{"id":427,"date":"2025-01-03T14:51:26","date_gmt":"2025-01-03T19:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/transmemoir\/?post_type=chapter&p=427"},"modified":"2025-01-15T12:29:21","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T17:29:21","slug":"joyful-resistance-cultural-unintelligibility-in-trans-life-writing-sexuality","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/transmemoir\/chapter\/joyful-resistance-cultural-unintelligibility-in-trans-life-writing-sexuality\/","title":{"raw":"Joyful Resistance: Cultural (Un)intelligibility in Trans* Life Writing & Sexuality","rendered":"Joyful Resistance: Cultural (Un)intelligibility in Trans* Life Writing & Sexuality"},"content":{"raw":"Content Warning:<\/strong> Readers are advised that discussions may include references to sexuality, consensual non-normative sexual practices, and their intersections with trans* identities that some may find sensitive or triggering. Reader discretion is advised.<\/a>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_429\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"937\"]\"\" Dematerialisation by \u201cBird\u201d[\/caption]\r\n
\u201cOver dumplings, Evie said that the Japanese word for having an orgasm is iku, but iku actually means to go somewhere. So, while on one continent our lovers come, on the other side of the world, our lovers go. Held in the hands of lovers who make the world feel smaller, I\u2019m coming into myself and beginning to go somewhere new.\u201d\r\n\r\n-Transland, p. 55.<\/blockquote>\r\n

Introduction<\/h2>\r\nTransland: Consent, Kink & Pleasure <\/em><\/a>(2023) is a memoir by Mx. Sly, a non-binary writer, performer, arts producer, and flight attendant (Sly, n.d.). Sly beautifully illustrates encounters during their time in BDSM<\/a>\/kink communities, in which they delve into understanding their own gender articulation, sense of belonging, and \u201ctesting the limits of sensual experience\u201d (Sly, 2023a, back cover).\r\n\r\nTransland<\/em> exemplifies the disruption of cultural intelligibility\u2019s bounds, a concept introduced by Judith Butler in Gender Trouble<\/em> (1990) and further in Bodies that Matter <\/em>(1993). Its alignment with \u201copen normativities\u201d, or the \u201cchallenging of homogeneity in the \u201ctransnormative narrative\u201d\u201d (Shotwell, 2012, as cited in Vipond, 2018, pp. 21, 33, 36) is apparent in its illustrated transsubjectivity at the cross sections of namely gender non-conforming identity and non-normative sexuality practices.\r\n

(Un)intelligibility & Trans* Life Writing<\/h2>\r\nEvan Vipond offers the concept of becoming culturally (un)intelligible in trans* life writing. According to Vipond, hegemonic trans* narratives---those that align with dominant cultural norms---often emerge from the systemic pressures to meet the expectations of cisgender audiences, ensuring cultural intelligibility. These narratives are shaped by the constraints of legibility<\/em>, some being the use of recognisable language, repetition, and linear timeline frameworks in storytelling. Such strategies resonate with mainstream<\/em> audiences (predominantly cisgender and heterosexual) and provide access to legitimacy<\/em>, which, within the perception of dominant culture, is equated with cultural intelligibility (2018, pp. 19\u201336).\r\n\r\nTrans* life writers are often pigeonholed into constructing this \u2018coherent narrative\u2019 to gain the capital associated with being regarded as \u2018real\u2019 ---or the ability to pass within dominant culture as their experienced gender. However, trans* persons who do not<\/em> pass, and in turn are not regarded as \u2018real\u2019, are deemed culturally un<\/em>intelligible because they are not legible<\/em> to dominant culture, and in trans* life writing, its dominant audiences (Vipond, 2018). In this view then, culturally intelligible trans* life writers are revered for their instrumentality, usually as a result of diluting, or omitting topics that are \u2018hard to conceptualise\u2019 in their storytelling for the sake of being legitimized<\/em> (Shahjahan, 2019, p. 791) to fit a mould that realistically not all trans* persons fit. Building on this view, non-binary people that consider themselves to exist within the trans* galaxy would be perceived as culturally unintelligible with their departure from the cisnormative binary (that being, \u2018female\u2019 or \u2018male\u2019) system of gender expression, and subsequent life writing.\r\n\r\nThrough Transland<\/em> by Mx. Sly, I\u2019d like to begin a discussion regarding the simultaneously joyful and repercussive resistance in embracing cultural unintelligibility within trans* life writing and the kink community. I will illustrate how Transland<\/em> exemplifies the culturally unintelligible intersection between non-binary identity and kink through Sly\u2019s written narrative surrounding play spaces and practice as fantastical pathways to self exploration and expression.\r\n

