Abstract
This chapter contests the liberatory presumption of greater media visibility. Despite publicized assertions to the contrary, false assumptions about cisnormativity and the sex/gender binary remain as indicated by representative examples of trans characters from different television genres aired in 2015. The significance of this study’s close attention to genre and methodology beyond typical protagonists and texts is then supported using other queer studies scholarship which specify the usefulness of “cross-textual seriality” which creates a “developmental narrative” of minority identity (Wlodarz). This chapter also introduces the relevance of “transnormativity” to expose the hierarchical differentials based on gender, race, and class that create a white feminine standard representation and conflate relevant differences between trans identities. The chapter concludes with an explanation regarding why neither LGBQ nor feminist media scholarship alone can elucidate the complexity of transphobic representations. It ends with a brief overview of the chapters.
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Notes
- 1.
The terms “trans” and “transgender” in this book denote persons who experience an incongruence between their sex as assigned at birth and their gender identity, whether they utilize medical options to change physically or not or whether they identify within or outside of the gender binary. Persons who do not experience this incongruence I refer to as “cisgender.” While the accompanying terminology “trans woman” and “cis woman” is used to differentiate between the two, it is not meant validate one identity over another or presume one is more or less authentic. I acknowledge both “cisgender” and “transgender” remain contested terms whose meaning continues to evolve. Additional explanation may be found in Appendix A: Glossary for Gender Identities and Characters.
- 2.
For that reason, as I later explain, films like Tootsie and series like Bosom Buddies do not appear in Appendix A but female “impersonators” like in Psycho do. Since I am analyzing mainstream and widely accessible productions, pornography is also excluded but is another genre of media analysis for trans representations. See, for example, Phillips; Escoffier; and Steinbock.
- 3.
I include in this brief summary a 2003 episode which implies the trans feminine character is impersonating a woman to avoid criminal prosecution, although the narrative provides little explanation regarding this person’s motivations (Law & Order, NBC, S14, Ep17).
- 4.
As I later explain, I integrate feminist media analysis of sex workers to unpack the myths and ongoing fascination with this trope and how trans feminine sex workers both support and are distanced from these trends (Carr; Coy, Wakeling and Garner; Lister; Voss).
- 5.
For example, cis women are often subject to gender harassment in the workplace and public places when they exhibit gender nonconforming expression or behavior (Leskinen, Rabelo, and Cortina), particularly queer women (Rabelo and Cortina).
- 6.
A representative distinction can be found in the Family Research Council’s “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Laws: A Threat to Free Markets and Freedom of Conscience and Religion” as the following statement reveals: “While sexual attractions may be involuntary, neither homosexual conduct nor transgender behavior meets any of the other criteria. Skin complexion, ethnicity, and gender cannot be changed (so-called transgender surgery is superficial; it does not change the genetic and thus defining characteristics of the person’s gender)” (Spriggs).
- 7.
For a history of trans studies and the contributions of these scholars, see Stryker and Aizura; Kunzel; Radi.
- 8.
Trans media scholarship covers non-scripted genres as well, including journalism (Billard; Capuzza), reality television (Edgar; McIntyre; Mocarski et al.; Sender) and documentaries (Booth; A. Johnson; Pullen, “Transpeople”), and those in Transgender Communication Studies: Histories, Trends, and Trajectories (Spencer and Capuzza).
- 9.
I use gender-neutral terms whenever possible, including the term “actor.”
- 10.
Some examples include Picket Fences (CBS, 1992, S01, Ep11); Ally McBeal (Fox, 1997, S01, Ep10); Diary of a Serial Killer (Wallace, 1997): Law & Order: SVU (NBC, 2002, S03, Ep23); JAG (CBS, 2004, S10, Ep3); and House, M.D. (Fox, 2010, S06, Ep18).
- 11.
Representative examples from dramas and comedies in each decade include a trans feminine thief in Rent-A-Cop (London, 1987); two trans feminine sex workers in River Made To Drown In (Meredino, 1997); a trans feminine club host in Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (Wincer, 2001); a trans feminine police informant in Zodiac (Fincher, 2007); and a trans feminine party-goer in Men in Black 3 (Sonnefeld, 2012).
- 12.
One representative example is the IMDB description of two trans feminine characters in a Nip/Tuck (FX, 2003–2010) episode (2003, S01, Ep9) which describes them as “transgendered man #1” and “#2.” Some of the many cast lists in IMDB that describe a character as a “tranny” include Law & Order (NBC, 2008, S19, Ep6); Blue Mountain State (Paramount, 2010, S01, Ep4), Shameless (Showtime, 2013, S03, Ep11) and Grudge Match (Segal, 2013). While many narratives, as I later explain, use contradictory definitions of the trans character’s identity, such as referring to a female transsexual as a “transvestite,” cast lists with character descriptions instead of names in Wikipedia and IMDB should use accurate and non-pejorative terms.
- 13.
Please see Appendix A for terms and definitions used in this book.
- 14.
Although this term is more common in social (Schilt and Lagos 429) and health science (Operario and Nemoto 1538) research, I have incorporated it because in such scholarship, it refers to how the person has altered their self-definition and/or their legal documentation over time.
- 15.
Starting in the 1990s, such films became more readily available to audiences through both independent film festivals, as Laura Horak documents, and conventional outlets, such as on PBS stations which aired documentaries like Metamorphosis: Man into Woman (Leeman, 1990) in 1990 and You Don’t Know Dick: Courageous Hearts of Transsexual Men (Cram, 1997) in 1999. The critical and popular acclaim over Paris is Burning (Livingston, 1990) led to more documentarian attention to trans subjects not often visible in mainstream popular culture, particularly lower-class trans women of color. For additional analysis on trans documentaries during the 1990s and 2000s, including the rise in trans masculine subjects in the early 2000s, see Pullen, “Transpeople;” Austin Johnson; Wahng; and Horak.
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Abbott, T.B. (2022). The Presumption of Progress. In: The History of Trans Representation in American Television and Film Genres. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97793-1_1
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