The Aggressives

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Available Summary:

The Aggressives is an exposé on the subculture of masculine-presenting Black people and their femme counterparts. Filmed over five years in New York City, the featured subjects share their dreams, secrets, and deepest fears.

-Wikipedia.

Note from Jack:

I have referred to documentary subjects with the pronouns used in this film release. Several used he/him/his pronouns at the time that this documentary was created, despite being misgendered with she/her/hers pronouns in the film itself.

2026 Update:

I've just watched Beyond The Aggressives. Several interviewees, who used labels like "lesbian" and "Aggressive" in this first documentary, ultimately ended up identifying as trans men and trans guys. Several also chose new names, so I've used them throughout this review, instead of their original names. This first film is still an example of lesbian, transmasculine, butch, and trans male identities overlapping, if only in the sense that we have shared histories and can hold that complexity.

Jack's Summary:

I have long been fascinated by the crossover between lesbian and trans communities, and the complexity which has always existed in LGBT+ spaces. The Aggressives explores that complexity, making it fascinating and worthwhile in its own right. It was also an intriguing watch for me personally because Marquise Vilsón, now considered a spokesperson for trans men and transmasculine people in America, spoke very differently about his identity and life in this documentary.

"I'm comfortable being a woman who likes women," he says at the beginning of the film, "I live my life as a man, yes, but the reality does not change." He also identifies himself as being "transgendered" but specifies that he is not a man, and doesn't want to be one. He goes on, throughout the interviews, to say that he isn't "one of those dykes who has a complex and feels that I'm a straight man, or whatever like that, and, "I live my life as a straight man and I only date straight women." No. I'm a lesbian. I'm just very Aggressive."

It seems that a young Vilsón was referring to straight trans men as "dykes" with a "complex" which, I won't lie, was pretty shocking. I won't defend that bigoted mindset. Having met some straight trans men in my life, a huge issue for them is people disbelieving their identities and instead labelling them as confused or deluded lesbians, their male identities therefore being deserving of mockery. I didn't expect that kind of rhetoric in this documentary. It's apparent that Vilsón was much younger and in a very different stage of life when he made those statements, so hopefully he has grown beyond such views.

During the documentary, Vilsón discusses chest binding. He says that he wears a sports bra in daily life, but during ball performances (where Aggressives dress up in masculine attire) he is strapped down with an ACE bandage. Footage is shown of him being wrapped in duct tape, in order to flatten his chest. The documentary's cover art, and main promotional image, features him bound down in such a way.

Please know that this is extremely unsafe.

There are ways to flatten your chest without risking cracked/bruised ribs and other health impacts. Many trans and gender-diverse communities have come a long way since the early 2000s, and it's now more widely known how unsafe duct tape and bandage binding is. There are options which are far less likely to put you in the hospital.

The unsafe chest binding shown in this documentary does not disqualify The Aggressives from being a recommended watch, and a treasured part of both FTM and AG (Aggressive) history. This documentary isn't just a film about gender roles and sexuality, it's also about poverty. I'm aware that, as a modern-day man who had access to binding information somewhat soon after coming out, I have a leg-up on trans men and MoC (masculine-of-centre) people who didn't have access to the same resources. I also recognise that many modern-day trans and gender-diverse people may struggle to access safer binders, meaning they might be tempted to follow Vilsón's example and bind with duct tape, so the consequences of unsafe binding do still need to be discussed. These dangers are not discussed in The Aggressives. Learn more about chest binding here.

The complexities of identity go beyond sexuality and gender in The Aggressives. Racial identities and experiences are also explored.

"I'm talking about Chin," raps a Trevon, a Black AG, "I'm talking about realness. I'm talking about acting Black. I'm talking about Chin." Chin Tsui is the only Asian interviewee, and describes himself as "the only Asian person on the Black scene". He also refers to himself with the n-word, despite not being Black.

This is a documentary where slurs are reclaimed by those who have been targeted with such words, and are also claimed by others with differing backgrounds. One of the AGs, who is masculine-presenting and dates a range of people including trans women, identifies as a "faggot". I've seen similar community attitudes before, in documentaries including BloodSisters: Leather, Dykes and Sadomasochism (1995), as below.

To me, this is a fascinating thing to witness in non-fiction films from a social perspective, but I know some people are understandably very sensitive to slurs, so you should proceed with caution if that aspect of the film will upset you.

The documentary was filmed over five years, meaning viewers get to witness immense changes in the interviewees. Kisha, an young woman who works as a model and a messenger, speaks at the beginning of the documentary about how she experiences her identity; “Aggressive is your strength, your courage, your whole aura.” However, at the end of the film, she says, “Aggressive... I know I used to get excited about that word. But now it’s just a little bit different. I guess, maybe because I was categorised so much all my life… Just call me Kisha, man. Just call me Kisha.”