(Un)intelligibility & Non-Normative Sexual Practice<\/h2>\r\nIntelligibility relies on its proximity to whiteness (Vipond, 2018, pp. 21, 25), and in turn the structures that uphold whiteness, like that of the cisheteropatriarchy (that is: the cisgender, heterosexual patriarchy). Following this understanding, sexual practices that exist outside of heteronormative binary sexualities (e.g. communities forming around kink subcultures) misalign with cultural intelligibility by virtue of non-normative practices falling outside of a cisheteropatriarchial purity and respectability (Skidmore, 2011, p. 276, as cited in Vipond, 2018, p. 35). This is further supported in Vipond\u2019s reading of gender non-conforming writer, performer and activist Kate Bornstein\u2019s \u201canti-autobiographical\u201d (and accordingly culturally unintelligible) Gender Outlaw <\/em>(1994), in that: \u201cAs a practitioner of sadomasochism, Bornstein [also] refuses to capitulate to heteronormative, middle-class respectability\u201d (Vipond, 2018, p. 35). This aligns with depictions of kink practices explored by a gender non-conforming persons in Transland<\/em>.\r\n\r\nKink spaces and practices act as a pathway to self-expression outside the bounds of cultural intelligibility, involving avenues for gendered and non-gendered expression and articulation in a multitude of flavours. Across Transland<\/em>, Sly discusses encounters in play spaces akin to self-exploration within kink, and consequently outside what is deemed culturally intelligible: \u201ckink is a way to subvert the existing power dynamics of society in order to imagine other ways of being\u201d (2023a, p. 120).<\/a>\r\n\"\"\r\n

The Magic of Space<\/h2>\r\nWith the establishment of valid ethical consent between participating parties ---meaning it is informed, voluntary and competent (Bullock, 2020, pp. 85-94)--- a trusting dynamic can be created. Through the concept of \u201cconsent as magic\u201d which reframes typically \u201cimmoral actions into moral ones\u201d (Archard et al., 2020, pp. 174-184), space is created for fantasy, allowing ethical play to ensue. Play spaces, like dungeons used for BDSM practices (with acronym subsections depicted in the diagram above<\/a>) have the ability to transform; Trans scholar, activist and artist Susan Stryker in \u201cDungeon Intimacies: The Poetics of Transsexual Sadomasochism\u201d describes this as an act of artistic creation---a poesis<\/em>---when trans* persons exist in dungeon spaces and practice sadomasochism (2008, p. 39). The enacting of poesis<\/em> breaks down the barriers separating: \u201cthe embodied self, its world, and others\u201d, allowing for composition of \u201cspecific place\u201d in their crossover (Stryker. 2008, p. 39). This sort of fluidity between play space, practice and practitioners is further referenced by Stryker through Bachelard\u2019s The<\/em> Poetics of Space <\/em>(1994) as a blurring between the \u201c\u2018duality of subject and object\u2019\u201d that becomes \u201c\u2018iridescent, shimmering, unceasingly active in its inversions\u2019\u201d (Stryker, 2008, p. 39). Sly\u2019s sentiments reflect something comparable to the creation of poesis<\/em> and the liminality (and accompanying buzzing potential in shared transformation) of play spaces: \u201cWe who search for ourselves and for our place in the world come and go from these settings, while the setting itself barely notices\u201d (2023a, p. 114). This sort of \u2018place\u2019 does not come about in a way that is \u2018tangible\u2019, or easily comprehensible by dominant audiences or culture, and as such does not exist within intelligible bounds for transnormative narratives or normative sexuality. Yet such concepts hold space in Stryker\u2019s and Sly\u2019s descriptions in their self reflection and storytelling. The meaning attached to these types of spaces for gender non-conforming individuals is not singular or uniform, highlighting a missed opportunity for greater nuance in trans* life writing which is often not captured in conventional storytelling due to factors like safety and the demands of legibility.\r\n

The Magic of Practice<\/h2>\r\nIn addition to play space, Stryker remarks on Bachelard\u2019s interest in \u201creiterative temporal practices --habitual movements-- through which we inhabit those sites\u201d, with particular focus on the \u201cfluctuating movement between the \u2018real\u2019 and the \u2018unreal\u2019 whose dynamic interlacings produce the shimmering iridescence of poetic reverie, or common daydreaming\u201d (2008, p. 39). Particular practices and their practitioners in kink\/BDSM dynamics can allow for this stepping into a reality beyond what is intelligible that Sly illustrates in Transland<\/em> through most notably rope bondage.<\/a>\r\n\"\"Sly\u2019s enacts intelligibility-challenging storytelling through what they describe in an interview about their memoir as the employment of magic (Sly, 2023b, 34:44), and touch (Sly, 2023b, 44:23). Particularly, Sly employs magical and sensorial storytelling in various descriptions of rope bondage scenes<\/em> ---planned and consensual interactions between participating parties--- for both gendered and non-gendered self exploration and expression, which harmonise with the idea of blurring between the \u201cduality of subject and object\u201d (Belchard, 1994, as cited by Stryker, 2008, p. 39). Sly allocates considerable attention to describing the delight of jute rope (pictured above<\/a>) against the skin and body as \u201cthe universe reminding me where I came from\u201d (2023, p. 37), and the resulting feelings of interconnectedness between the rope as your immediate world, your embodied self, and the person who is tying you, composing a sort of \u201cspecific space\u201d (Stryker. 2008, p. 39) within a rigger (the person tying)\/rope bottom (the person being tied) dynamic. Sly expresses in Transland<\/em> that: \u201cWhen tied, I am very aware of how connected everything is---in the body, between the body and the mind, between the mind and the eternal, and between the eternal and ecstasy.\u201d (2023, p. 37), and that \u201cRope reframes everything.\u201d (2023, p. 37).\r\n

