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Crazy Courage: An Expression of Individuality in the face of Conformity
The persona in the poem Crazy Courage by Alma Luz Villanueva highlights the bold expression of
the self-reflective artistry of a transgendered poet to an idiosyncratically diverse audience. This
representation is achieved primarily through the arrangement of stanzas one and two where Michael is first
introduced “as a man dressed in men’s clothes” in a fiction class then as a man under women’s clothing in a
poetry class. The setting of these two comparisons (the fiction class and the poetry class) implies that the
subject’s biological identity is merely a façade – he does not feel as though being a man is a character he
relates to – it is his fiction. The poet prefers a different identity – a female identity; and his art reflects this
duality. The fact that the author of the poem chose to highlight the strength of Michael’s femininity in the
poetry class, wearing, among other things, “a miniskirt, high boots, and “bright purple tights” (lines16 and
17) more than she highlights the gentleness of his masculinity implies that Michael is a transgendered
woman.
It is important to acknowledge that the author is talking about a transgendered woman; however, the
meaning of the poems title, Crazy Courage, only acquires full meaning when one considers the sixth and
seventh stanza. The subtle assertion is that Michael presented “his living, red rose” (line 26) in “perfect
dignity” (line 25) to an audience with varying responses to his presumably self-reflective art. Michael
