Sexualization of Trans Bodies
Let’s talk about the sexualization of trans bodies…
As a way to start conversation about sensitive topics that very much need attention I created a shoot to raise awareness. This particular shoot I wanted to bring attention to the constant sexualization of trans people. It’s hard enough trying to love your body as a trans person in today’s society but it’s even harder when your body is the thing in question all the time. Trans people do not owe anyone answers about what’s in our pants. So stop asking us.
There is a lot more to a trans person than their physical body. As it is, loving your body as a trans person in this society is a radical act. People need to start understanding that it’s not something we want to be questioned about. Our gender is not an excuse to objectify us or our bodies. By focusing so much of your attention on “what’s in our pants” or “have we had the surgery” you are objectifying us. We deserve to be seen as more than that, because there is so much more to our journey than just the medical part of it. We deserve to live authentically and we deserve to choose what we do with our bodies. It’s my body, so it’s going to look like how I want it to look like. You want to get a tattoo of your girlfriend’s name that you’ve been dating for two months? Go ahead, it’s your body. Trans people do not need to conform to cisgender ideals of what their body should look like.
Our journey of loving our body is already hard enough, sexualizing and fetishizing us doesn’t make it any easier. Sex is a particularly stressful part of being trans because of our relationship with our body. The gender dysphoria, or discomfort in one’s assigned sex at birth, affects how we feel and can further impact how we feel having sex. Sometimes it makes us feel unworthy of pleasure at all due to the discomfort. We deserve to reclaim that sexual pleasure. In fact, in a society that fetishes and objectifies trans bodies, reclaiming the sexual pleasure you deserve is an act of bravery and empowerment.
In the context of fetishism as an attraction to trans folk, it refers specifically to the sexual investment in one’s “transness” as a sexual object, rather than an individual. This type of transphobia goes unnoticed sometimes, but it’s something worth talking about and bringing attention to. I once had someone tell me she wanted to have sex with me because she’s “never been with a transexual before.” In that same interaction I was told I wasn’t “man enough” because of my genetalia. I had someone else tell me they wouldn’t date me if I did decide to have a penis. I couldn’t even register how transphobic statements like these were until after the fact.
Transgender women are so often sexualized and fetishized as a way to establish a power dynamic and create a sense of cissexist power for cis men. There was a study done in 2021 researching the effects of fetishization and sexualization of transgender and nonbinary individuals. (Archives of Sexual Behavior) In this study, participants discussed being fetishized by: (1) cisgender men; (2) cisgender women; and (3) on social media and dating apps. In a lot of cases, there is always a tension between the sexual identity of the other person and their own gender and sexual identity. For trans men, this occurs most with men who self identify as heterosexual and believe they could have sex with other men without going against their “heterosexual” identity. On the other hand, trans women also experience in the same sense where cis-gender “straight men” fetishize trans women and living out their “homosexual” identity by using them as a sexual object.
It is merely dehumanizing, to continue to objectify, sexualize, and fetishize trans people as it leads them to feel as if they are not being seen as real people but merely sexual objects.
Moral of the story, stop sexualizing trans people.
