The Exoticization of Transsexual to Female Women

[Butterfly]

The Exoticization of Transsexual to Female Women
Women Born Transsexual
By Suzan
19 June, 2010


http://womenborntranssexual.com/2010/06/19/the-exoticization-of-transsexual-to-female-women/


Over the years there has been much criticism of Agnes.  Some of it is ahistorical in that it expects of Agnes the adherence to cultural standards that are post-1960s in nature.

For example:  Since Agnes was treated at UCLA I will assume she came from the Los Angeles area. The closest thing one would find to something resembling a pan-trans culture of that era (circa 1958) would be located in the downtown gay scene described in John Rechy's "City of Night".  This book which helped me find and navigate the world of "cities of night" wasn't published until 1963.

But let's assume she found this scene and surveyed it.  What she would have found was scary, a world were prostitution and constant police harassment was a way of life.  A world not all that different from the trans-ghetto culture of San Francisco's Tenderloin circa 1968 when I was exploring coming out.