In my experience and with few exceptions, trans women get represented in two ways. On one hand, our dicks are fetishized in porn — a topic that’s rarely discussed beyond well-meaning attempts to de-emphasize the inappropriate cis-fixation on our genitals. On the other, the most cis-passing members of our community, like Valentina Sampaio, or Leyna Bloom, get put on the covers of magazines. What we need is representation that does not fetishize our bodies, nor promote the oppressive notion that, to be accepted, we must strive toward a cis ideal.
When I think of the conversation between Carmen Carrera and Katie Couric, the one in which Carrera gracefully redirects the discussion away from her “private parts” during a 2014 segment on Katie, I’m left not only feeling admiration and gratitude for Carrera’s poise and reminder that trans people are more than just our genitals, but also wondering how we can broach the topic, on our own terms, in order to uplift and affirm trans women who choose not to have bottom surgery or tuck.
When I see Valentina and Leyna being uplifted, I’m not only proud, but also hungry for a day when I can see a trans woman grace the cover of a mainstream magazine with a visible bulge. I dream of the day when a trans woman with a bulge will be seen as just beautiful, conventional even, not exotic or inherently erotic.
I dream of a day when bottom surgery is no longer viewed — both within and outside the trans community — as the final step of one’s transition. Fuck that, and fuck the whole conception of transition as some linear progress toward the elusive, pearly gates of societal acceptance. Hypervisible transness is still seen as an abnormality in need of correction, which leaves behind those who do not wish to, or are otherwise incapable of, conforming to oppressive ideals of what it means to be a binary man or woman
We can demand so much more: A world where trans women get to choose whether to get bottom surgery or tuck, not from a place of fear or shame, but from a place that centers our autonomy. As a nonbinary trans woman who doesn’t currently want bottom surgery, nor envision myself ever wanting it, I want to be celebrated even if I am visibly trans.
No, I want to be celebrated because I am visibly trans.
