Angelica Ross: Navigating an American Horror Story
Embodying life, when d*ath is/was the alternative.
Content/Trigger Warning: Transmisogynoir, Violence against trans people
Angelica Ross, who was a previous cast member on another Ryan Murphy project entitled Pose (2018–2021) met a grim and grisly fate as a Black trans woman. In the series American Horror Story, however, she not only survives but is a rare exception of a Black trans ‘final girl’. By exploring her arc throughout the show, briefly contrasted to that of her character arc on Pose, one must explore how this horror series took more care with her life than one set in a realistic setting. To include, this is one of the rare occasions where a Black trans woman was not dead-named or outed, but she was a completely fleshed-out character with her own life, family, and friends. Her transness was not up for debate or discussion — nor was her humanity — and it was beautiful to experience. As a matter of course, I must address how Angelica Ross, herself has stated, that her ability to pass has breathed life into her career that other Black trans women may not have been able to attain so fluidly.
“I have cis-assuming privilege which means when I walk around, go to the airport, to the restroom, go anywhere, go to church, anywhere…they’re assuming that I’m cisgender. They’re assuming that I’m not trans. I say cis-assuming because that puts the onus on them and the assumptions we make about people. Instead of trying to say that I’m trying to pass, because I’m not trying to pass for nothing. I am who I am.” — Angelica Ross, Parable of the Medicinal Herbs: Discovering Value Event, Posted to Twitter, January 28, 2021.
First things first, American Horror Story: 1984 was…bad…not in the unwatchable sense but it wasn’t a game-changer like the Asylum season or Coven. 1984 was under no illusions that it was a send-up to the 1980s and all of the cheesy cringe-inducing moments that encompassed the decade — killer fashion aside. The season was written more as character typification and study than actual motivation or natural character progression, which isn’t a bad thing but it made for a very predictable watching experience, unlike some of the other seasons of American Horror Story. All of the anthologies to this point, have been on a sliding scale of quality and engagement. If you’re a fan of the slasher genre, maybe you might have found some sort of enjoyment in this particular installment but overall it was just…okay. Any supposed twists, turns, etc. were very well-worn tropes at this point in the horror genre and were more homages than revolutionary game changes. The actors, many of whom had been spread across various seasons of the show were reliable and did their jobs competently but that’s really about it as far as the long narrative arcs of the show are concerned.
Who I’m really interested in exploring is the season’s only main Black female cast member, Dr. Donna Chambers, also known as ‘Nurse Rita’ played by Angelica Ross. She’s shown throughout the series to be even-keeled, intelligent, cunning, empathetic, and phenomenal at her job as a psychologist. However, as we learn over the course of the season, she is not all that she appears. From a nightmarish childhood experience where she discovers her father is a serial killer to the present day, she is constantly wondering if serial killers are born or if they’re made. To include, if either can be true, can one manipulate their environment to make for a more ’well-adjusted’ individual. We’ve seen this premise before in horror thrillers like Silence of the Lambs or straight slashers like the Halloween series, wherein the ‘monster’ is one who must be studied and profiled, regardless of collateral damage to the populace.
What’s also noticeable about her character is that she survives, despite manipulating some of the events throughout the series, and becomes one of two ‘final girls’ upon the series finale. Unlike other pieces of media or writers that would foist a punishment upon a character like Dr. Chambers for some of the chaos she’s caused, the series seems to be more reflective and redemptive to her (and some of the other characters across the season). It’s important to highlight this phenomenon, but even moreso because this is a Black femme character in context and a Black trans woman in subtext. Those who have followed the career trajectory of Angelica Ross know that’s she’s trans but the lay public doesn’t so she’s able to pass and blend in amongst a sea of very beautiful people. Side-note, that’s another thing that American Horror Story is (in)famously known for, its almost otherworldly beautiful people. The majority of the cast members across the entire anthology series have been stunning and we’re going to put a pin in that for further analysis of Angelica Ross, as a Black trans woman in the Hollywood industry.
“…society has mostly been going by a white feminist playbook that doesn’t include the experiences of women of color and trans women of color…if a trans woman doesn’t fit into some box of femininity, people will turn it into a joke. They want to laugh at her broad shoulders, or how tall she is and how big her feet are. These are all characteristics of cisgender women as well, so transphobia hurts them, too. There’s women like Michelle Obama and Serena Williams, who have been the subject of racist jokes about their appearance. That’s trans misogyny, a nasty intersection that hurts all women.” — Pose’s Angelica Ross: For International Transgender Day Visibility, Let’s Embrace All Women: People Exclusive, March 31, 2021.
