Bending Gender Bending
A new book is supposed to be the tell-all behind the greatest literary hoax of our day, but ends up reinforcing stereotypes about gender identity.By Miriam Pérez
December 18, 2008
Savannah Knoop’s “tell all” about her JT Leroy impersonation.The title of Savannah Knoop’s recently released memoir Girl Boy Girl: Becoming JT Leroy is rather deceiving but ultimately fitting. Knoop’s memoir is based on her experience as an impersonator cum literary celebrity. Knoop spent six years impersonating JT Leroy, the famed author of various popular supposedly autobiographical fictions from the 1990s, including Sarah and The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things. The books were allegedly written by and largely based on the life of JT Leroy, a gender-bending male who is a former truck driver and sex worker. The plot only gets more confusing from there, as Knoop—a queer woman—takes on the task of impersonating JT for the media and resulting celebrity buzz. She was enlisted by her sister in-law, Laura Albert, the actual author behind the JT Leroy books.
If you, like me, thought after a first glance at the title of Knoop’s book that it might be about the experiences of a transgender person, you would be rather disappointed. Instead, her impersonation of a gender bending character is just another layer of Knoop’s deception. Girl Boy Girl seems to be yet another example of the gender non-conformity used to create intrigue and sensationalism. What is even more dramatic about this particular scenario is that the deception continued from the novels into real life with Knoop’s own antics.
The real problem with the whole JT Leroy circus is that instead of presenting real issues about gender non-conformity and transgender identity the book meshes them all together. The books of JT Leroy are about a gender-bending male, whose identity is unclear, but Knoop as JT throws various embellishments about hormones and surgery into the mix. The treatment of JT as a representative of a member of the gender non-conforming community is insulting at best. (Full disclosure: I haven’t read the original JT Leroy books, so it is difficult for me to comment on Albert’s treatment of gender non-conformity in them.)
At one point during JT’s charade, “he” begins a relationship with the famous Asia Argento. Faced with the prospect of nudity with Argento, JT “confesses” that he has had a complete sex change to explain his female body. Yet throughout the hoax, Knoop continues to play JT as a man, binding her breasts. The original JT LeRoy books reference JT’s androgynous nature and other signs of gender bending. But like many details of JT LeRoy’s supposed life, what’s real is quite unclear.
What is clear is that the gender questioning that recurs in the books and fabricated story of JT’s life is just another tool used by Albert to bring more publicity and fame to her hoax. The way Knoop deals with JT’s gender identity sets off alarm bells, but it also most obviously shows insensitivity to real transgender issues. Knoop never mentions any discomfort with her role as JT in terms of gender aside from constant fear of discovery and Albert as the original inventor never brings it up.
Almost more disappointing than Knoop’s and Albert’s omissions is the omission in The Advocate’s reporting on the memoir. The Advocate, which bills itself as an LGBT news magazine, completely neglects this angle instead buying into the drama of the impersonation revealed, focusing mostly on Knoop and her successful hoax, as well as her celebrity hobnobbing as JT.
Knoop herself is a rather vapid portrayal and the reader never really grasps the motivation behind her years of deception as JT. Her relationship with Albert, JT’s creator, is the focus of the book, almost sickeningly so. From Knoop’s perspective, their relationship is more obsessive than functional, characterized by Albert’s idiosyncrasies and domineering nature. Knoop and Albert share an eating disorder that seems similar to bulimia, but even this is treated with such a detached appraisal that it becomes overwhelming and obnoxious by the end.
The reason Knoop and Albert’s appropriation of a trans character is so frustrating is not really any fault of their own, and instead is a product of the trend of trans appropriation that is becoming rather common in the mainstream. From New York Times bestseller Middlesex to the mainstream movies Transamerica, these representations of trans experience are often not based on the experiences of any actual trans people. Instead, these authors take serious liberty in order to sensationalize and play on our fascination with gender non-conformity. Girl Boy Girl and the entire JT Leroy charade is just another example of this, except taken up a notch. This time, it wasn’t just fiction, but it was an entire fictionalized persona. As a result Knoop’s book is even more irritating and insulting.
Miriam Zoila Pérez is a Senior Advocacy Associate at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and an editor at Feministing. She also blogs at Radical Doula.
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Comments
Thank you so much for this insightful review Ms. Perez! As a transwoman, you’ve outlined exactly what my disgust with the JT Leroy (and Knoop/Albert) saga is from. They exploit, objectify and ultimately trivialize trans issues. You’re the only writer (I’ve seen) thoughtful enough to understand what offended the trans community so much about this ‘travesty.’ Sadly, how Knoop deals with our experience and community resembles how many others in the ‘genderqueer-chic’ community relate to us. I hope Knoop goes back into the sinkhole she came from and she can’t promote her fashion business on our backs. Thanks again for your sentient review.
— gina morvay - Dec 19, 11:29 AM - #Thank you so much for this insightful review Ms. Perez! As a transwoman, you’ve outlined exactly what my disgust with the JT Leroy (and Knoop/Albert) saga is from. They exploit, objectify and ultimately trivialize trans issues. You’re the only writer (I’ve seen) thoughtful enough to understand what offended the trans community so much about this ‘travesty.’ Sadly, how Knoop deals with our experience and community resembles how many others in the ‘genderqueer-chic’ community relate to us. I hope Knoop goes back into the sinkhole she came from and she can’t promote her fashion business on our backs. Thanks again for your sentient review.
— gina morvay - Dec 19, 11:29 AM - #Ms.Perez writes, “The original JT LeRoy books reference JT’s androgynous nature and other signs of gender bending. But like many details of JT LeRoy’s supposed life, what’s real is quite unclear.” Unclear of course, to Ms. Perez, as she has not read the JT LeRoy books. Because she’s sounding off on writing of which she is completely ignorant, Ms. Perez has no claim to an opinion about the writer Laura Albert; all she has is a prejudice. And her decision to air her prejudices publicly demeans both herself and the people who read her comments. And by the way, Ms. Morvay, I too am a transwoman, and I consider Laura Albert to be a writer of genius — an opinion, based on familiarity with her writing; please note that fact, Ms. Perez.
— Nicole V. Gagne - Dec 29, 10:16 AM - #Nicole, you’re welcome to find ‘genius’ in Laura Albert’s work. There are lots of people who some feel to be geniuses who I find personally offensive, like Ezra Pound or Wyndham Lewis. But I have read ‘Sarah’ and I think it’s a very dishonest look at the subculture of boy sexworkers, much less transyouth sexworkers. So, I’m glad you were impressed, I wasn’t. And I stand by my statement that it’s a work of ‘genderqueer chic’ that objectifies gender variant youth, you may feel otherwise.
— gina morvay - Jan 9, 12:17 AM - #