Are transgender people misrepresented and stereotyped within film and television

[Stephe]

Every TV show I have ever seen with a trans person, they were a sex worker. And mostly were unshaven, sporting 2 days of beard, dirty clothes etc. I was mortified in the Jim Cary movie when he outed that TS and everyone threw up. Like "Of course anyone who kisses a TS would throw up if they found out she is TS". Drew Cary's brother was about the only case painted in a somewhat positive light I can recall and he was a dress at home crossdresser.

[Lesley_Roberta]

I have grown up with too much of TV too out of connection with the truth.

I remember hearing how Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom was faked, and it bummed me out to know I watched that so much thinking it was credible.

I recall watching In Search of... and it likely should have been called 'Nothing but garbage'. But I suppose that title would get less mileage.

History Channel is almost no real history, and Science channel is about the same. Might as well just call both of them 'trendy fluff'.

I remember hearing Ice Road Truckers was faked and I thought huh? why fake that?

I think the appeal of Cops is probably because while it looks like dull boring >-bleeped-<, it likely is not faked.

I originally thought Survivor actually meant surviving you know, enduring nature, not being made to camp out in the sticks while playing stupid games.

So in the end, the world as a whole is fed gross inaccuracies about non hetero persons in the media? Oh what a shock. No it isn't actually.

You will find though, that the world of anime has no problem with people in the shows that are clearly gay, or lesbian, or cross dressers or whatever. Most might not know this, but Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus, both born female, are lesbian lovers, Sailor Uranus dresses masculine. They were written as 'cousins' according to the North American release though. They clearly had to ditch all the intimate sequences though. Every 5th female in an anime, is generally not automatically what 'she' seems to be. Which is important to remember when watching anime

[eshaver]

I have grown up with too much of TV too out of connection with the truth.

I remember hearing how Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom was faked, and it bummed me out to know I watched that so much thinking it was credible.

I recall watching In Search of... and it likely should have been called 'Nothing but garbage'. But I suppose that title would get less mileage.

History Channel is almost no real history, and Science channel is about the same. Might as well just call both of them 'trendy fluff'.

I remember hearing Ice Road Truckers was faked and I thought huh? why fake that?

I think the appeal of Cops is probably because while it looks like dull boring >-bleeped-<, it likely is not faked.

I originally thought Survivor actually meant surviving you know, enduring nature, not being made to camp out in the sticks while playing stupid games.

So in the end, the world as a whole is fed gross inaccuracies about non hetero persons in the media? Oh what a shock. No it isn't actually.

You will find though, that the world of anime has no problem with people in the shows that are clearly gay, or lesbian, or cross dressers or whatever. Most might not know this, but Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus, both born female, are lesbian lovers, Sailor Uranus dresses masculine. They were written as 'cousins' according to the North American release though. They clearly had to ditch all the intimate sequences though. Every 5th female in an anime, is generally not automatically what 'she' seems to be. Which is important to remember when watching anime

KLASSIK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


"Absoloutely faboulous ".................. 


Whata post !

Right On .


ellen

[Kgirl]

Oh God. This is a topic that I could rant about for hours, but I'll try and restrain myself.

But yes, I have massive reservations with how trans* people are portrayed in mainstream media. In particular, shows like 'Little Britain' and 'South Park' filled my brain with internalised transphobia, which I've only recently begun to rid myself of. :/

What gets me is that trans men are almost never portrayed at all, whilst trans women are portrayed much more often, yet are almost always cast as deceivers, pathetic losers, mentally deranged etc. My theory is that this is rooted in sexism - because masculine qualities and men are seen as superior, and feminine qualities and women seen as inferior, trans men are seen as being more 'logical' than trans women. Society finds it unbelievable that anyone who has been designated male would 'choose' to embrace femaleness. (N.B. My use of the word 'choose' is because a disturbingly large proportion of the population does indeed assume that being transgender is a choice). This, I reckon, is the basis behind the 'deceiver' trope - women are viewed as sexual objects, and thus trans women are seen as transitioning so that they can receive the sexual attention of men. The idea that trans* people transition for their own self-fulfillment and comfort is never considered. 

And on the off-chance that a trans* person is portrayed with a modicum of sympathy? They'll almost always be all or almost all of the following: binary-identified (non-binary trans* people are a complete non-entity in media...), heterosexual, white, middle-class, cis-passing and conventionally attractive, on hormones, have had or fully intend to have GRS etc. It's a very scripted path which downplays the massive variation that exists amongst trans* people (and from a personal perspective has made me think that I'm 'not really trans*' countless times...) The 'conventionally attractive' clause links back to the sexual objectification described in the previous paragraph. Obviously there's nothing wrong with being a trans* person who does fulfill all or most of those categories, but there should be much more representation outside of those categories...

