Transsexual Experiences: Photography, Gender, and the Case of the Emperor’s New Clothes

This chapter analyses collaborative photographs taken by Davidmann with four trans* people who self-identify beyond the polarized gender definitions of female and male. The photographs explore the participants’ experiences of being visible or invisible as trans* on the streets of London and Sheffield. The ways in which the subjects see themselves and would want to be seen by others are problematized. The chapter concludes that these examples of interacting in public spaces reveal some of the processes by which the gender dichotomy is maintained, raising questions about the widely held belief in the two-sexes/two-genders systems.