Trans Porn Genealogy beyond the Queer Canon

Abstract

Abstract While placing transgender pornography under the sign of queerness has been a necessary feature of queer politics, much of the genealogy of trans porn falls more within the orbit of heteronormative capitalism and was enacted through the problematic figure of the “she-male.” Queer and trans scholars have been eager to seize on the work of queer trans culture workers but less attentive to the pioneering efforts of Kim Christy and Joey Silvera, who occupy complicated positions not entirely commensurate with queerness. Christy emerged out of 1970s transfeminine culture to shape “she-male” pornography as a genre, and longtime straight cisgender hardcore performer Silvera moved to directing in the mid-1990s largely by locating transsexuality within an entirely heteronormative market context. Vexed as they are, these works occupy important places within the genealogy of trans porn, even if often by embodying what queer trans porn imagines itself against.