AHS: 1984 never addresses the genitals of any of its characters in the show directly beyond some obvious heteronormative ‘sex equals death slasher tropes’, but beyond that, a lot of characters in the show are gender/sex neutral. However, it’s also important to note that the show doesn’t go out of its way to flash any neon signs that any characters are out of the gender binary either. Everyone is very cis presenting, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it certainly is…a thing. I was overjoyed there was no trans person as spectacle moments in this show; that’s never been the case for this season or the entire series writ large for that matter and it never has been. It’s always treated its queer or LGBT characters with care and integrated them flawlessly into every single season…mostly, but that’s for another essay. That is one delight/highlight about American Horror Story as a whole, people are just people. I will say this though, longtime viewers are aware that there are more gay men spread across the show than a little bit and I’ll leave it to them to unpack what that representation means to them.
Now, back to the lady of the hour, Angelica Ross. Stunning, gorgeous, dark-skinned high-femme Angelica Ross. She is a head-turner, now and forever, and even after that. The complete package regarding aesthetic beauty is she — Angelica Ross. Fawning aside, in our discussions of gender presentation, it’s important to note how much maintenance is required to be the supposed pinnacle of womanhood or femininity. Now, especially in the world of beauty it's all in how one embodies and moves as the femme, how one ‘beats their face’, and what high-fashion one is serving. Conversely, those who choose to present this way wrestle with the ever-shifting metric of this standard, whatever and however that manifests itself, especially in whose gaze is being valued alongside whoever’s doing the bar-setting. Returning to the pin I stuck into the beauty conversation about American Horror Story and its glamorized beauty aesthetic, its worth unpacking that because Angelica Ross does present as the flawless modelesque hyper femme that her ‘passing privileges’ are set at an almost unattainable level for the average cis or trans woman.
“What we now know as trans women is that we are not trying to ‘pass’; we are just trying to survive with our lives and our dignity intact. We get caught up in the same struggles that every woman faces, trying to fit our bodies into a box it was never meant to fit into. Instead, we learn to highlight our best features and contour for the gods.” — Angelica Ross on ‘Passing’, Pose, and Her Approach to Style: Who What Wear Interview, April 7, 2020.
Embodying or presenting in this hyper-feminine ideal isn’t a bed of roses either. There is a heightened danger that femme presenting people are constantly in via the tendrils of toxic masculinity. The perception that the feminine is weak or soft escalates the potential prey aspect of violation and is something that shouldn’t be dismissed, for cis or trans people. I should also address that there’s no right or wrong way to do gender. It’s all a construct and I hope we’d be passed this 101 level of psychoanalyzing the human race, but alas here we are. The world via religious dogma, forced heteronormativity, white patriarchy, and all things that filter through the ugliness of power and control over the masses has created this concerted effort to police people’s bodies and as we well know trans, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming people are the collateral damage. Angelica Ross has had to navigate the thicket of all of that societal horror plus the spectre of anti-blackness which frequently buttresses transphobia and misogynoir. For a career/character example, let’s pivot briefly to discuss another of her iconic roles as Candy Ferocity on FX’s Pose.
“Many women don’t realize how we’ve internalized misogyny and the patriarchy. We uphold these toxic norms by comparing and qualifying our womanhood so that we feel like we too ‘pass.’ Our cis sisters can learn the term ‘cis-assuming privilege’ and further the discussion on what harmful assumptions we make about ourselves and other women that hinder our progress in the movement for equal rights for all women.” — Angelica Ross on ‘Passing’, Pose, and Her Approach to Style: Who What Wear Interview, April 7, 2020.
This series — which sadly concluded in 2021 after four seasons — followed the lives of members of the gay, trans, non-binary, queer, and gender-variant communities of the New York ballroom scene in the 1980s to early 1990s. Beyond all of the praise the show received, its primary minefields subtextually dealt with colorism and how the darker-skinned characters throughout the series were shown to be a particular type of ‘angry’ and cutting. The lighter-skinned cast members were given very different storylines that regularly delved into how soft and genteel they were in comparison. Where the horror of colorism and trans representation collided was the death of Angelica Ross’s character Candy Ferocity. Many of the trans women throughout the series were shown to be sex workers but the brutal murder of one of the dark-skinned leads was a devastating blow for many watching the series, myself included. There was an overlap of reality and fiction that came to the forefront of many persons’ minds when watching how her character arc was handled and where it careened into violence. The over-saturation of trauma heaped onto peoples with darker complexions is something that’s been the topic of discussion for decades in media and hundreds of years in socio-cultural politics. Thus, there is a historic type of sting to Candy’s narrative that overlaps into anti-blackness even amongst other people of color and marginalized sexual identities.
