Sharing Trans Femme Lit

Co-authored with Aurora Foo

We just finished reading "How to Read a Trans Fem Writer". The article is written generally for readers from outside the queer (and specifically the trans femme) community who might not be used to engaging in this type of art, and has lots of good tips for how to engage with our art. We'd encourage folks to read the essay and reflect. This is especially important because of the volume of negative comments many trans femme authors get on their work. Helping readers have a keener eye and not fall into patterns and expectations that are hurtful to those authors is important.

As someone inside the trans femme community, it also brought up additional questions about the art that we create and our responsibilities we have to each other.

The first that needs to be said and repeated: we should make the art we want to make. It's vitally important. Having articles like this one help people navigate the art that we're creating.

Having said that, there's a conversation we should have amongst each other about how we as a community can better share our art.

Trans femmes, as a community, experience a profound amount of collective trauma. As individuals also, ourselves included, have more than our share of trauma. Art can stir up that trauma because it reaches inside of us. Art that does so should let us know the topics it will cover so that we can be better informed as readers.

Recently, Soph finished reading (kimmy). It's brilliant. It's clever. It's everything folks lauding it say it is. And it's also horribly triggering and in its current version has an incomplete content warning list. Aurora saw firsthand the effect it had, following along on Soph's reading journey. A book with the themes and content that (kimmy) has needs to throughly warn its readers, to ensure people aren't re-traumatised by its content and can make an informed decision about choosing to read it. That was not the case in our experience, and Soph took emotional damage as a result of reading the book.

We then went on social media to see people breathlessly praising this work without warning anyone about its contents. It's undoubtedly brilliant, but it's also painful, and discusses at length things that could be potentially triggering for a lot of trans femmes out there. Going on about how everyone should read it, without stopping to warn folks reading your post to take care, feels irresponsible.

To reiterate: we firmly believe we should make the art we want to make. Make it messy if you want to make it messy. Make it challenging. Make it dark. Give it all the sharp edges you feel you need to in making the art that feels honest and true.

Once you do, let folks know what those sharp edges are. As readers and promoters, it's the responsible thing to let other folks know so they can make better informed choices. It is more than responsible, though, it's the kind thing to do. As a community, we need to take care of each other, and when we share these often brilliant works of art that explore traumatic content, we need to ensure that people go into them with informed consent.

We need to be better at not uncritically promoting work that has the potential to re-traumatise our peers. That's not to say we shouldn't share our praise and love for our art - we absolutely should! We just need to be better at balancing our (perfectly valid) enthusiasm for works with making sure the people we broadcast our thoughts to don't develop an incorrect picture, only to be blindsided by potentially triggering content.

We need to be better, because our work deserves it. As a community, the creation of trans femme art is vitally important. It can be a cathartic experience to create, and it can be a carthartic experience to consume. However, we must remember the context in which we exist as a community, and ensure we discuss our art with care and consideration for our fellow sisters.