Does media exposure help or hurt us?

[Luc]

For the past 10 weeks, I've been watching MTV's The Real World: Brooklyn religiously. I must admit, when I found out the cast would feature an mtf transsexual this season, I was intrigued, and that's what caused me to watch the show in the first place. Now, Katelynn may not be the prime example of a contributing member of society--- she makes an ass of herself on every episode, it seems; she's hopelessly addicted to a man who may not even care about her; and she's constantly in conflict with the other cast members.

What she is, however, is NORMAL. She's a 23-year-old woman, living in a house with seven people who up until two and a half months ago were strangers to her, and she's doing the best she can. Yes, she had sexual reassignment surgery a month prior to starting the show. Yes, she was born male, but identifies and lives as female. In the grand scheme of things, those are minute details.

I've been reading some comments on MTV's message boards regarding Katelynn, and there is a vicious trend to them... people only see the bad. One person had the audacity to say, "He was born a man and will always be a man no matter what surgeries he has be happy with what god gave you." And another: "I am soooo sick of hearing about how you cut you thing off for attention."

If anyone's watched the show, you'll notice that just as much attention is given to Katelynn's transsexuality as is to Chet's Mormonism, or Ryan's post-war PTSD. Honestly, the only times the trans issue was brought up were when the other roommates had questions about it. Each time, she was open and honest about the topic, but certainly never acted as if she was special or notable for being trans.

Perhaps the world will only believe that people of a particular minority group are worthy of respect if they are perfect examples of human beings. After all, there are still individuals who will easily overlook the great work of Martin Luther King Jr. in favor of the detriments of folks such as O.J. Simpson, who "give black people a bad name." When will the world realize that there is no perfect person, regardless of his/her race, orientation, or otherwise?

I think, in general, the media has done a great service to the world by presenting transfolk in the best light possible: that of reality. It is, however, up to each individual as to how he or she will take it.

SD

[Janet_Girl]

I would say both.  If the story is done right it helps us.  Wrong and it gives the wrong impression.

But it all gets people thinking about the differences in humanity.

[Miniar]

As long as the individual is intelligent and rational, it's all good.
Problem is.. intelligent and rational human beings don't make for good tv (OMG WE NEEED THE DRAMAS!)

That's my take on it at least..

[Northern Jane]

There has been a British series (Coronation Street) that has a post-op character (played by a GG) that does an excellent portrayal. The character (Hailey) is just you average middle-aged woman, maybe a little frumpy but definitely more "normal" than many. The actress who plays the part did lots of research and talked with many people and really, her past (on the show) is only a very minor point. Definitely more realistic and real-life than American TV.

[SarahFaceDoom]

Yeah I was talking to my therapist about Katelynn.  I think in terms of how she is representing the community, she's doing a good thing.  But I would defintely have problems living with her.  and that's the thing, the issues I have with her, have nothing to do with her being trans, and more to do with just how immature she acts with people.  Which doesn't have anything to do with being trans.

I would caution you about using those comments as any kind of barometer.  The people who comment about anything are the ones who feel the strongest.  So if someone had an intense negative reaction to katelynn, they are more likely to make a comment than someone who had an okay reaction to her.  You also see the other end of that spectrum, the positive comments that Katelynn gets are way over the top too.  Because people want to show their support so much. 

So I don't think those comments represent how she is perceived by the majority, just the minority.

I think in the short term, media exposure is tough, because we're judged by the stereotypes that the media creates about us.  But long term it's a good thing because it gets people used to the idea of transgender people,  so they are more likely to be accepting, for the most part.

[JENNIFER]

There has been a British series (Coronation Street) that has a post-op character (played by a GG) that does an excellent portrayal. The character (Hailey) is just you average middle-aged woman, maybe a little frumpy but definitely more "normal" than many. The actress who plays the part did lots of research and talked with many people and really, her past (on the show) is only a very minor point. Definitely more realistic and real-life than American TV.