Who Gets Access?<\/h2>\r\nConversations surrounding cultural intelligibility in trans* life writing and non-normative sexual practices as a gender non-conforming person opens the door to a lot of topics, but cannot go without the recognition of pleasure politics; Who gets to have access to pleasure? Especially when communities that form around non-normative sexual practices can allow for a spectrum of gendered and non-gendered personal exploration and expression. While its problems do not negate its potential for innovative transformation, exploration and expression, kink communities are not immune to exclusionary \u201crules, expectations, and hierarchies\u201d (Sly, 2023a, back cover) mimicking limitations in mainstream society. Sly remarks on this in BDSM communities: \u201cWhen a subculture is built around the idea of being shunned and shamed by mainstream society, popular figures in that community become synonymous with the subculture itself. It makes it hard to critique or call out abusive behaviour because it is seen as a betrayal or an attack on the subculture as a whole.\u201d (Sly 2023a, p. 159). Kink community discourse should celebrate the fostering of connection in all of its facets but also reflect on what could be at stake for the sake of community cohesion, and what this can do to accessibility to pleasure and said connection.\r\n

Joyful Resistance<\/h2>\r\nThese brief scene <\/em>excerpts showcased from Sly\u2019s memoir do not privilege the narrative structures equivalent to intelligibility for readers, and instead fall into a natural resistance of mainstream understandings of legibility by centering the documentation of joy in sexual exploration unabashedly. This type of joy is visually captured in Dematerialisation<\/em><\/a> by \u201cBird\u201d (personal communication, December 3, 2024)<\/em>. While detailing aspects of their gender articulation through non-normative sexual practices is explored throughout Transland<\/em>, Sly\u2019s storytelling does not snap back to narrativising their own personal embodiment of their gender with every single opportunity for the sake of \u2018making themselves clear\u2019 as a trans* life writer.\r\n\r\nExtending from Shajahan\u2019s article, \u201cOn being for others\u2019: time and shame in the neoliberal academy\u201d, one could parallel conceptualisations of dominant temporalities in neoliberal academia with intelligibility in trans* life writing. Narrative structures akin to temporality as linear and outcome-oriented (Shahjahan, 2019, p. 793)---that is, clearly progressing in one direction (e.g. reduction to before and after \u201ccoming out\u201d or \u201cgrowing up\u201d (Vipond, 2019, pp. 21, 36)) with a predictable ending (e.g. physically embodying \u201cthe gender you always knew you were\u201d)---perpetuate a \u201cBeing for Others\u201d existence that expectedly precipitates disconnect from personal <\/em>authenticity for the sake of legitimised <\/em>authenticity (Vipond, 2019, p. 24; Shahjahan, 2019, pp. 787-788) in contributing to neoliberal performativity in trans* life writing as part of academia or culture more broadly. In our case, this extends to a \u2018legible\u2019, clear-cut, \u2018unmessy\u2019 representation of self as per Vipond\u2019s sentiments (2018, pp. 20-24), which we can apply here to Mx. Sly and Transland<\/em>.\r\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\r\nTransland<\/em> by Mx. Sly provides a beautiful illustration of what I consider to be joyful resistance to cultural intelligibility in trans* life writing within the arena of non-normative sexual practice and subsequent self exploration and expression. Sly\u2019s storytelling illuminates the magic of kink space and practice while documenting the navigation of these subcultures as a non-binary person through a rightfully critical lens. Even communities that exist beyond cultural intelligibility are not immune to their own set of pitfalls paralleling exclusion in mainstream society and normative culture. As such, joyful resistance to cultural intelligibility in both written accounts and existence more broadly do not come without simultaneous repercussive elements, especially for trans* persons.\r\n

Acknowledgements<\/h2>\r\nThis research was conducted on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the x\u02b7m\u0259\u03b8k\u02b7\u0259y\u0313\u0259m (Musqueam), S\u1e35wx\u0331w\u00fa7mesh (Squamish), and s\u0259lilw\u0259ta\u026c (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Visit https:\/\/www.whose.land\/en\/<\/a> to learn about the land you reside on.\r\n\r\nI\u2019d like to thank Dr. Isabel Machado for her mentorship and guidance in the development of this research, my mom for supporting and believing in me, and my dear friend, \u201cBird\u201d for their beautiful artwork and conversation.\r\n\r\n \r\n
\r\n

Author Positionality Statement - Ariana Revnic<\/h2>\r\nI identify as a white cisgender woman, and am a second generation Romanian-Canadian. I have the privilege of existing in and around queer community through multiple facets of my life; these aspects of my identity inform my scholarship with privileged perspectives. However, I urge readers to consider the inherent biases I may hold and express as a result of my positionality when engaging with my analysis of this intersection in trans* studies.\r\n\r\nAuthor Bio: <\/strong>Ariana Revnic (she\/her\/hers) is a student, artist, and avid trivia night enjoyer. She has studied at the University of Calgary and the University of British Columbia. Alongside school, she is an advocate for sexual education reform, and the fostering of community in third spaces.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n

