What Trans Erotica Gets Wrong

I just finished reading M. Christian's anthology, Transgender Erotica: Trans Figures . And I'm sad to say I didn't like it much.

This is definitely an example of how my politics are inextricably linked to my libido. I just can't get turned on by stuff that's politically questionable. There's a vast difference between eroticizing the forbidden and exoticizing people for their gender (or any other feature) in ways that scream "I'm clueless and disrespectful."

Unlike Best Transgender Erotica, edited by Raven Kaldera and Hanne Blank, Trans Figures seems to have been put together without much thought to actual trans people. Sure, the anthology features a couple of prominent trans writers -- Kaldera himself, Patrick Califia, and Raven Gildea (I don't know what it is with the Raven thing either) -- but the vast majority of the writers are non-trans, or at least they don't say anything in their bios that would lead one to understand they are trans. This in itself is not necessarily a bad thing; I know plenty of non-trans people who have a strong understanding of trans folks. But when the overwhelming bulk of the writers in an anthology on any topic are people who don't have significant direct experience of the topic at hand ... things just start to feel funny.

In this particular case, the thing that bugs me about a lot of the stories is the way the trans-ness of the protagonist is the punch line to the story. Over and over again, I read stories where someone "normal" is seduced by, or pursues, a person they think is also "normal," and they get into an erotic situation, and -- whoops! Turns out there's a little surprise in those panties or boxers! And isn't that hot and kinky and different and exotic! Reading repeated descriptions of tall, striking women with strong shoulders and somewhat short reedy-voiced men, not as descriptors of sexy trans people but rather as foreshadowing for the "Wow! Look at that, a trans person!" moment at the peak of the story ... well, it got tiresome pretty quickly.

It reminds me of a conversation I had with a male-to-female trans friend of mine in which I groused about people who fetishize trans folks. She answered, "What's wrong with fetishizing? Trans people are sexy!" I answered that of course trans people are sexy. Or at least, the chances of me personally finding a trans person to be sexy are at least as high as the chances of me finding a non-trans person to be sexy. But that's not the same thing as fetishizing. If I find a trans person sexy, it's because they're a sexy person, not because I can't wait to see what exotic treasures I'll find in their pants and get all hot and bothered about how weird and unusual they are. The trans people whom I find sexy are primarily people, not vehicles for exciting hormone-altered body parts. Their gender journeys may (or may not) indicate that they're comfortable with gender-bend, with various types of boundary-crossing and norm-challenging, in which case we're probably pretty compatible because I've been doing that very thing most of my life and it's pretty central to how I understand myself as a person and as a sexual being, even though I have not taken that to the point of formal gender transition myself. But from there to seeing trans-ness as an exciting form of freakishness that's ripe for my ogling or consumption ... no thanks. That's just plain icky.

As a person who's dated many trans folks over the last eight years, as well as counting many of them among my friends and acquaintances, I'm not blind to the differences of gender-altered bodies as compared to the rest of us mass-produced types. From experience and conversation, I'm privileged to have some fairly intimate knowledge about trans bodies. I know that new estrogen-inspired breasts sometimes react with more sensitivity and sometimes with less than they did pre-hormone, and are sometimes quite tender as they grow, much like my own were at puberty. I know that breast implants may cause nipples to react differently, and that you should generally not do heavy impact play on them. I know that some trans gals are quite comfortable in their bodies -- one lovely tall lady I know happily refers to her gams as her "gorgeous long transsexual legs" and considers them a benefit of being trans -- while others are ashamed of the parts of themselves that still appear masculine and struggle very much with their body image.