Transcending Cisheteronormativity:

A Reflexive Artistic Process

Kira Risler

Social and bodily dysphoria, low self-esteem, and a self-defeating attitude are
things that plague many transgender people all over the world, causing high rates of
mental illness and suicidal tendencies. Much of these feelings are induced by a cissexist,
misogynist, and white supremacist society, which creates social hierarchies based on
physical characteristics. Transgender women of colour are especially vulnerable to these
elements, with race being highly gendered under a long, violent history of colonialism.
My portrait series focuses on selfies (candid photographic self-portraits) of
transgender people. Selfies are an empowering act of self-celebration and selfacceptance, something particularly difficult for trans people, to reclaim their body, sense
of self, and how they are perceived by society. By using this reflexive method of
representation, I create paintings for the subjects depicted within them, that they may
look at, embrace their image, and believe they are beautiful, powerful, and deserving of
humanity, respect, and love.
Representations of transgender people in popular culture are growing, but are
created by cisgender people, for cisgender people. They are often based in harmful
stereotypes, which depict trans people, especially trans women, as monsters or as jokes.
Even when depictions of trans people are created with good intentions, I believe that
attempting to create truly subversive social commentary can only be done if the
representations of marginalized people are done by those people, and for those people.

These ideas have been largely shaped by the works of Franz Fanon and Paulo
Friere, but I have incorporated ideas on the representations and social constructions of
gender from the writings of Judith Butler, Bobby Noble, and Eric A. Stanley to
contextualize my work.
I hope to inspire other trans people to embrace their own image as well as
themselves as a person, inspire cisgender people to question the ways bodies are
gendered, and break down the harmful stereotypes that dictate the way trans people are
perceived.