Notes<\/h1>\r\n
    \r\n \t
  1. \r\n
      \r\n \t
    1. Note on the use of\u00a0 \u201cTrans*\u201d versus \u201cTrans\u201d: Trans* (with an asterisk) has been used historically to acknowledge identities aligning with trans as an identifier that exist outside the binary in a multitude of ways, and to generally be more inclusive to a wider variety of experiences that may be taken into consideration for the topics discussed in this essay. I use trans (without an asterisk) when I am referring to narrower contexts such as direct quotations.<\/li>\r\n \t
    2. The illustrated \u201c\u2018being for others\u2019 and temporality mirror\u201d <\/a>diagram in Shajahan\u2019s article (2019b, p.788) is a helpful metaphorical visual aid in understanding the politics surrounding the existential (the awareness of being) and embodied (the physical\/corporeal being) self, and could be broadened to represent an individual\u2019s dissonance in selfhood. Specifically, between the maintenance of cultural intelligibility<\/em> (or \u201cBeing for Others\u201d), which is sustained by an institution, concept, or idea (in place of \u201cAcademics\u201d as a label in this figure) that exists under dominant normative structures, and the internal self<\/em> (or \u201cBeing for the Self\u201d, which is done with the simultaneous repercussions and joy of resistance).<\/li>\r\n \t
    3. Due to a limited word count, I cannot go into as much detail as I would like in regards to accessibility in the kink community. However, I reflect on the history of leathermen prioritising ritual, tradition and protocol as a means of community and cultural preservation, especially during times of heightened vulnerability (e.g. the AIDS epidemic). While undoubtedly important, the preservation upheld by leathermen in kink came with the establishment of inclusion boundaries and hierarchy that, while with exceptions, left vulnerable individuals ---including trans* persons--- on the margins. A group of leathermen discuss the past, present, and future of the kink community with a trans community member<\/a> (On Guard, 2023) providing important first hand dialogue about this evolution.<\/li>\r\n \t
    4. \u00a0As a means of engaging ethical citation practices detailed in \u201cHow do you wish to be cited?\u201d (Thieme & Saunders, 2018), I\u2019ve tried to include excerpts from Transland<\/em> and other sources by trans* persons that I felt are appropriate for contextualising their works, while remaining mindful of scholarly care in harm reduction. While this source has worked mostly in the background of this essay\u2019s creation, it has been crucial in my writing as a cisgender author on trans* topics.<\/li>\r\n \t
    5. Trans bodies, Trans selves <\/em>(Erickson-Schroth, 2022) discusses sexuality with a chapter introduction paralleling discussions surrounding cultural intelligibility. It details how sex-related information tends to centre cisgender heterosexual audiences which can cause trans* people, like everyone, to \u201cinternalize and believe implicit messages about the kinds of sex we are \u201csupposed\u201d to be having\u201d (p. 719). Along with detailing different aspects of the intersection between sexuality and transness, what really struck me in this chapter was explaining embodiment as the opposite of dissociation (p. 738), and how this conversation could be a meaningful continuation of the magic of space and practice in kink for trans* persons as a way of exploring different pathways to embodiment, which I believe strengthens the joyful potential in its practice for gender and non-gendered exploration and expression.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n

      References<\/h1>\r\nArchard, D. (2020). Sexual autonomy. In A. M\u00fcller & P. Schaber (Eds.), Routledge handbook of the ethics of consent<\/em> (pp. 174\u2013184). Routledge.\r\n\r\nBachelard, G. (1994). The poetics of space<\/em> (M. Jolas, Trans.). Beacon Press. (Original work published 1958).\r\n\r\n\u200b\u200bBornstein, K. (1994). Gender outlaw: On men, women, and the rest of us<\/em>. Vintage.\r\n\r\nBullock, E. C. (2020). Valid consent. In A. M\u00fcller & P. Schaber (Eds.), Routledge handbook of the ethics of consent<\/em> (pp. 85\u201394). Routledge.\r\n\r\nButler, J. (1993). Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of \"sex\"<\/em>. Routledge.\r\n\r\nButler, J. (1997). Excitable speech: A politics of the performative<\/em>. Routledge.\r\n\r\nButler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity<\/em>. Routledge.\r\n\r\nErickson-Schroth, L. (2022). Trans bodies, Trans selves: A Resource by and for Transgender Communities<\/em> (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.\r\n\r\nOn Guard. (2023, October 14). Being Trans in the Kink Community \/\/ On Guard Ep 17<\/em>. YouTube. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JSr0UejnUmM&t=309s&ab_channel=OnGuard<\/a>\r\n\r\nShahjahan, R. A. (2019b). Figure 1. \u201cBeing for others\u201d and temporality mirror. [Diagram]. In researchgate.net<\/em>. https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/profile\/Riyad-Shahjahan\/publication\/333782646\/figure\/fig1\/AS:776584847966210@1562163664580\/Being-for-others-and-temporality-mirror.png<\/a>\r\n\r\n\u200b\u200bShahjahan, R. A. (2019a). On \u201cbeing for others\u201d: time and shame in the neoliberal academy. Journal of Education Policy<\/em>, 1\u201327. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/02680939.2019.1629027<\/a>\r\n\r\nShotwell, A. (2012). Open normativities: Gender, disability, and collective political change. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society<\/em>, 37<\/em>(4), 989\u20131016. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1086\/664475<\/a>\r\n\r\nSkidmore, E. (2011). Constructing the \"good transsexual\": Christine Jorgensen, whiteness, and heteronormativity in the mid-twentieth-century press. Feminist Studies, 37<\/em>(2), 270\u2013300. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1353\/fem.2011.0043<\/a>\r\n\r\nSly, M. (n.d.). MxSly<\/em>. TENDER CONTAINER. https:\/\/www.tendercontainer.com\/mxsly<\/a>\r\n\r\nSly, M. (2023a). Transland: Consent, kink & pleasure. <\/em>Arsenal Pulp Press.\r\n\r\nSly, M. (2023b, September 4). Let\u2019s Talk Transcendence<\/em>. YouTube. WORDVancouver. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=D7f6n_wtqVA&ab_channel=WORDVancouver<\/a>\r\n\r\nStryker, S. (2008). Dungeon intimacies: The poetics of transsexual sadomasochism. Parallax<\/em>, 14<\/em>(1), 36\u201347. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/13534640701781362<\/a>\r\n\r\nThieme, K., & Saunders, M. A. (2018). How do you wish to be cited? citation practices and a scholarly community of care in Trans Studies Research Articles. Journal of English for Academic Purposes<\/em>, 32<\/em>, 80\u201390. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.jeap.2018.03.010<\/a>\r\n\r\nVipond, E. (2018). Becoming Culturally (Un)intelligible: Exploring the Terrain of Trans Life Writing. Trans Narratives<\/em>, 34<\/em>(1), 19\u201343. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/08989575.2019.1542813<\/a>\r\n\r\nWarm Orange. (2021, February 23). Grayscale photo of person holding rope<\/em> [Photograph]. Unsplash. https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/grayscale-photo-of-person-holding-rope-ViPtoNt4kz0<\/a>\r\n\r\nWelch, J. (Designer). (2023). Cover of Transland: Consent, kink & pleasure<\/em> by Mx. Sly [Book cover]. Arsenal Pulp Press.\r\n\r\nWikimedia Commons. (2019). BDSM acronym, handcuffed<\/em> [SVG file]. Retrieved from https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:BDSM_acronym.svg<\/a>","rendered":"

