February 10, 2025

Photo-Illustration: The Cut; Photo: Mthr Trsa

One day near the end of 2023, I went into the roti shop in my Brooklyn neighborhood for doubles. I’m obsessed with the classic Trinidadian street-food dish, which brings a Caribbean twist to the rotis and chana masala my Pakistani family cooked when I was growing up. While waiting to order, a man in the shop looked at me and paused. He brought his eyes up to mine and then down to my feet, staring for seconds on end. Then he burst out laughing.

“Ohhhh shit, you — you almost got me!” he cackled, turning to his friend. His friend added, “Ha! You always gotta check the neck. Look for the Adam’s apple.”

At this point, I had been living socially as a trans woman for just under two years, always stepping out in miniskirts and dresses, donning long black wavy hair, and never leaving my house without my mug beat. My skin began to prickle and my blood boiled as the men’s laughter echoed through the shop. I started shouting, berating their dirty shoes, calling them broke, low-credit-score, short-ass motherfuckers. I grabbed my doubles, walked out of the shop, and said, “Try a bitch, I dare you.”

Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photo: Getty Images

By Madame Clairevoyant

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A biweekly newsletter interrogating modern family life, written by Kathryn Jezer-Morton.