TRANS PORNOGRAPHIES AND UNCHECKED FETISHIZATION

Not Your Average Cistory | Amelia Smith

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If you have been around the Faculty of Information lately, you may have noticed a small, recent exhibition on the fifth floor of the Inforum. This exhibition covers some aspects of transgender pornography in the later half of the 20th century. As a transgender museum professional that has been desperately trying to find a way to make those identities coexist, I was excited to see something that was relevant to my identity. At least, I was initially.

As I spent more time thinking about the exhibition, I started to feel more and more uncomfortable with the subject matter. The reason was simple: it did nothing to address the fetishization of trans bodies and instead unintentionally played into it.

To be clear, I am not claiming that trans porn is inherently a bad thing. For many trans individuals, sex work and pornography were the only way to make money and survive. Even the most revered trans activists like Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson were forced into sex work simply because of their identities. So, to act as though there is absolutely no place for this would be to ignore history.

The display case showing crossdressing fantasies on one side and real life trans experiences on the other.
Photo courtesy of Amelia Smith.

Where the problem arises, however, is in how the material is presented. With very few didactics, the exhibit demands the viewer to interpret the objects on display. No where is there a discussion on the outdated language and slurs that run rampant throughout the displays. Words such as "transexual" and "transvestite" have very nuanced histories that are completely lost on most audiences. A cisgender audience, of which the Faculty of Information predominantly is, would not be as familiar with these materials to question the underlying issues that arise from each of the displays.

The exhibit is split up into three sections, the wall, the display case and the vitrine. All of these cover different aspects and each have their own problems. The wall shows photocopies of the Gendertrash zine. The major problem with this section is that, quite simply, these are not pornographic, nor do they discuss trans bodies. They more closely discuss trans identities and the issues of being trans in a world that does not understand them. Simply put, the section is out of place in an exhibition on trans pornography. The only reason I can see it being included is because it was started by a sex worker, but again, there is no text panels to explain why it is there.

The wall covered with photocopies of the Gendertrash zine. The design makes this section fairly inaccessible.
 Photo courtesy of Amelia Smith.

The display case’s presentation is even more baffling. On one side is pulp erotic fiction detailing the forced feminization of men, and on the other is the real-life interviews with trans people. This is especially insulting considering one of the trans people on display was legendary film composer Wendy Carlos. The juxtaposition of crossdressing fetishism with real life trans icons waters down any kind of positive messages that could come from either.

The vitrine is probably the most noticeable of the three displays, containing within it the very explicit images of trans porn VHS tapes. These portray the fantasies of a largely cisgender audience, especially the transfemme ones. Fantasies such as these serve only to portray trans people as some kind of in between, a chance to experience gay sex without having to question one’s sexuality. But this underlying homophobia is never questioned, never addressed, because of the lack of panels discussing the exhibit.

The vitrine containing video trans porn. The use of slurs is most prevalent here.
Photo courtesy of Amelia Smith.

But the biggest problem in my mind with the exhibit is how it seems to portray the fetishism of trans bodies as being something of the past. Nothing seems to be from this millennium, which gives off a feeling of antiquity to these depictions. This fetishism is anything but antique. If anything, it has been bolstered with the internet. And it is a fact of life that every trans person that is even slightly public knows.

The realities of being openly trans online, an aspect of trans pornographies that this exhibit does not address. Photo courtesy of Amelia Smith.

The exhibit clearly wanted to educate people on the realities of trans porn, but it could have used a trans person to help give a trans voice.

SEED BANKS AND SEED LIBRARIES: SEWING SEEDS FOR THE FUTURE

COLLECTIONS CORNER

BY: NATANIA SHERMAN

Last semester, Jennifer Maxwell wrote a Collections column asking readers to weigh in on an object that they would choose to preserve in case of an apocalyptic event. Members of the Musings community gave varied and creative answers of objects that they felt could be used to rebuild civilizations, but no one thought to bring something that could sustain said civilization: seeds. I may be channeling Keeper of the Seeds from Mad Max II: Fury Road but if I had to come up with one thing I would save in case of an apocalyptic event, I might think about the future biodiversity of the planet. (I might also think a little bit about my very lonely herb garden.)

The Keeper of the Seeds in Mad Max II:Fury Road (Source)

 

It seems I’m not the only one because there are institutions that collect seeds and plant species to preserve them in the event of a future environmental or biodiversity disaster. These institutions, known as seed banks, collect and preserve the seeds of countless species, from common to heirloom varieties. KEW the Royal Botanical Gardens in the UK is home to a herbarium, fungarium and the Millennium Seed Bank. The Millennium Seedbank has a mandate to preserve the world's most threatened species and the world’s most useful. Their goal is to have preserved 25% of the world’s plant species by 2020. If that number seems small, keep in mind that as of August 2015, the Millennium Seed Bank has around36,333 plant species and 2, 115, 847,290 seed samples in their collection. The Millennium Seed Bank decides what to collect by placing an emphasis on preserving biodiversity, but also on collecting plants that are deemed useful for medicines, important food sources, high risk species and native species that are threatened by invasive species.

A real-life Keeper of the Seeds inside the Millennium Seed Bank vault (Source)

Seed libraries, like seed banks are also a way to maintain local species and promote agriculture. University of Toronto’s Inforum has a seed library where you can borrow seeds to plant for the summer and then when the time comes, harvest the seeds which are then returned to the library.

Seed banks and seed libraries already fill an important role in preserving biodiversity. Under the correct conditions, seeds can actually be stored for thousands of years. Researchers have actually grown viable plants from thousand year old seeds. Seed banks can also help researchers understand plant evolution by allowing them to study how plant species adapt to environmental factors over time, by preserving older incarnations of certain plants. Seed banks are also crucial to ensuring future plant biodiversity. This is especially important since so many of the crops that humans rely on, such as wheat and corn, are monocultures that could be very vulnerable to disease and infestation, and have a high environmental impact to produce.

The Millennium Seed Bank in Wakehurst (Source)

As a result of the scale that seed banks like KEW collect specimens, many larger seed banks are organizations that build partnerships globally in order to expand their collections and research networks. KEW even publishes a yearly State of The World's Plants report to publicize their research. These institutions truly carry out a crucial function for the betterment of the future and I certainly hope that if a biodiversity crisis occurs I’ll be living near a seed bank.