viewswhile also being funny.Torrey Peters, author of Detransition, Baby and the forthcoming Stag Dance

Aggregated Discontent is areal showstopper of a collection. Harron Walker issuperbhere,funny and biting,incredibly charming. Shes unafraid to dig into the messy meat of humanity,and to be honest, she makesit all feel effortless. Her criticism issuperband her style isbewitching.I could not stop reading; I did not want to stop reading. I found this collection completely enthralling.Kristen Arnett, author of With Teeth

Harron Walker is adazzlingwriter, and Aggregated Discontent isnothing less than incandescent.Her refreshingly inventiveessays will dismantle your fantasies of life, love, and labor, climaxing often inmoments of wit so startlingthat you might laugh out loud, or even hiss. Best of all, Walkers style is simply adelicious reading experiencelike hearing your smartest friend eviscerate the worst person you know.Sabrina Imbler, author of How Far the Light Reaches

Aggregated Discontent is abrilliantblend of memoir, reporting, and cultural criticism: a bookfor anyone interested in womanhood, gender, and millennial angst, as well as the personal and systemic ways that the health-care system fucks over trans people.Walkers writing is hilarious, smart, and tender. I want to follow her around and hear her take on everything.Lamya H, author of Hijab Butch Blues

Author Bio

Harron Walker is a contributor to MOTHA's Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects and Sex Change & the City, a forthcoming anthology from Girl Dad Press. Her work has appeared in New York, Interview, GQ, Out, and other publications.