Trans Exploits: Trans of Color Cultures and Technologies in Movement

ANIMA: Critical Race Studies Otherwise

by Jian Neo Chen

In Trans Exploits Jian Neo Chen explores the cultural practices created by trans and gender-nonconforming artists and activists of color. They argue for a radical rethinking of the policies and technologies of racial gendering and assimilative social programming that have divided LGBT communities and communities of color along the lines of gender, sexuality, class, immigration status, and ability. Focusing on performance, film/video, literature, digital media, and other forms of cultural expression and activism that track the displaced emergences of trans people of color, Chen highlights the complex and varied responses by trans communities to their social dispossession. Through these responses, trans of color cultural workers such as performance artist Yozmit, writer Janet Mock, and organizer Jennicet Gutiérrez challenge dominating perceptions and institutions that kill, confine, police, and discipline trans people.

Genres: Transgender, Queer, LGBT, Nonfiction, Activism, Art

200 pages, Hardcover

Published November 6, 2019

About the author

Jian Neo Chen is Assistant Professor of English and Director of Sexuality Studies at The Ohio State University.

Reviews

[Thomas Hale · Rating 3 out of 5]

More a heavily annotated bibliography of theory and case studies than a complete "statement", Chen still offers a diverse collection of activists and artists working at the intersections of gender, ethnic, class, and immigrant identities. If you're interested in gender, politics and performance, then this is probably a great way to discover new perspectives, and add a lot more titles to your to-read list. On its own, though, I didn't get much of a sense of Chen's own perspective.