      Content Warning:<\/strong> Readers are advised that discussions may include references to sexuality, consensual non-normative sexual practices, and their intersections with trans* identities that some may find sensitive or triggering. Reader discretion is advised.<\/a><\/p>\n

      \"\"
      Dematerialisation by \u201cBird\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

      \u201cOver dumplings, Evie said that the Japanese word for having an orgasm is iku, but iku actually means to go somewhere. So, while on one continent our lovers come, on the other side of the world, our lovers go. Held in the hands of lovers who make the world feel smaller, I\u2019m coming into myself and beginning to go somewhere new.\u201d<\/p>\n

      -Transland, p. 55.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      Introduction<\/h2>\n

      Transland: Consent, Kink & Pleasure <\/em><\/a>(2023) is a memoir by Mx. Sly, a non-binary writer, performer, arts producer, and flight attendant (Sly, n.d.). Sly beautifully illustrates encounters during their time in BDSM<\/a>\/kink communities, in which they delve into understanding their own gender articulation, sense of belonging, and \u201ctesting the limits of sensual experience\u201d (Sly, 2023a, back cover).<\/p>\n

      Transland<\/em> exemplifies the disruption of cultural intelligibility\u2019s bounds, a concept introduced by Judith Butler in Gender Trouble<\/em> (1990) and further in Bodies that Matter <\/em>(1993). Its alignment with \u201copen normativities\u201d, or the \u201cchallenging of homogeneity in the \u201ctransnormative narrative\u201d\u201d (Shotwell, 2012, as cited in Vipond, 2018, pp. 21, 33, 36) is apparent in its illustrated transsubjectivity at the cross sections of namely gender non-conforming identity and non-normative sexuality practices.<\/p>\n

      (Un)intelligibility & Trans* Life Writing<\/h2>\n

      Evan Vipond offers the concept of becoming culturally (un)intelligible in trans* life writing. According to Vipond, hegemonic trans* narratives—those that align with dominant cultural norms—often emerge from the systemic pressures to meet the expectations of cisgender audiences, ensuring cultural intelligibility. These narratives are shaped by the constraints of legibility<\/em>, some being the use of recognisable language, repetition, and linear timeline frameworks in storytelling. Such strategies resonate with mainstream<\/em> audiences (predominantly cisgender and heterosexual) and provide access to legitimacy<\/em>, which, within the perception of dominant culture, is equated with cultural intelligibility (2018, pp. 19\u201336).<\/p>\n

      Trans* life writers are often pigeonholed into constructing this \u2018coherent narrative\u2019 to gain the capital associated with being regarded as \u2018real\u2019 —or the ability to pass within dominant culture as their experienced gender. However, trans* persons who do not<\/em> pass, and in turn are not regarded as \u2018real\u2019, are deemed culturally un<\/em>intelligible because they are not legible<\/em> to dominant culture, and in trans* life writing, its dominant audiences (Vipond, 2018). In this view then, culturally intelligible trans* life writers are revered for their instrumentality, usually as a result of diluting, or omitting topics that are \u2018hard to conceptualise\u2019 in their storytelling for the sake of being legitimized<\/em> (Shahjahan, 2019, p. 791) to fit a mould that realistically not all trans* persons fit. Building on this view, non-binary people that consider themselves to exist within the trans* galaxy would be perceived as culturally unintelligible with their departure from the cisnormative binary (that being, \u2018female\u2019 or \u2018male\u2019) system of gender expression, and subsequent life writing.<\/p>\n

      Through Transland<\/em> by Mx. Sly, I\u2019d like to begin a discussion regarding the simultaneously joyful and repercussive resistance in embracing cultural unintelligibility within trans* life writing and the kink community. I will illustrate how Transland<\/em> exemplifies the culturally unintelligible intersection between non-binary identity and kink through Sly\u2019s written narrative surrounding play spaces and practice as fantastical pathways to self exploration and expression.<\/p>\n

