The Outsider’s Space In-Between: Renegotiating Monstrosity in Contemporary Transgender Short Fiction

The image of trans monstrosity has been firmly anchored in mainstream North American popular culture, most notably through films such as Psycho, Dressed to Kill, and Silence the Lambs. This cultural vilification had catastrophic effects on communities, stoking violence especially against trans-feminine people, promoting discrimination, severely affecting people’s self-images. By analysing two contemporary short stories, Julian K. Jarboe’s I Am A Beautiful Bug! A.K. Blue’s God Empress Susanna, this paper examines different approaches monster trope from perspectives investigates entanglements between identity, monstrosity, disability.