The documentary doesn't put strict definitions on any labels, as a matter of fact. It's constantly emphasised that all the interviewees want to do is be themselves. What distinguishes one label from another (for example, an Aggressive versus a Butch versus a Stud) isn't really pinned down. The film feels as fluid, diverse, and complicated as real-life LGBT+ communities do, which is quite refreshing. I've watched LGBT-focused documentaries which have been far more limited in their scope. The Aggressives allows for unrestricted, spontaneous expression, and shows that labels can mean different things to different people.

But what we see goes beyond introspective commentary and positivity; incarceration, bullying, drug dealing, financial hardship, immigration, insecure housing, AIDS, lesbophobia, and isolation are all tackled.

Chin talks about his background, saying, "My father, my mother, my youngest sister, and my younger brother, we came to this country in June of 1980. My mother left me when I was, like, nine years old. She just left us. So, me and my sister and my brother, we raised each other. Y'know, my father was too busy working. I got into a lot of criminal stuff. Right now I'm on probation for three years." Other difficulties he's faced include being chased out of the women's bathroom, and having the police called on him for trying to use female facilities. After that experience, he "never went back to the women's bathroom".

Several of the interviewees have had negative experiences with homophobic and hostile women, including Chin and Octavio, who both had their identities questioned or mocked by their mothers.

Crystal, Octavia's mother, recalls her reaction to Octavio's coming-out; "I said I was gonna find a boyfriend to take her out... I was upset. I said, you're not gay. That's a phase. You're gonna snap out of it, sooner or later. [She said] no it's not, no it's not. But I believe it is... I know that's not her. She had a lot of boyfriends, coming up. I don't think that's my daughter at all. I didn't approve of it. I still don't, because that's not how I raised her. But I accept her. She's gotta be her own person... But I still think she's gonna snap out of it, pretty soon. Hopefully."

One of the most distressing moments in this documentary, for me personally, was when Rjai talked about undergoing a hysterectomy.

"I'm having a problem where I'm clotting," he explained while in hospital, "You know how you sit on a toilet and just pee? Just imagine that being blood, and like, blood clots coming out of you. I'm becoming anaemic. And I thought it was just girlie problems, or whatever. But then I noticed that it was like that for a whole year. The first doctor I went to said it was hormonal, and that I had more male hormones than female hormones. And I'm like, what? He was like, all you need is birth control... And I'm like, no, there's something wrong. I'm bleeding ridiculously, like for months at a time. I got a new doctor, and he goes, you know what? You should just get a hysterectomy. So, I don't know what the hell that is. You would think I should know, because I'm a woman, but I just don't. So, we did it yesterday. No more period, hallelujah. Never again."

This was utterly terrifying to hear. I really hope that I'm misinterpreting this moment, and Rjai's doctor actually told him what the surgery entailed before he went through it. This is one of the heavier interviews, as is an interview with Octavio, conducted while he is in prison on a charge of drug-dealing. He discusses the emotional hardship of being separated from his son.

This documentary highlights the vulnerability of female-born people who are diverse in gender, expression, and sexuality. And, especially, the intersection of disadvantage experienced by trans men and AGs who are people of colour. From doctors dismissing serious health concerns to early-life trauma to all manner of other struggles, these interviewees had the deck stacked against them. And yet they flourish, with Trevon receiving his GED and enrolling in college, Octavio working as a security guard, and Kisha pursuing acting while continuing to work her other two jobs.

As for Vilsón, the documentary ends on a mysterious note. "During the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Marquise abruptly left the Army," reads the post-film update, "Her current whereabouts are unknown."

We now know that (according to public appearances) Vilsón eventually accepted his trans male identity. From what I have read and watched, he refers to himself as both a trans man and a person of transmasculine experience. Vilsón talked about wanting to begin hormone replacement therapy in the documentary, but his then-partner discouraged this, speaking negatively about how his appearance would change and how "wrong" it would be.

Transitioning is rarely simple, straightforward, or without ups and downs. Not only is this documentary a precious snapshot of AG diversity and perseverance, it also shows the struggles of people who ultimately come to identify as trans men, transmasculine, non-binary, etc. It is a complex, sometimes confronting, and beautiful film. I highly recommend watching it... as long as you don't expect the interviewees to use the same language, or have the same perspectives, as many modern-day LGBT+ people. Particularly when it comes to sex, gender, and sexual orientations.

Trevon, an AG who frequently dates trans women, doesn't identify as a lesbian on the basis that, in Trevon's words, "I'm not a lesbian if I date transgenders and I have heterosexual sex with them". Although this is just one individual sharing a personal opinion and sexual identity, I know that many modern-day people, including trans women and the lesbians who date them (those two categories not being mutually exclusive), may understandably find this invalidating.

I can confirm that there are many, many modern-day lesbians who have sex with trans women, just like there are many gay men who have sex with trans men, at all stages of medical affirmation. The views expressed in The Aggressives might be contrary to your own understanding of sexuality and gender. For that reason, you should proceed with caution, but this documentary is still an important reflection of female-born gender variance, and is a part of masculine history.

WARNING: Potentially confronting themes.

In addition to the themes already discussed,The Aggressives includes hard drug use, sexual nudity in the form of a striptease, and rhetoric about Black women which could be considered racist (comments about all Black women being similar).