A review by anpu325
Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility by Eric A. Stanley, Tourmaline, Johanna Burton

4.0

I would give something between 3 and 4 stars. There were very profound and insightful ideas that got me thinking in new ways and I got some new avenues of reading to pursue out of it. Some of the essays and interviews were great, others I didn't find as interesting. I feel like I only understood like 70% of this book though, with much effort, and I kind of wish it was written in a more accessible way for trans folks outside of the art world who don't have an academic background in queer theory. It was so dense and I felt relieved and accomplished when I finally got through all nearly 400 pages of it. All of the essays and interviews were the perfect length though, which made it easier to keep moving through the book. As soon as I got tired of one essay, it was over and on to the next! Really an essential discussion on the visibility/vulnerability of trans people in the contemporary US. I appreciated that it centered Black and Latinx trans women and femmes who are the people in our community that the double edged sword of visibility/vulnerability cuts the deepest. For all of the great ideas it was borderline unreadable at many points due to the convoluted prose in most of the essays, but that's pretty standard for queer theory. I think the approach of interviewing artists and activists and including essays from activists, scholars, and artists was a great way to try to get at a complex and nuanced topic with few easy answers.