Abstract

Katie Herzog's Transtextuality (Senate Bill 48), an installation “depicting 48 portraits of transgender men and women of letters,” took on the mammoth task of displaying portraits of trans pioneers who represent transgender intelligentsia. The celebration of her Western “sitters” is an impressive display, and their academic work has no doubt contributed vast and wide-reaching insights into mine and the lives of some of my trans sisters, brothers, and others. However, her wall of fame, while potentially innocent in its creation, neglects the class, ethnicity/race, sexuality, and other situational aspects of trans writers' lives that may have impacted the performative aspects of knowledge production about (trans) gender beyond the Western imaginary. Although this trans celebration may feel subversive because it challenges the status quo of those whose knowledge counts vis-à-vis cisgender people, we must be constantly drawn to ask, does the subversion suppress others?