Film Reviews
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Trans Visibility in Tangerine
Sean Baker’s 2015 film Tangerine is nothing if not unconventional. And its unconventionality is what makes it genius. Tangerine powerfully plays with the rules of cinema by rejecting the tradition of using popular images and stereotypes for profit while accepting the tradition of innovation and possibility.
Filmed on three Iphones, Tangerine follows two transgender women named Sin-dee and Alexandra (played by trans actresses Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor) who are sex workers on their own personal missions that ironically fall on Christmas Eve in sunny Los Angeles. Sin-dee is in a frantic search for her cheating pimp-boyfriend after her recent release from prison. Alexandra is promoting her singing show while simultaneously on the job, in hopes of gathering a large, supportive crowd for the performance that evening. Although the performance may not go as planned, the singing scene was a hypnotizing success and Alexandra was a shining star with a powerful presence. Her presence on that stage commanded femininity. Her presence on that stage demanded visibility. Her presence on that stage expanded the inner possibilities for herself and all trans women.
In a society that is dangerously fixated on appearances, “correct” gender roles and identity, trans women are in a difficult position. They may feel forced to routinely present femininity in a way that is “welcomed” or passable as a cis-gender individual in order to feel accepted and physically safe. Trans women who are sex workers have to compete to keep up with expectations of femininity in order to receive more clients so these women must spend money on expensive procedures for fuller lips, fuller breasts, and more. Trans women of color who are sex workers are in constant danger due to their intersections of oppressions: transphobia, racism, sexism, whorephobia, and homophobia. Trans women’s lives are full of reflections. They have to look in the mirror and pick at themselves to construct what the world would allow as feminine and woman. They must ask themselves if their mannerisms, the movements natural to their bodies, will put them in danger. A mentally exhausting task that can be a daily occurrence. This is what makes Alexandra’s tranquil scene on stage such a revolutionary achievement because that exact strenuous task is removed.
When trans women see Alexandra, another trans woman, perfectly content in her expression on stage with a spotlight elegantly glazing her body, they can see their ideal selves as Alexandra does the same. Trans women can identify with Alexandra while also happily fantasizing of having her likeness because there is joy in seeing yourself represented in a more complete, perfected form (Mulvey 60). This viewing of Alexandra gives pleasure in the present viewing but also a tangible example of what transness can be for future generations (Mulvey, 60). On stage, there are no mirrors. There are no reflections of Alexandra from the windows on buildings she walks by daily. There are no cars with headlights flashing interrogation on her face, while their passing drivers hide like shadows, prepared with their weapons. On stage, there is just Alexandra. Her talent. Her lovely song. Her red dress. Her simple hair and makeup. On stage, Alexandra is multidimensional: delicate yet commanding, confident yet modest, and wise yet eager for the new. The crowd may be small, but Alexandra’s secure presence fills the entire room. She is angelic in the light while the audience in the film (and the actual viewer in the theater) sit in the darkness, the symbolic bleak stagnation of the present looking with longing at the private, yet somehow reachable world of Alexandra, the future (Mulvey 60). On stage, she looks down at the darkness, not with anger or humor but with gentle sympathy. She sees her soul sister, Sin-dee in the audience (along with her trans-sisters in the theater) and recognizes their present pain. Alexandra has felt it too and she will feel it again once she steps off that stage back into reality.
Click Above To Watch Alexandra’s Performance!
After the performance, nothing drastically changes in the world of Sin-dee and Alexandra, but the feeling is different, they are different. Along with the trans audiences sitting in the theater, they have had a taste of the possibility of promising trans-visibility without the current agonizing constraints. Trans people can feel anticipative of safe, enjoyable visibility leaving the theater with them one day and forever stop existing as a fleeting film fantasy.
Works Cited
Baker, Sean, and Chris Bergoch. Tangerine, Duplass Brothers Productions, 2015,
https://spelmancollege.techsmithrelay.com/ujgx. Accessed 6 Dec. 2021.
Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Visual and Other Pleasures, 1989, pp.
57–69., https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19798-9_3.