ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: TRANS SPACE AS CULTURAL LANDSCAPE—TRANSGENDER WOMEN OF COLOR IN WASHINGTON, D.C. A. Anthony, Doctor of Philosophy, 2019 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Sheri Parks, Department of American Studies, Emeritus Transgender civil rights and public displays of trans visibility have come to the fore of the American imagination. To date, however, little work has thoroughly examined Black and Latinx trans women’s central role as experts in LGBT community-caregiving practices. As a result, scholarship and popular culture concerned with “the transgender tipping point” ( Time May 29, 2014) generally endorse a narrative that characterizes transgender women of color primarily as celebrities, victims of transphobic violence, or historic figures of the LGBT liberation movement, if they are mentioned at all, making their everyday lives marginal or non-existent at a time when their presence in popular culture is exploding. Without an adequate fieldwork model, we undervalue the everyday lives and landscapes of transgender women of color in the United States, ultimately leading to a two-dimensional conceptualization of identity categories such as race, gender, and sexuality. Trans Space as Cultural Landscape—Transgender Women of Color in Washington, D.C, remedies this gap by creating and applying Bodies in spaces— the trans cultural landscape analysis fieldwork model . The trans model extends the work of Americanist Jeremey Korr (2002) to reimagine the study of trans space, place, and gender transition. It is divided into the following components: detailed site description, aesthetics, language and material culture, and community research. At the heart of Trans Space is an ethnographic study of Casa Ruby, a bilingual social service nonprofit in Washington, D.C. (casaruby.org). The trans model allows me to addresses the queer and trans problematics of my particular site: addiction, prostitution, and homelessness. The model then expands to examine the work of trans celebrities such as Laverne Cox in order to trace the circuitous paths of daily transition and sisterhood. The evolution of the following inquiry guides my commitment to cross-discipline methodologies and community involvement. Space stages the expansive possibilities of gender transition. In extending gender transition narratives to functions that do not apply to space, how do we know a trans space when we see it? And what do these spatial transitions and pop culture representations tell us about an American investment in identity and its tipping points ? TRANS SPACE AS CULTURAL LANDSCAPE—TRANSGENDER WOMEN OF COLOR IN WASHINGTON, D.C. by A. Anthony Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of philosophy 2019 Advisory Committee: Dr. Sheri Parks, Chair Associate Professor Faedra Carpenter Associate Professor Christina Hanhardt Associate Professor Alexis Lothian Associate Professor Mary Sies © Copyright by A. Anthony 2019 ii Table of Contents Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iii List of Images .................................................................................................................... vi Chapter 1: A Trans Presence in American Studies ............................................................. 1 The nature of the project ................................................................................................. 1 TWOC? Who is she? Where is she?— acronyms, cultural landscapes, visibility ........ 10 Building a better Korr—Moving towards a trans cultural landscape fieldwork method and model ...................................................................................................................... 14 Positively Trans ........................................................................................................ 15 Perceiving the American Cultural Landscape ........................................................... 17 Primary Resources—Claiming a space in the literature and tradition of American Cultural Studies for TWOC .......................................................................................... 23 TWOC on social media ............................................................................................. 32 The Newsworthy TWOC .......................................................................................... 34 TWOC in Film .......................................................................................................... 35 Out of the archives and into the drop in center ............................................................. 37 Claiming a space for ethnography in American (Transgender) Studies ................... 37 Getting cunt! Centering the voices of transgender women of color ............................. 39 Intersectionality, Spatiality, and Transsexuality in American Studies ..................... 41 Chapter 2: A literature review ........................................................................................... 45 Theoretical grounding ................................................................................................... 50 Coalition—identity, space, and the everyday ........................................................... 51 Methodology ............................................................................................................. 56 The contents of Genie’s “prostitution bag,” April 20, 2016 ..................................... 57 Mess, Culture, Archives, & Transitioning Populations ................................................ 59 Methods—Intersectionality, Spatiality, and Transsexuality ......................................... 68 Conclusion—Trans space & trans time .................................................................... 74 Chapter 3: Storytelling, sidewalks and domestic interiors—The Trans Cultural Landscape Analysis Fieldwork Model ................................................................................................ 76 Going Inside—trans aesthetics, trans beauty rituals ..................................................... 79 Jeremy Korr—cultural landscapes, a radical departure from Material Culture Studies— Unexpected applications/under-theorized populations ................................................. 82 Bodies in spaces—the trans cultural landscape analysis fieldwork model ............... 83 Module 1. A Detailed Site Description ..................................................................... 85 Fake hair and boisterous laughter ............................................................................. 88 2. Aesthetics, Language and Material Culture—decoration and adornment ................ 95 Sights & sounds of the domestic sphere ................................................................... 95 The role of the researcher—Returning to the Korr model .......................................... 105 Chapter 4: Everyone needs a place to crash—Transgender women of color, fieldwork, sisterhood, and popular culture—Part 1 .......................................................................... 115 Truly outrageous--Genie and the Trans Cultural Landscape Analysis Fieldwork Model ..................................................................................................................................... 126 Support your sisters not just your cisters- trans fieldwork methodology ............... 130 iii Trans Women in Trans Roles—self-representation strategies in American film and television ................................................................................................................. 136 3. Expertise and Reciprocity/community research, friendship, & mutual respect...... 141 Implementing the trans powerhouse, objects-humans-buildings-storytelling ........ 141 All sidewalks lead to you—[Trans] Sisters are doin’ it for themselves ..................... 144 Trans Cinema and national visibility—trans researchers, viewers, (social) actors 144 Friendship, shelter, and the ideal audience ............................................................. 147 2. From Informants to Research Participants—TWOC space, actors, white cisgender directors: iPhone cinematography & a bid for the Oscars ...................................... 153 3. TLC 2—Tender Love and Care in the Trans Life Center .......................................... 164 Hos and prostitutes in the Laundromat—using the senses with Tangerine ............ 164 “Merry Christmas Eve, Bitch” —An exploration of trans spatial practice ............. 169 Just out of the dryer: wigs, urine, shelter, and sisterhood ....................................... 171 Chapter 5: Giving Face And Taking Up Space—trans sociality, ethnography, social media/ Transgender women of color, fieldwork, sisterhood, and popular culture—Part II ......................................................................................................................................... 175 Theorizing beauty/Navigating visibility ..................................................................... 182 #transisbeautiful, Black womanhood and the shifting politics of passing .............. 182 2. Aesthetics, Language, & Material Culture—decoration and adornment ............ 189 Sub-sections—Interiority and Interior Design ............................................................ 193 “I Am Amazing! AND SO ARE YOU!”—Ruby