Trans Setters: Parallels and Variations within the Trans Community

Abstract

A memoir by Janet Mock, Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More, and the documentary following the life of Buck Angel, Mr. Angel, both depict tumultuous coming of age stories of two people who are transgender. In her memoir, Mock, an author and television host, transcribes her journey of being a transgender woman as she goes from youth into adulthood. Mr. Angel acquaints viewers with Buck Angel’s reality of being a male transgender porn star who hasn’t had bottom surgery, along with diving into his past and how it has shaped him. My paper examines how these two narratives of Angel and Mock compare and contrast with each other. Further, using data from the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey, my essay will analyze how Angel and Mock’s accounts deviate and align with the Trans community. While living starkly different lives, both their stories share commonalities with each other and reflect how the transgender community is both one of diversity and shared experiences. Both Buck and Angel have struggles, including abuse, homelessness, and attempted suicide, all of which the transgender community has higher reports of than the rest of the population. Mock and Angel begin to deviate from the community with their outlier ability to have their careers shaped positively by their public gender presentation, while, alternatively, most of the transgender community reports workplace discrimination.