      (Un)intelligibility & Non-Normative Sexual Practice<\/h2>\n

      Intelligibility relies on its proximity to whiteness (Vipond, 2018, pp. 21, 25), and in turn the structures that uphold whiteness, like that of the cisheteropatriarchy (that is: the cisgender, heterosexual patriarchy). Following this understanding, sexual practices that exist outside of heteronormative binary sexualities (e.g. communities forming around kink subcultures) misalign with cultural intelligibility by virtue of non-normative practices falling outside of a cisheteropatriarchial purity and respectability (Skidmore, 2011, p. 276, as cited in Vipond, 2018, p. 35). This is further supported in Vipond\u2019s reading of gender non-conforming writer, performer and activist Kate Bornstein\u2019s \u201canti-autobiographical\u201d (and accordingly culturally unintelligible) Gender Outlaw <\/em>(1994), in that: \u201cAs a practitioner of sadomasochism, Bornstein [also] refuses to capitulate to heteronormative, middle-class respectability\u201d (Vipond, 2018, p. 35). This aligns with depictions of kink practices explored by a gender non-conforming persons in Transland<\/em>.<\/p>\n

      Kink spaces and practices act as a pathway to self-expression outside the bounds of cultural intelligibility, involving avenues for gendered and non-gendered expression and articulation in a multitude of flavours. Across Transland<\/em>, Sly discusses encounters in play spaces akin to self-exploration within kink, and consequently outside what is deemed culturally intelligible: \u201ckink is a way to subvert the existing power dynamics of society in order to imagine other ways of being\u201d (2023a, p. 120).<\/a>
      \n\"\"<\/p>\n

      The Magic of Space<\/h2>\n

      With the establishment of valid ethical consent between participating parties —meaning it is informed, voluntary and competent (Bullock, 2020, pp. 85-94)— a trusting dynamic can be created. Through the concept of \u201cconsent as magic\u201d which reframes typically \u201cimmoral actions into moral ones\u201d (Archard et al., 2020, pp. 174-184), space is created for fantasy, allowing ethical play to ensue. Play spaces, like dungeons used for BDSM practices (with acronym subsections depicted in the diagram above<\/a>) have the ability to transform; Trans scholar, activist and artist Susan Stryker in \u201cDungeon Intimacies: The Poetics of Transsexual Sadomasochism\u201d describes this as an act of artistic creation—a poesis<\/em>—when trans* persons exist in dungeon spaces and practice sadomasochism (2008, p. 39). The enacting of poesis<\/em> breaks down the barriers separating: \u201cthe embodied self, its world, and others\u201d, allowing for composition of \u201cspecific place\u201d in their crossover (Stryker. 2008, p. 39). This sort of fluidity between play space, practice and practitioners is further referenced by Stryker through Bachelard\u2019s The<\/em> Poetics of Space <\/em>(1994) as a blurring between the \u201c\u2018duality of subject and object\u2019\u201d that becomes \u201c\u2018iridescent, shimmering, unceasingly active in its inversions\u2019\u201d (Stryker, 2008, p. 39). Sly\u2019s sentiments reflect something comparable to the creation of poesis<\/em> and the liminality (and accompanying buzzing potential in shared transformation) of play spaces: \u201cWe who search for ourselves and for our place in the world come and go from these settings, while the setting itself barely notices\u201d (2023a, p. 114). This sort of \u2018place\u2019 does not come about in a way that is \u2018tangible\u2019, or easily comprehensible by dominant audiences or culture, and as such does not exist within intelligible bounds for transnormative narratives or normative sexuality. Yet such concepts hold space in Stryker\u2019s and Sly\u2019s descriptions in their self reflection and storytelling. The meaning attached to these types of spaces for gender non-conforming individuals is not singular or uniform, highlighting a missed opportunity for greater nuance in trans* life writing which is often not captured in conventional storytelling due to factors like safety and the demands of legibility.<\/p>\n

      The Magic of Practice<\/h2>\n

      In addition to play space, Stryker remarks on Bachelard\u2019s interest in \u201creiterative temporal practices –habitual movements– through which we inhabit those sites\u201d, with particular focus on the \u201cfluctuating movement between the \u2018real\u2019 and the \u2018unreal\u2019 whose dynamic interlacings produce the shimmering iridescence of poetic reverie, or common daydreaming\u201d (2008, p. 39). Particular practices and their practitioners in kink\/BDSM dynamics can allow for this stepping into a reality beyond what is intelligible that Sly illustrates in Transland<\/em> through most notably rope bondage.<\/a>
      \n\"\"Sly\u2019s enacts intelligibility-challenging storytelling through what they describe in an interview about their memoir as the employment of magic (Sly, 2023b, 34:44), and touch (Sly, 2023b, 44:23). Particularly, Sly employs magical and sensorial storytelling in various descriptions of rope bondage scenes<\/em> —planned and consensual interactions between participating parties— for both gendered and non-gendered self exploration and expression, which harmonise with the idea of blurring between the \u201cduality of subject and object\u201d (Belchard, 1994, as cited by Stryker, 2008, p. 39). Sly allocates considerable attention to describing the delight of jute rope (      pictured above<\/a>) against the skin and body as \u201cthe universe reminding me where I came from\u201d (2023, p. 37), and the resulting feelings of interconnectedness between the rope as your immediate world, your embodied self, and the person who is tying you, composing a sort of \u201cspecific space\u201d (Stryker. 2008, p. 39) within a rigger (the person tying)\/rope bottom (the person being tied) dynamic. Sly expresses in Transland<\/em> that: \u201cWhen tied, I am very aware of how connected everything is—in the body, between the body and the mind, between the mind and the eternal, and between the eternal and ecstasy.\u201d (2023, p. 37), and that \u201cRope reframes everything.\u201d (2023, p. 37).<\/p>\n

