Taormino - Take me there: trans and genderqueer erotica

Table of Contents

Advance Praise for Take Me There

Take Me There is a smokin hot sampling of sassy smart smut that took me where Id never been before in printthis is the most gender-diverse erotica collection Ive ever seen anywhere.

Susan Stryker, author of Transgender History

As someone who is androgynous-identified, it feels positively monumental to hold in my hands an erotica anthology where trans desire is not the token, but the topic! In making our desires visiblewithin our own communities and beyondour gender expressions, our fantasies, our very lives are made real. Take Me There brings us HERE.

Jiz Lee, genderqueer porn star

There are multiple theories of desire out there; many histories of sexuality; lots of studies of sexual practices, but, until now, there were few accounts, fictional or otherwise of the multiple ways that queer people eroticize gender-variant bodies. This collection is hot and steamy, boiling with new lust, bubbling with new languages of desire, new ways of naming the body, different modes of telling each other I want you. Ask what you need from this book, it will take you there. I promise.

Jack Halberstam, author of Female Masculinity

Finally, a satisfying resource that more of us can offer, with a sly smile, when they ask us what exactly we do with one another.

Scott Turner Schofield, author of Two Truths and a Lie

Where are the representations of the erotic identities, sex lives and fantasies of transgender and genderqueer people? In mainstream media, they are oversimplified, sensationalized or mostly invisible. Some occupy a niche in mainstream pornography: the so-called chicks with dicks genre. Although transwomen are the objects of desire in these films, they are still stigmatized for their difference and portrayed as secret keepers, circus freaks or evil dommes for a straight male viewer. Transwomen without dicks (or who dont consider their genitals dicks), lesbian transwomen, and transmen of all kinds are absent from the traditional adult industry. There is one exception: Buck Angel, a successful FTM porn star and self-proclaimed man with a pussy. Angel has made tremendous strides to increase the visibility of transmen in porn. Plus, there is a small but growing body of independent porn that features trans and genderqueer people on websites like nofauxxx.com, by studios like Pink and White Productions and Trannywood Pictures and from directors like Morty Diamond and Courtney Trouble.

But what about depictions of transgender desire in erotic writing? For those of us who appreciate the written words power to not just get us off but bring nuance and complexity to erotic storytelling, we dont have all that much to choose from. As the spouse of a person who identifies as trans and genderqueer, I believe its time for transpeople to be the authors and central characters of a book of their own, to be enjoyed by other transpeople along with their partners, admirers, allies, fuckbud-dies, friends and lovers. I want to see folks who challenge gender norms as leading men, ingnues, crush objects and sex symbols on the page. Thats why I put together this collection. So, what exactly is transgender and genderqueer erotica? Its erotica by, for and about transfolk, FTMs, MTFs, genderqueers, gender outlaws, as well as two-spirit, intersex and gender-variant people. It is about people who like to genderfuck and fuck gender.

Among the diverse array of voices in the book, one theme that emerged is the power of seeing and being seen as beautifully illustrated in Patrick Califias story about a gay transman longing for his identity and desire to be not just acknowledged, but treasured. Its not simply about passing or not passing, which is an idea often explored with transgender characters, but about being acknowledged and desired in a sexual context. Being truly seen for who you are by a lover is where affirmation and want collide, as in Andrea Zanins story of a baby butch dyke and the transwoman she picks up in a small-town caf. Likewise, the main character in Helen Boyds All-Girl Action longs to be touched as a woman by other queer women. Amidst a neighborhood blackout in The Visible Woman, by Rachel K. Zall, two women leave behind how others perceive them and focus on how they see each other. In On Hys Knees, Evan Swaffords narrator articulates this hunger for recognition but also safety as he looks at his boi: The naked female sex, which this boi usually hides under baggy jeans and mens clothes, is uncovered for Daddy. I warrant this trust and take it seriously. Because I see my boi as hy truly is. And hy knows that Ill protect hym, keep hym safe. Its what we both need. It is this recognition and trust that allows the boi to surrender to his Daddy in a scene full of fisting, sadism and love.

Throughout the stories, no one is all that surprised about anyones gender, which bucks the trend of having a transpersons real or former gender revealed. But there are revelations of other kinds. Jack tries to have what he calls The Conversation with a trick at a bar, but his pants are down before the talk actually happens, in Michael Hernandezs You Dont Know Jack. In The Therapist and the Whore by Giselle Renarde, Manny is a butch dyke struggling with her identity who cant seem to talk honestly about it to her therapist; she feels most at ease fucking a transsexual sex worker whose comfort with her own identity creates a space where Manny can be Manny. For Ivan Coyotes narrator in Hold Up, too much talking and processing is an absolute boner killer: I would rather be fucking or fisting or tangling tongues or pulling each others hair and deciding by willpower and whim just who is going to suck whose what, and when and exactly how.

Most of the characters in these stories dont fit into neat little boxes and those that appear to fit, do it not-so-neatly. A lustful homecoming is full of sacred tradition and modern queerness in Tel Aviv by Jacques La Fargue: I go from fresh-faced yeshiva boy to breasted bride as the layers come off, and I dont care. Its your cock I want. In Kiki DeLovelys Taking the Toll, a femme describes her genderqueer lover: She has this edge about hernot completely hard yet deeply masculine. This is the edge where my lust resides. That lust takes them both all the way to the confession booth. Anna Watson wrote to me before submitting her piece, Femme Fatigue, inquiring if femmes as main characters were part of my vision for the book. I welcome her contribution since we both agree that many femmes consider themselves genderqueer, because they consciously choose to fuck with female and femininity norms. There are femmes throughout this book, including one who surprises her boyfriend when her gender changes mid-fuck in S. Bear Bergmans Paybacks a Bitch.

In her story Dixie Belle, Kate Bornstein imagines Huckleberry Finn transformed into Sassy, a prostitute at a New Orleans brothel. Before there were identities like transgender, there were struggles and longing like those of the characters in Sea of Cortez by Sandra McDonald. Both of these pieces are the imagined histories of prototypical gender radicals grounded in the sights, sounds and language of their time periods. Considering the recent controversyabout NewSouth Books decision to release a version of Huckleberry Finn