{"id":65,"date":"2026-04-05T23:50:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T06:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/juliermst202\/?p=65"},"modified":"2026-04-05T23:50:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T06:50:22","slug":"debre-being-ones-true-self","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/juliermst202\/2026\/04\/05\/debre-being-ones-true-self\/","title":{"rendered":"Debr\u00e9 \u2013 being one’s true self"},"content":{"rendered":"

Immediately, the writing of this book surprised me\uff08\u00b4\u2207\uff40”\uff09I didn\u2019t know it was written recently, so the short, punchy sentences were not what I expected. Still, despite how seemingly to-the-point and emotionless the sentences were, the overall raw feeling of this book made it so that it took a bit more effort for me to read, but I think I still enjoyed it!<\/span><\/p>\n

Reading Debr\u00e9\u2019s fight to see her son after she leaves her husband was frustrating. Everything was still \u201cnormal\u201d before she brought up the divorce, even though they were already acting like a divorced couple. It was only when she stopped performing what was demanded of a mother and wife by society that people around her started having a problem (\u00ac_\u00ac”). To see not only the legal system side with Laurent when he weaponised their son and her sexuality against her, but also her friends and acquaintances turn their backs as well, was eye-opening but not in a good way. And the amount of times that something was promised to her by the courts, such as a regulated place to meet her son or a psychiatrist to determine her ability to still be a part of her son\u2019s life, yet was not provided to her on time, was devastating. Time goes by so fast for a child, and even though she lets go by the end, the time she missed because her son was kept from her was huge.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet Debr\u00e9 takes up all the space she feels like, despite that being a big reason why she has to fight against everything. I admire that.<\/span><\/p>\n

When reading the lecture transcript, I did find myself agreeing that sometimes this book felt like \u201ctoo much\u201d (\u256d\u0cb0_\u2022\u0301) Parts of it felt a bit uncomfortable, but I also feel admiration for that as well? The grief, the desires, the frustration, and everything else that Debr\u00e9 goes through is put there on the page in so much detail. As someone who has a hard time writing even half as much detail and reflection in a journal that only I myself will read, it was interesting (and kind of inspiring?) to learn so much about someone else through their writing. Maybe I felt uncomfortable because we usually expect a bit more of someone to be held back in public? It probably would have felt safer, but in the end I\u2019m glad to have read so much of her. What do you think?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I think in general, this book put me in a place of discomfort that also made me admire Debr\u00e9 (I\u2019m so sorry for repeating \u201cadmire\u201d so much (\u2565\u2038\u2565)). I\u2019m sad we won\u2019t have a discussion for this, but I\u2019m excited to read everyone\u2019s thoughts on it \u25dd(\u1d54\u15dc\u1d54)\u25dc<\/span><\/p>\n

See you for the conclusion!<\/span><\/p>\n

Julie \u1555( \u141b )\u1557<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Immediately, the writing of this book surprised me\uff08\u00b4\u2207\uff40”\uff09I didn\u2019t know it was written recently, so the short, punchy sentences were not what I expected. Still, despite how seemingly to-the-point and emotionless the sentences were, the overall raw feeling of this book made it so that it took a bit more effort for me to read, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107663,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[22,33,39],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-debre","tag-family","tag-identity","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/juliermst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/juliermst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/juliermst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/juliermst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107663"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/juliermst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/juliermst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/juliermst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions\/66"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/juliermst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/juliermst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/juliermst202\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}