1. D. A. Miller, “Sontag’s Urbanity,” in The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, ed. Henry Abelove, Michèle Aina Barale, and David M. Halperin (Routledge, 1993), 212–20. Miller claims it was “the essay that did the most to make her early reputation” (213) and criticizes both it and Sontag’s 1989 book AIDS and its Metaphors for erasing gay subjects. [return to page 1]

2. Susan Sontag, “Notes on Camp,” in Against Interpretation: And Other Essays (Macmillan, 2001 [1966]), 201–2.

3. Marissa Brostoff, “Notes on Caitlyn, or Genre Trouble: On the Continued Usefulness of Camp as Queer Method,” Differences 28, no. 3 (2017): 7. See 2-4 on theoretical reception of camp, but I’d also like to acknowledge that Brostoff’s reading of I Am Cait has substantially influenced my own interpretation of the effect of excerpts from Jenner’s show included in Disclosure.

4. Jack Halberstam, The Queer Art of Failure (Duke University Press, 2011), 109-10.

5. Esther Newton, “Selection from Mother Camp,” in The Transgender Studies Reader, ed. Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle (Routledge, 2013), 128.

6. Ellis Hanson, “Introduction,” Out Takes: Essays on Queer Theory and Film (Duke University Press, 1999), 7.

7. Vito Russo, The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies (Harper & Row, 1981).

8. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, The Celluloid Closet (Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment, 1995).

9. Sam Feder, Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen, (Netflix, 2020).

10. I discuss the influence of Serano and Bettcher in some detail below. Halberstam and Snorton’s influences are suggested by comments from interviewees on Boys Don’t Cry (1999). This article is by no means a complete map of theoretical influences, however.

11. Peter Debruge, “‘Disclosure’ on Netflix: Film Review,” Variety, June 19, 2020, https://variety.com/2020/film/reviews/disclosure-review-netflix-trans-lives-on-screen-1234642803/.

12. Lauren Berlant, “Genre Flailing,” Capacious: Journal for Emerging Affect Inquiry 1, no. 2 (2018), http://capaciousjournal.com/article/genre-flailing/.

13. Katy Steinmetz, “The Transgender Tipping Point,” Time, May 29, 2014, https://time.com/135480/transgender-tipping-point/. [return to page 2]

14. Steinmetz.

15. Steinmetz.

16. While I quote Huxtable and Hamblin’s interview comments below, drawing attention to their alignment with Cox’s and Feder’s comments, another framework which is quite relevant (and articulated in a more typically theoretical form) is that of trans necropolitcs, as described by Snorton C. Riley and Jin Haritaworn. “Trans Necropolitics,” in The Transgender Studies Reader 2, ed. Aizura Aren and Stryker Susan (Routledge, 2013), 66–76.

17. Che Gossett and Juliana Huxtable, “Existing in the World: Blackness at the Edge of Trans Visibility,” in Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility, ed. Reina Gossett, Eric A. Stanley, and Johanna Burton (MIT Press Cambridge, MA, 2017), 39–56.

18. Lexi Adsit et al., “Representation and Its Limits,” in Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility, ed. Reina Gossett, Eric A. Stanley, and Johanna Burton, 2017, 191–200.

19. Sam Feder and Alexandra Juhasz, “A Conversation on Trans Activist Media,” Jump Cut, no. 57 (Fall 2016), http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc57.2016/-Feder-JuhaszTransActivism/text.html.

20. “Disclosure (2020),” Rotten Tomatoes, accessed November 5, 2020, https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/disclosure_2020_2.

21. Christi Carras, “Laverne Cox Recounts Transphobic Attack in L.A.: ‘Never Fails to Be Shocking,’” Los Angeles Times, November 30, 2020, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-11-30/laverne-cox-transphobic-attack-instagram-live.

22. Andrea Long Chu and Emmett Harsin Drager, “After Trans Studies,” Transgender Studies Quarterly 6, no. 1 (2019): 104–5.

23. Lauren Berlant, “Humorlessness (Three Monologues and a Hairpiece),” Critical Inquiry 43, no. 2 (December 12, 2016): 305–40, https://doi.org/10.1086/689657.

24. Yohana Desta, “Eddie Redmayne Defends J.K. Rowling Against ‘Absolutely Disgusting’ Backlash,” Vanity Fair, September 29, 2020, https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/09/eddie-redmayne-jk-rowling-transphobia. [return to page 3]

25. Marjorie Garber, “Black and White TV: Cross-Dressing The Color-Line,” in Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety (Routledge, 1992), 298.

