Sessi Kuwabara Blanchard
Sessi Kuwabara Blanchard is an independent drug journalist and a writer thinking through transgender life and culture. She is also a grassroots drug-user activist organizing for a safe supply and against criminalization. Follow her on Twitter @SessiBlanchard.
Trans-Gendered, or How to Disappear
By Sessi Kuwabara BlanchardWhen I transitioned, I was no longer seen as somewhat-Asian-looking. I was whitened. The features that highlighted racial difference for others—my short black hair erect, frontward, like a ball cap’s bill; bushy brows; a rounded face with apple cheeks—were resignified when my hair grew into long tresses, my brows were tweezed, and the curvature of my face became a laudable feminine quality. The racist image of the Asian-American man helps me pass as a white woman.
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