Redefining realness: My path to womanhood, identity, love, & so much more

Vulnerability plays an important role within the narrative. Throughout the memoir, Mock is vulnerable for a variety of reasons: her burgeoning trans identity, her positionality as a person of color, and her parents’ lack of financial stability, to name a few. As a child, this vulnerability makes her an easier target for Derek, who capitalizes on these vulnerabilities in order to sexually abuse her. Mock remembers, “My inclinations made me all the more vulnerable to him, and my vulnerabilities made me easy prey” (43). Mock attributes much of her vulnerability to her identity as trans, which she does not necessarily understand as a child. Her burgeoning trans identity, unlike her racial identity and her economic status, make her different from other people; as such, she becomes an easy target for Derek’s predatory behavior:

Being or feeling different […] can result in social isolation and exclusion, which in turn leads to a child being more vulnerable to the instigation and continuation of abuse. Abusers often take advantage of a child’s uncertainties and insecurities about their identity and body (47).

Although Mock never explicitly says this, her early sexual abuse seems to have paved the way for her later sex work.