      Who Gets Access?<\/h2>\n

      Conversations surrounding cultural intelligibility in trans* life writing and non-normative sexual practices as a gender non-conforming person opens the door to a lot of topics, but cannot go without the recognition of pleasure politics; Who gets to have access to pleasure? Especially when communities that form around non-normative sexual practices can allow for a spectrum of gendered and non-gendered personal exploration and expression. While its problems do not negate its potential for innovative transformation, exploration and expression, kink communities are not immune to exclusionary \u201crules, expectations, and hierarchies\u201d (Sly, 2023a, back cover) mimicking limitations in mainstream society. Sly remarks on this in BDSM communities: \u201cWhen a subculture is built around the idea of being shunned and shamed by mainstream society, popular figures in that community become synonymous with the subculture itself. It makes it hard to critique or call out abusive behaviour because it is seen as a betrayal or an attack on the subculture as a whole.\u201d (Sly 2023a, p. 159). Kink community discourse should celebrate the fostering of connection in all of its facets but also reflect on what could be at stake for the sake of community cohesion, and what this can do to accessibility to pleasure and said connection.<\/p>\n

      Joyful Resistance<\/h2>\n

      These brief scene <\/em>excerpts showcased from Sly\u2019s memoir do not privilege the narrative structures equivalent to intelligibility for readers, and instead fall into a natural resistance of mainstream understandings of legibility by centering the documentation of joy in sexual exploration unabashedly. This type of joy is visually captured in Dematerialisation<\/em><\/a> by \u201cBird\u201d (personal communication, December 3, 2024)<\/em>. While detailing aspects of their gender articulation through non-normative sexual practices is explored throughout Transland<\/em>, Sly\u2019s storytelling does not snap back to narrativising their own personal embodiment of their gender with every single opportunity for the sake of \u2018making themselves clear\u2019 as a trans* life writer.<\/p>\n

      Extending from Shajahan\u2019s article, \u201cOn being for others\u2019: time and shame in the neoliberal academy\u201d, one could parallel conceptualisations of dominant temporalities in neoliberal academia with intelligibility in trans* life writing. Narrative structures akin to temporality as linear and outcome-oriented (Shahjahan, 2019, p. 793)—that is, clearly progressing in one direction (e.g. reduction to before and after \u201ccoming out\u201d or \u201cgrowing up\u201d (Vipond, 2019, pp. 21, 36)) with a predictable ending (e.g. physically embodying \u201cthe gender you always knew you were\u201d)—perpetuate a \u201cBeing for Others\u201d existence that expectedly precipitates disconnect from personal <\/em>authenticity for the sake of legitimised <\/em>authenticity (Vipond, 2019, p. 24; Shahjahan, 2019, pp. 787-788) in contributing to neoliberal performativity in trans* life writing as part of academia or culture more broadly. In our case, this extends to a \u2018legible\u2019, clear-cut, \u2018unmessy\u2019 representation of self as per Vipond\u2019s sentiments (2018, pp. 20-24), which we can apply here to Mx. Sly and Transland<\/em>.<\/p>\n

      Conclusion<\/h2>\n

      Transland<\/em> by Mx. Sly provides a beautiful illustration of what I consider to be joyful resistance to cultural intelligibility in trans* life writing within the arena of non-normative sexual practice and subsequent self exploration and expression. Sly\u2019s storytelling illuminates the magic of kink space and practice while documenting the navigation of these subcultures as a non-binary person through a rightfully critical lens. Even communities that exist beyond cultural intelligibility are not immune to their own set of pitfalls paralleling exclusion in mainstream society and normative culture. As such, joyful resistance to cultural intelligibility in both written accounts and existence more broadly do not come without simultaneous repercussive elements, especially for trans* persons.<\/p>\n

      Acknowledgements<\/h2>\n

      This research was conducted on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the x\u02b7m\u0259\u03b8k\u02b7\u0259y\u0313\u0259m (Musqueam), S\u1e35wx\u0331w\u00fa7mesh (Squamish), and s\u0259lilw\u0259ta\u026c (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Visit https:\/\/www.whose.land\/en\/<\/a> to learn about the land you reside on.<\/p>\n

      I\u2019d like to thank Dr. Isabel Machado for her mentorship and guidance in the development of this research, my mom for supporting and believing in me, and my dear friend, \u201cBird\u201d for their beautiful artwork and conversation.<\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      \n

      Author Positionality Statement – Ariana Revnic<\/h2>\n

      I identify as a white cisgender woman, and am a second generation Romanian-Canadian. I have the privilege of existing in and around queer community through multiple facets of my life; these aspects of my identity inform my scholarship with privileged perspectives. However, I urge readers to consider the inherent biases I may hold and express as a result of my positionality when engaging with my analysis of this intersection in trans* studies.<\/p>\n