26. Kevin Cook, Flip: The Inside Story of Tv’s First Black Superstar (Penguin, 2013). Ebook.

27. Marjorie Garber, “Black and White TV: Cross-Dressing The Color-Line,” in Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety (Routledge, 1992), 298-9.

28. Lee Edelman, “The Future Is Kid Stuff,” in No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive (Duke University Press, 2004), 4.

29. LeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryant, “Fat Spirit: Obesity, Religion, and Sapphmammibel in Contemporary Black Film,” Fat Studies 2, no. 1 (2013): 56–69, https://doi.org/10.1080/21604851.2013.744270.

30. Racquel J. Gates, “Introduction,” in Double Negative: The Black Image and Popular Culture (Duke University Press, 2018), 16.

31. Racquel J. Gates, “Introduction,” in Double Negative: The Black Image and Popular Culture (Duke University Press, 2018), 12.

32. Julia Serano, Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity (Berkeley: Seal Press, 2007), 37.

33. Serano, 37-8.

34. I say recorded, because it seems important to note that as badly as talk shows might meet our expectations for documentary work, they nevertheless produce trans records. I’ve certainly come across homemade videocassette recordings of such broadcasts in my own work in personal archives, and I have no reason to believe these attachments to preserved ‘trash TV’ as valuable proof-of-trans-life are especially unusual. The especially rough quality of the Jerry Springer footage included in Disclosure helps invoke the preservation techniques (and sentiment) of such non-professional collecting. [return to page 4]

35. Kate Bornstein, Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us (Routledge, 1994), 129.

36. Vito Russo, The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies (Harper & Row, 1981), 26.

37. Suyin Haynes, “9 Moments That Show the Pain and Progress of Transgender Representation Onscreen,” Time, accessed October 18, 2020, https://time.com/5855071/Disclosure-netflix-transgender-representation/.

38. Peter Debruge, “‘Disclosure’ on Netflix: Film Review,” Variety, June 19, 2020, https://variety.com/2020/film/reviews/Disclosure-review-netflix-trans-lives-on-screen-1234642803/.

39. Adrian Horton, “Disclosure: Behind Laverne Cox’s Netflix Documentary on Trans Representation,” The Guardian, June 18, 2020, http://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jun/18/Disclosure-laverne-cox-netflix-documentary-trans-representation.

40. Teo Bugbee, “‘Disclosure’ Review: A Transgender Lens on Film and TV History,” The New York Times, June 19, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/movies/Disclosure-review-a-transgender-lens-on-film-and-tv-history.html.

41. The special praise Milan, along with actor Eliot Fletcher, reserves for erotic scenes in the Ryan Murphy-created series suggests the risk of overlooking pornography itself in surveys of mainstream trans representation and its impacts, especially given Pose’s positive working conditions are contrasted with the exploitation of the documentary subjects of Paris is Burning (many of whom engage in sex work), but that question deserves at least its own essay.

42. Melissa Maerz, “‘I Am Cait’ Recap: Kim Kardashian Vents about the ‘Vanity Fair’ Cover,” EW.com, accessed November 9, 2020, https://ew.com/recap/i-am-cait-season-1-episode-4/. [return to page 5]

43. Lee Edelman, “The Future Is Kid Stuff,” in No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive (Duke University Press, 2004), 1–31.

44. Nat Hurley, “The Little Transgender Mermaid: A Shape-Shifting Tale,” in Seriality and Texts for Young People (Springer, 2014), 258–80.

45. Susan Sontag, “Notes on Camp,” in Against Interpretation: And Other Essays (Macmillan, 2001 [1966]), 196.

46. Northrop Frye, “The Nature of Satire,” University of Toronto Quarterly 14, no. 1 (1944): 76.

Works cited

Adsit, Lexi, Sydney Freeland, Robert Hamblin, Geo Wyeth, and Tavia Nyong’o. “Representation and Its Limits.” In Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility, edited by Reina Gossett, Eric A. Stanley, and Johanna Burton, 191–200, 2017.

Berlant, Lauren. “Genre Flailing.” Capacious: Journal for Emerging Affect Inquiry 1, no. 2 (2018). http://capaciousjournal.com/article/genre-flailing/.

———. “Humorlessness (Three Monologues and a Hairpiece).” Critical Inquiry 43, no. 2 (December 12, 2016): 305–40. https://doi.org/10.1086/689657.

