Overview
This study examines the intersection of systemic racism and transphobia in the criminal legalsystem by analyzing the criminalization of Black, trans individuals for sex work. While doingso, I explain how the stigmatization and policing of Black, trans sex workers reflects racist, transphobic fictionalizations of Black and trans bodies as inherently sexually deviant. I furtherexplain how these fictions are rooted in the U.S.'s history of White supremacist colonization.After recording, transcribing, and analyzing the oral histories of four Black, trans individualswho have been criminalized for sex work, I discern four main themes regarding their experiencesand insights. These themes include patterns of systemic racism and transphobia that increasetheir likelihood of relying on sex work for survival, direct forms of violence perpetrated byagents of the criminal legal system, indirect forms of violence perpetrated by the system, and thevarious institutional, social, and political changes necessary to secure the safety and rights ofBlack, trans sex workers. This study reveals the criminal legal system as an institution whichfunctions less as an arbiter for justice than an institution that forwards the biopolitical interestsof hegemonic society. By disciplining non-heteronormative bodies, in this case those of Black, trans sex workers, the criminal legal system reinforces White, cis-heteropatriarchal dominanceand maintains marginalized communities' positions at the bottom of the social hierarchy.
- | Author: Zavanna Cordelia
- | Publisher: Zavahava
- | Publication Date: Jan 06, 2025
- | Number of Pages: 00136 pages
- | Binding: Paperback or Softback
- | ISBN-10: NA
- | ISBN-13: 9798348319885
