Trans Pleasure: On Gender Liberation and Sexual Freedom

A bold and provocative book centering the voices of trans women and femmes in the pursuit of pleasure and gender liberation.

What are the possibilities of pleasure when we stop labeling our desires? In Trans Pleasure, Brandon Andrew Robinson answers this seductive question by exploring the sex lives of trans women and femmes.

Centering the voices of trans women and femmes through in-depth interviews, Trans Pleasure takes us to the bedroom, to restaurants, to dating apps, and to other spaces that comprise the everyday dating experiences of trans people. Through this erotic journey, Robinson reveals how dominant understandings of sexual identities--which center desires around gender and genitals--harm trans people. They also limit how everyone can love and feel pleasure.

In shifting the focus to comfort and to trans for trans relations, this frank and ambitious book expands our thinking about love, gender, sexuality, relationships, and desire. With this bold exploration of trans pleasure, Robinson makes the provocative claim that discarding sexual identities is the path to gender liberation and true erotic freedom.

Brandon Andrew Robinson is Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of California, Riverside, author of Coming Out to the Streets, and coauthor of Race and Sexuality.