Bettcher, Talia. “Appearance, Reality, and Gender Deception: Reflections on Transphobic Violence and the Politics of Pretence.” In Violence, Victims, and Justifications, edited by Felix O. Murchadha, 175–200. Peter Lang, 2006.

Bornstein, Kate. Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us. Routledge, 1994.

Brostoff, Marissa. “Notes on Caitlyn, or Genre Trouble: On the Continued Usefulness of Camp as Queer Method.” Differences 28, no. 3 (2017): 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1215/10407391-4260507.

Bugbee, Teo. “‘Disclosure’ Review: A Transgender Lens on Film and TV History.” The New York Times, June 19, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/movies/disclosure-review-a-transgender-lens-on-film-and-tv-history.html.

Carras, Christi. “Laverne Cox Recounts Transphobic Attack in L.A.: ‘Never Fails to Be Shocking.’” Los Angeles Times, November 30, 2020, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-11-30/laverne-cox-transphobic-attack-instagram-live.

Chu, Andrea Long, and Emmett Harsin Drager. “After Trans Studies.” Transgender Studies Quarterly 6, no. 1 (2019): 103–16.

Cook, Kevin. Flip: The Inside Story of Tv’s First Black Superstar. Penguin, 2013.

Debruge, Peter. “‘Disclosure’ on Netflix: Film Review.” Variety, June 19, 2020. https://variety.com/2020/film/reviews/disclosure-review-netflix-trans-lives-on-screen-1234642803/.

Desta, Yohana. “Eddie Redmayne Defends J.K. Rowling Against ‘Absolutely Disgusting’ Backlash.” Vanity Fair, September 29, 2020. https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/09/eddie-redmayne-jk-rowling-transphobia.

Rotten Tomatoes. “Disclosure (2020).” Accessed November 5, 2020. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/disclosure_2020_2.

Edelman, Lee. “The Future Is Kid Stuff.” In No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive, 1–31. Duke University Press, 2004.

Feder, Sam. Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen. Netflix, 2020.

Garber, Marjorie. “Black and White TV: Cross-Dressing The Color-Line.” In Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety, 267–303. Routledge, 1992.

Gossett, Che, and Juliana Huxtable. “Existing in the World: Blackness at the Edge of Trans Visibility.” In Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility, edited by Reina Gossett, Eric A. Stanley, and Johanna Burton, 39–56. MIT Press Cambridge, MA, 2017.

Halberstam, Jack. The Queer Art of Failure. Duke University Press, 2011.

Hanson, Ellis. “Introduction.” In Out Takes: Essays on Queer Theory and Film, 1–19. Duke University Press, 1999.

Haynes, Suyin. “9 Moments That Show the Pain and Progress of Transgender Representation Onscreen.” Time. Accessed October 18, 2020. https://time.com/5855071/disclosure-netflix-transgender-representation/.

Horton, Adrian. “Disclosure: Behind Laverne Cox’s Netflix Documentary on Trans Representation.” The Guardian, June 18, 2020, http://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jun/18/disclosure-laverne-cox-netflix-documentary-trans-representation.

Maerz, Melissa. “‘I Am Cait’ Recap: Kim Kardashian Vents about the ‘Vanity Fair’ Cover.” EW.com. Accessed November 9, 2020. https://ew.com/recap/i-am-cait-season-1-episode-4/.

Manigault-Bryant, LeRhonda  S. “Fat Spirit: Obesity, Religion, and Sapphmammibel in Contemporary Black Film.” Fat Studies 2, no. 1 (2013): 56–69. https://doi.org/10.1080/21604851.2013.744270.

Miller, D. A. “Sontag’s Urbanity.” In The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader, edited by Henry Abelove, Michèle Aina Barale, and David M. Halperin, 212–20. Routledge, 1993.

Newton, Esther. “Selection from Mother Camp.” In The Transgender Studies Reader, edited by Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle, 137–46. Routledge, 2013.

Riley, Snorton C., and Haritaworn Jin. “Trans Necropolitics.” In Transgender Studies Reader 2, edited by Aizura Aren and Stryker Susan, 66–76. Routledge, 2013.

Russo, Vito. The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies. Harper & Row, 1981.

Serano, Julia. Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity. Berkeley: Seal Press, 2007.

Snorton, C. Riley. Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity. U of Minnesota Press, 2017.

Sontag, Susan. “Notes on Camp.” In Against Interpretation: And Other Essays, 191–202. Macmillan, 2001.

Steinmetz, Katy. “The Transgender Tipping Point.” Time, May 29, 2014. https://time.com/135480/transgender-tipping-point/.