As part of a project on the interrelationship between gender and race attribution in the experiences of trans people of color, we used the Pear Film method to elicit spontaneous, unscripted discourse on a controlled topic. In this method, participants are asked to watch the Pear Film, a six-minute film with no dialogue, and to summarize what they saw. Though we intended it to be a relatively ‘‘neutral’’ stimulus, we soon found that our participants read the film through raciogendered semiotic ideologies that offer unexpected insights on their own gender and race attribution processes. Though many of our interviewees were critical of making assumptions about others’ genders, they sometimes used normative gendered language for the characters in the film. Rather than seeing this as a failure to uphold trans-affirming language norms, however, we show how trans interviewees took (self-)critical stances regarding gendered assumptions and how their attributions were explained through nuanced orientations to the qualities of the film and its characters. We identify the Pear Film as a useful sociolinguistic tool that sheds light on participants’ sociopolitical worldviews and their places within it.