      Author Bio: <\/strong>Ariana Revnic (she\/her\/hers) is a student, artist, and avid trivia night enjoyer. She has studied at the University of Calgary and the University of British Columbia. Alongside school, she is an advocate for sexual education reform, and the fostering of community in third spaces.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

       <\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

      Notes<\/h1>\n
        \n
      1. \n
          \n
        1. Note on the use of\u00a0 \u201cTrans*\u201d versus \u201cTrans\u201d: Trans* (with an asterisk) has been used historically to acknowledge identities aligning with trans as an identifier that exist outside the binary in a multitude of ways, and to generally be more inclusive to a wider variety of experiences that may be taken into consideration for the topics discussed in this essay. I use trans (without an asterisk) when I am referring to narrower contexts such as direct quotations.<\/li>\n
        2. The illustrated \u201c\u2018being for others\u2019 and temporality mirror\u201d <\/a>diagram in Shajahan\u2019s article (2019b, p.788) is a helpful metaphorical visual aid in understanding the politics surrounding the existential (the awareness of being) and embodied (the physical\/corporeal being) self, and could be broadened to represent an individual\u2019s dissonance in selfhood. Specifically, between the maintenance of cultural intelligibility<\/em> (or \u201cBeing for Others\u201d), which is sustained by an institution, concept, or idea (in place of \u201cAcademics\u201d as a label in this figure) that exists under dominant normative structures, and the internal self<\/em> (or \u201cBeing for the Self\u201d, which is done with the simultaneous repercussions and joy of resistance).<\/li>\n
        3. Due to a limited word count, I cannot go into as much detail as I would like in regards to accessibility in the kink community. However, I reflect on the history of leathermen prioritising ritual, tradition and protocol as a means of community and cultural preservation, especially during times of heightened vulnerability (e.g. the AIDS epidemic). While undoubtedly important, the preservation upheld by leathermen in kink came with the establishment of inclusion boundaries and hierarchy that, while with exceptions, left vulnerable individuals —including trans* persons— on the margins. A group of leathermen discuss the past, present, and future of the kink community with a trans community member<\/a> (On Guard, 2023) providing important first hand dialogue about this evolution.<\/li>\n
        4. \u00a0As a means of engaging ethical citation practices detailed in \u201cHow do you wish to be cited?\u201d (Thieme & Saunders, 2018), I\u2019ve tried to include excerpts from Transland<\/em> and other sources by trans* persons that I felt are appropriate for contextualising their works, while remaining mindful of scholarly care in harm reduction. While this source has worked mostly in the background of this essay\u2019s creation, it has been crucial in my writing as a cisgender author on trans* topics.<\/li>\n
        5. Trans bodies, Trans selves <\/em>(Erickson-Schroth, 2022) discusses sexuality with a chapter introduction paralleling discussions surrounding cultural intelligibility. It details how sex-related information tends to centre cisgender heterosexual audiences which can cause trans* people, like everyone, to \u201cinternalize and believe implicit messages about the kinds of sex we are \u201csupposed\u201d to be having\u201d (p. 719). Along with detailing different aspects of the intersection between sexuality and transness, what really struck me in this chapter was explaining embodiment as the opposite of dissociation (p. 738), and how this conversation could be a meaningful continuation of the magic of space and practice in kink for trans* persons as a way of exploring different pathways to embodiment, which I believe strengthens the joyful potential in its practice for gender and non-gendered exploration and expression.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          References<\/h1>\n

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          \u200b\u200bShahjahan, R. A. (2019a). On \u201cbeing for others\u201d: time and shame in the neoliberal academy. Journal of Education Policy<\/em>, 1\u201327. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/02680939.2019.1629027<\/a><\/p>\n

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          Sly, M. (n.d.). MxSly<\/em>. TENDER CONTAINER. https:\/\/www.tendercontainer.com\/mxsly<\/a><\/p>\n

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          Sly, M. (2023b, September 4). Let\u2019s Talk Transcendence<\/em>. YouTube. WORDVancouver. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=D7f6n_wtqVA&ab_channel=WORDVancouver<\/a><\/p>\n

          Stryker, S. (2008). Dungeon intimacies: The poetics of transsexual sadomasochism. Parallax<\/em>, 14<\/em>(1), 36\u201347. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/13534640701781362<\/a><\/p>\n

          Thieme, K., & Saunders, M. A. (2018). How do you wish to be cited? citation practices and a scholarly community of care in Trans Studies Research Articles. Journal of English for Academic Purposes<\/em>, 32<\/em>, 80\u201390. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.jeap.2018.03.010<\/a><\/p>\n

          Vipond, E. (2018). Becoming Culturally (Un)intelligible: Exploring the Terrain of Trans Life Writing. Trans Narratives<\/em>, 34<\/em>(1), 19\u201343. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/08989575.2019.1542813<\/a><\/p>\n

          Warm Orange. (2021, February 23). Grayscale photo of person holding rope<\/em> [Photograph]. Unsplash. https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/grayscale-photo-of-person-holding-rope-ViPtoNt4kz0<\/a><\/p>\n

          Welch, J. (Designer). (2023). Cover of Transland: Consent, kink & pleasure<\/em> by Mx. Sly [Book cover]. Arsenal Pulp Press.<\/p>\n

          Wikimedia Commons. (2019). BDSM acronym, handcuffed<\/em> [SVG file]. Retrieved from https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:BDSM_acronym.svg<\/a><\/p>\n

          Media Attributions<\/h2>