Conversely, the character trajectory of Angelica Ross’s Dr. Donna Chambers was so new, so fresh, and sadly revolutionary. Rarely are Black trans women given the space to lead and to live in their own stories and it was so cathartic to watch. Even moreso, because the lives of Black people (and doubly so for Black trans or binary pushing individuals) are often depicted as short, fleeting, and couched in horror. Death is often the only conclusive endpoint for many Black characters in horror media; when one thinks of Black trans women they are rarely present in the genre and the spectre of real-world horrors are regularly injected into their storylines. Death isn’t a story arc, nor is it a climax, especially when it's the only way one can see the totality of trans people in life and literature. So, to say I was shocked about Angelica Ross’s character being a ‘final girl’ by series end is an understatement. I was downright gobsmacked. My world was tilted into proper alignment and I too felt something in the world shift that if there could be one Dr. Chambers there could be many many more. It’s so maddening and saddening that I expected the only Black girl, especially trans, an oft-overlooked member of the rainbow umbrella to be hacked to bits by the writing staff — literally and metaphorically. I honestly had the highest of hopes for her life due to social media posts Angelica was sharing during the show’s run and because the overall backlash from the queer community was so stark regarding her previous role.
“I was terrified of who I was. Everything I learned and everything I saw about queer and trans people was negative. The message was clear that living life openly as a gay or trans person was choosing death. However, the representation of trans folks in the media in the past few years has given young trans people enough hope and inspiration to know that choosing themselves is literally how you ‘get ya life darling.’” — Angelica Ross on ‘Passing’, Pose, and Her Approach to Style: Who What Wear Interview, April 7, 2020.
As previously stated, it’s a novelty that Angelica Ross’s character Dr. Chambers exists at all. The box-ticking that comes with her inclusion is also a sign of the times. Good, bad, and everything in between. She’s an outlier and unpacking the complex racial, gendered, and social aspects of the breadth of her survival in American Horror Story versus Pose has innumerable amounts of layering for the psyche. Incrementally, there’s been a hyper-vigilance and more concerted effort to make the realms of television and film reflect reality. There are more nuanced projects with trans people made by LGBTQIA+ members of the community that are still toppling the boundaries regarding representation than those created by heterosexual cis people. We can rattle the names of a plethora of films or television shows made by non-queer creators that often deployed harmful stereotypes about trans people or cast cisgender actors as trans people. The frequency of the tone-deafness and violence within the Hollywood machine was superbly documented in Netflix’s Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen (2020).
“I am the first female transgender actress to be in two series regular roles, but I shy away from headlines that claim I’m the first to do anything. I don’t think it’s about who did it first — it’s about who did it best. I’m always focused on doing my best because that’s what is going to keep me booked and busy, that’s what’s going to keep me in the room. I want to be the best so that other trans people can come after me and have an easier time getting work too.” — Pose’s Angelica Ross: For International Transgender Day Visibility, Let’s Embrace All Women: People Exclusive, March 31, 2021.
Executively produced by Laverne Cox, Disclosure involves ‘leading trans creatives and thinkers who share heartfelt perspectives and analysis about Hollywood’s impact on the trans community’. This documentary is a heavy crash course of celluloid that traverses the lives (and deaths) of trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people on screen primarily through American media. One major complaint I had about the documentary was the lack of more critics and criticism about non-binary/gender non-conforming pieces of media representation. This oversight was especially jarring because ‘transness’ has so many overlaps in definition, personal experience, etcetera that the lack of this perspective and the paltry amounts of media shown with persons of these identities in the documentary was so sparse. Honestly, the documentary as jam-packed as it was, should have been broken up into multiple parts to avoid this stumble, but I have to commend the entire project as a whole for being a groundbreaking retrospective.
Beyond film, Angelica Ross dedicates her time and energies into uplifting the Black trans community and other communities that straddle the margins of employment/housing vulnerability. In particular, she knows the instability/precariousness of income can be a severe threat to the life and wellbeing of many trans people and has dedicated her time and resources to Trans Tech Social Enterprises.
“I worked for a nonprofit in 2012 and was tasked with developing an employment program to address the specific needs of trans people and trans people of color who were facing homelessness, incarceration histories, and newly diagnosed with HIV. I quickly found that I was being tokenized and asked to be the face of a program that was underserving and underestimating the trans community by saying that teaching tech skills was over the head of the population we served. I eventually quit that job to start TransTech because I believe that no matter your ability, technology can be a catalyst for change in your career and your life.” — Angelica Ross on ‘Passing’, Pose, and Her Approach to Style: Who What Wear Interview, April 7, 2020.
So, beyond being a phenomenal actress, she’s been a computer programmer for years! The range and complexity of her life, whew, we love to see it! I’m personally in awe of Angelica Ross and her initiatives and the inroads she’s made for herself and so many others. This retrospective illustrates how and why her character in American Horror Story speaks to so many members of the community, myself included, and why media representation continues to matter. We stan a nerdy horror queen.
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