(Trans) Sex Sells

In this article the author considers the vexed relationship that Star Distributors' trans sleaze had with taxonomy. The author argues that linguistic slippage and the inability to define a precise trans identity as object speaks not only, or exclusively, to a sloppiness on the part of sleaze writers but is also a deliberate illumination of the degree to which white trans is not reducible to something known or necessarily stable. Because it is irreducible to knowledge and finality, these texts delight in the possibilities of plurality, in teaching, and in learning to work one's gender in excess of cis practice. Finally, this article explores the bifurcated way these novels depict pedagogy for white and Black trans characters.