Transgender Celebrity

In a society obsessed with celebrity, transgender personalities are at the forefront of media engagement with transgender subjectivities. Popular figures such as Laverne Cox, Caitlyn Jenner and Janet Mock exemplify a unique type of celebrity whose transgender identity is key to their public persona. These are celebrities who are both entertainers and advocates, and cultural responses to them function as benchmarks for contemporary attitudes towards gender and sexuality. Acknowledging celebrities as vital social signifiers and icons of cultural memory, Transgender Celebrity examines the ways transgender celebrities bring visibility to the marginalisation of transgender people while functioning as a dynamic facet of mainstream celebrity discourse.