Fluid Performances: Transgender and Nonbinary Sex Workers In a Gendered Marketplace

• In Event: Trans and Nonbinary Lives

Abstract

Recent work has noted a dearth of research on transgender men and nonbinary people in sex work industries (Jones 2020). At the same time, transgender and nonbinary people in sex work are more visible and vulnerable than ever, thanks to rising anti-sex-work sentiment in government policies and general society. Drawing on 40 interviews with nonbinary and transmasculine people who sell erotic content online, this article expands conceptualizations of gender performance in gendered marketplaces. It specifically attends to how transgender and nonbinary people make sense of their own online gender performances. Participants described how online sex work platforms enact gender gatekeeping when they require users to submit their IDs for age verification. Participants also used diverging methods for balancing their self-expression, safety, and income: adopting a “girl persona” or maintaining a queer presentation. My analysis yielded interesting findings about how participants experience gender euphoria and dysphoria during these performances. Taken together, my findings suggest that gender performance can be molded as needed to benefit one’s financial position, sense of self, or safety. In fact, performing as one’s own or a different gender can be empowering, either because it permits self-exploration and creativity, or because it offers material benefits.

Author

• Logan Phlox Williams, University at Buffalo