A Book on Trans Women Deserves Their Place in Car Culture

Our world is a rich and diverse one. One would expect us to be inclusive of all of us.

This is the challenge for the trans community – in particular, trans women and transfeminine people. They are often excluded by society and, even, by some of our own members of this community.

A new book by automotive journalist Victoria Scott introduces us to 21 transfeminine people in the “lookbook” We Deserve This.

The trans women in this book were photographed matched up with vehicles that match their personality, some of which were photographed with their own rides. These vehicles range from supercars to sport compacts, classic machines to motorcycles.

Each of these transfemme people – representing “seven metro areas in four different states” – were photographed fully expressing themselves and their identity through beautifully crafted images.

Scott is one of few members of the automotive media corps who identify as transfeminine. Her inspiration for the book came from a spur of the moment photo shoot with this model and a gold Toyota MR2. “A friend of mine, let me borrow it while he was working on my old van,” explained Scott. “It was my daily driver at the time. He had it in his shop and he was like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to sell this some point soon, but you can take it out.’ I took it out to Dallas. We were hanging out, had a dinner date that evening. And we were like, ‘Oh, let’s go do some pictures for fun.’ I had been doing photography for probably, at this point, 16 years. And we had a cool car. We were both dressed up. We were like, ‘Let’s go take some pictures.’”

The photo set with the model and the MR2 are the first set of photos you will see in the book. “It was one of those nights where everything just came together,” explained Scott. “The lighting was perfect. Our outfits were great. We were both feeling so confident. I was good as a photographer. She was really enjoying herself as a model.”

Scott realized what she had created from that first photo shoot would something extraordinary. “I came back from that night with these amazing photographs,” Scott further explained. “I arranged them into a little collage thing because I was like, this is stronger as a collective than it is as individual shots. It essentially turned out as a empowering pinup-esque kind of shoot. She was dressed so ’90s, she had her Polaroid camera. We had this strong color theming and cohesive sort of aesthetic through these pictures.”

“I don’t recall ever seeing anything like this,” reflected Scott. “Fashion and automobilia have been intersecting for basically ever, but a trans look at it is basically nonexistent. Trans women have been more or less, as you pointed out earlier, trans women have been more or less excluded from the automotive industry forever. Because you basically, you’re told you have to give that passion up when you come out. I was like, ‘This just feels new to me.’”

Trans women exist in many different places. Scott knew they are also enthusiastic about automobiles and motorcycles. Some of which are indeed enthusiasts with vehicles that reflect their personalities and identities.

This is reflected upon Scott’s motivations to put together the models and their photographs into this book. “Part of the reason that I wanted to make the book was because I wanted something that portrayed a bunch of things, like trans femininity, our interaction with car culture, our pride in our machines, our fashion sense, our diversity of life in a positive light,” explained Scott. “I didn’t see enough works of art like that. But there certainly are more now I think, and they’re becoming more mainstream, but they still haven’t reached the saturation I wanted them to.”

Scott continued, “I was like, ‘I will do my part and I’m going to make this,’ and hopefully it will spur other people to make their own spaces, take their own pride, feel like they have a place to come out, feel like they have a place to carve out space for themselves.”

What sort of outcome does Scott and her subjects in the book would like to see when they pick it up and turn its pages? “I think collectively as a community, we have the ability to create part of the change we want to see,” said Scott. “This book is not going to single-handedly change anything. But I hope that it’s like a seed, it’s a building block in many, many building blocks that many, many people will use to open up all of our communities to all of us.”

When you can, go order this book through the link below. It is truly a celebration of our community and our enthusiasm for our rides.

We Deserve This. A Transfeminine Automotive Lookbook
Victoria Scott
Carrara Media LLC
$49.99
www.carrarabooks.com/store/p/we-deserve-this