ABSTRACT
Glover suggested that Mock and Cox produce a definition of “transnormativity through their appeal to respectability politics and how the perpetuation of such politics factor into the media’s focus on them at the exclusion of other transgender women of color whose narratives are significantly different”. This chapter focuses on poor trans women of color who challenge mainstream conceptions of “what trans looks like.” It examines how Sin-Dee and her best friend Alexandra—both trans women sex workers of color—are represented in the independent film Tangerine. Prior to its US theatrical debut in July 2015, Sean Baker’s Tangerine rode a wave of “heavy buzz out of Sundance” for featuring a notably multidimensional representation of two poor trans women of color who are engaged in survival sex work in the seedy streets of Hollywood. The chapter utilizes transing to analyze how Sin-Dee and Alexandra are represented as poor trans women of color engaged in sex work in the sleazy streets of Hollywood.