Speaking of which, there's always the tendency to weigh in heavily on the physical aspects of transitioning. Obviously these are important, but the emotional aspects surely warrant coverage too? And the particularly unhealthy focus on GRS is especially bad. It outright stated that they aren't viewed as 'real' men/women until they've gotten that operation - before that, they merely 'want to become' men/women. Never mind that not all people want it, and many that do are unable to get it for various reasons (often monetary/health reasons) It's also always to the complete detriment of every other aspect of transitioning...

And this lack of diverse and sympathetic representation means that countless BS ideas about trans* people continue to permeate people's minds to this day, which is especially horrible when it's under the guise of 'helping' them (e.g. feminists who claim that trans men are women suffering from intense internalised misogyny).

I'll stop venting now, it's just... god damn it, it annoys me so much sometimes! 

This this this! Also, many people in this thread are saying that everyone is stereotyped in the media. This may often be true, but the problem with the transgender community constantly being misrepresented is that that this is many peoples' ONLY exposure to trans-people. It is literally their only idea of who trans-women (because there are never any trans-men) are, what they look like, and how they act.

[eshaver]

You make a very interesting point here concerning Transmen. See, these women going male simply "Blend-in " better to mainstream society than we men going female . With females, they tend to look very youthful . Saddly, too many males look very old as our testosterone is very harsh on the body ........... ellen

[LilDevilOfPrada]

I am just gonna say its been a month since paul logged on 

But I say when were we ever portrayed nicely?? I cant think of an example.

[Ampersand]

Of course we have been.

Transwomen have often been perceived as "silly" and trying to get the sexual attention of men, or just as homosexuals who cannot accept the fact they are attracted to individuals of the same sex, so they try and live as women. This is a gross misrepresentation. And whenever you see a transwoman on TV, most of the time they're the subject of some joke or are laughed at by the characters. There is never an accurate representation of them.

Transmen, are almost never displayed in the media. Again, we are sometimes displayed as homosexuals who are too confused or embarassed to accept this and live as the opposite sex. Or are displayed as bodybuilder-type, "butch" individuals.
I have never seen an accurate representation of any transperson on TV.

I think that this is because of how most people see sex and gender as the same thing. That could not be further from the truth, but I think people just need to be educated on this more. I have met several people in my school who have laughed at me, or have not taken me seriously as a transgendered person. They think that this thing is just one of those things that "only happens in movies" or "it happens to other people" and then assume that it's completely okay to laugh at me and make offensive comments. I try explaining it to them, but most of them don't understand, or still think it's a joke, or that it's okay to act disgusted.

My therapist told me that I am a pioneer. By explaining it to people, I'm making the world a better place for the transpeople of the future.

In short; transpeople have been stereotyped and there definitely needs to be more accurate representations of us. People need to learn that this is not something to laugh at.

[konnorcrewe]

Lost Girl Season 3 Episode 1

Lost Girl 3:1 has a negative portrayal of a trans woman worked into its' plot.  The main Amazon and the "evil" character in the episode turns out to be a trans woman which adds fuel to the "transgender panic" aspect of transphobia and also adds to the stereotype of lesbians as man haters. 

Konnor

[big kim]

There was a trans man character in 3 episodes of CSI needless to say they were a serial killer

[Elspeth]

I don't want to beat a dead horse, so I'm agreeing with the general sense already expressed.

I come to this, though, as a writer, playwright and aspiring filmmaker (whose life was detoured from that long ago ambition by circumstance, finances, my own insecurities and the timesuck that is being a full-time caregiver to children -- see Virginia Woolf's A Room of Her Own for details that I discussed with other women playwrights about 20 years ago when I was active on the Center for International Women Playwrights online discussion boards.

Dramatic fiction is about conflicts, so it is understandable that characterizations of anyone are going to be grounded in characters who are in some way unusual or whose actions are extreme. Especially in the sort of thing that tends to sell best in the US market. Look at a lot of art films from Western Europe, and you'll find some much less overtly conflicted stories, but these are not the stories that sell so well or those that seem to make the big bucks.

There are some great exceptions -- Transamerica, just to name one, was a rare story that included a transwoman dealing with her inner conflicts, managing to be dramatic and also reasonably successful. I love Armistead Maupin's sympathetic depiction of Anna Madrigal in his Tales of the City, which was turned into a pretty good series of miniseries on cable.

But I don't really expect cliches and cheap exploitation to go away in my lifetime. Perhaps, though, Quentin Tarantino will manage to blow it up as he has done to some extent with other forms of exploitation film?

If you haven't already seen it, I'd also recommend listening very closely to Lana Wachowski's speech accepting the most recent Visibility Award from the HRC. It would also be useful to any filmmaker, I think, to look at the other things she's said in the various interviews surrounding the release of Cloud Atlas, and her take on coming out at long last as a transwoman.