Northern Jane is correct. I am a Brit and live here and I am well aware of Ms. Cropper of Coronation Street.  As to the media, I think in this country, the problem lies within the print media and their insistance in refering to 'SEX CHANGE or SEX SWAP' when reporting upon people in our situation.  It sells the papers, it gratifies the editors and harms us when what is needed is a grown up portrayal of a very serious condition. Perhaps explaining that we do not 'cut off our thing for attention', heck, what man would do that? 

[Marshplains]

First thing that comes to mind is that any publicity is good publicity.
I haven't seen the show you are referring to although i fully expect that kind of reaction from a percentage of viewers. Unless something changes in the American educational system (or for that matter any other country's ) people will look at  Katelynn through the binary filter for a long time to come. And anyway , you do get good and bad apples whether they be men , women , whatever you identify thyself or apples. People will also use stereotypes, personal experiences and quickly make up their minds of your character regardless.

[Jay]

It depends on the context and how it is twisted.

I believe it does both.

Jay

[Jeatyn]

There has been a British series (Coronation Street) that has a post-op character (played by a GG) that does an excellent portrayal. The character (Hailey) is just you average middle-aged woman, maybe a little frumpy but definitely more "normal" than many. The actress who plays the part did lots of research and talked with many people and really, her past (on the show) is only a very minor point. Definitely more realistic and real-life than American TV.

It's such a small point in fact I'd actually forgotten about it until you mentioned it

The only media coverage that I've seen that springs to mind is the show "There's something about Miriam"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There's_Something_About_Miriam

definitely not good media exposure

[Randy]

Yeah, I started watching the show for the same reasons. I hear what you're saying, but really at this point, it's always going to be a double-edged sword. We're never going to find a trans-person who's perfect to put out to the media. But you put an average trans-person out there and every flaw and misbehavior is magnified and becomes a negative reflection on the entire community. Most people's opinion of us can probably only get better anyway... The more exposure people have to us the better. Maybe they'll glean some speck of tolerance from it. Katelyn's just your average girl, warts and all. I think we could use some more of that image.

[NicholeW.]

It depends. What helps us more is people we know and who either care for us or are in our circles knowing who we are and were and that we are just normal human beings with an anomaly not seen in great numbers among human beings. Otherwise we are just people they deal with.

Does the media help this or hurt it? Depends on what tack the media takes and the representatives of those like us they choose to give attention to.

Some people are so enmeshed in their beliefs (and I make a difference between belief and idea) that they cannot and will not give any credence to anything we say, do, or are. Their belief precludes their ever accepting the reality of us, the sane human-beingness of us.

But, people with ideas? Those we can work with by simply being the people we are. The best testimony to anyone's validity is their life and the way they live it.

Nichole

[sd]

Eventually the media will stop demonizing us, they just need to get it out of their system and over the shock value first.
They used to demonize gays really bad, that has changed a lot lately.


Which I think MTV is doing well with Katelynn.
I agree with some others, I have issues with her, but they are the same issues as the other girls on the show. Is she the perfect spokesperson, no, but is there one? She is human. I like that they have not really gone crazy with the focus on her, it shows she is normal, if a bit strange sometimes.

The comment boards are a mixed bag, of course, but I was surprised. There was less complaints about her being a guy than I expected. Lots of people sticking up for her, and a lot of people just complaining about how she acts, just as they complain about the other girls and guys on the show.

[cindybc]

I don't watch TV except for the news on the Internet now and again, not much of that either because it is rather dismally depressing lately with the economy.

But it appears that when ever I hear about trans folks involved with the media it is also dismal news. Anyway I just thought I would check this thread out out to see what was happening.

Cindy

[Luc]

Back when gays were getting so much television exposure, in the US at least, it was gay men who were always at the forefront of it, and it seems to me that the public's acceptance of gays was geared more toward lesbians. In my experience, the majority of straight culture is more accepting of a lesbian than a gay man, if they are prone to homophobia. I honestly wonder if this has anything to do with the overexposure of gay men in the media.

This was mentioned in another thread, but ftms are vastly underrepresented in this new media trend toward transsexual visibility. Apart from Boys Don't Cry, the only real, even moderately recognizable media ftm is Max from The L Word. In line with this, I have noticed more often than not that ftms receive nowhere near the amount of discrimination as do mtfs. My wife is mtf, and we have had plenty of people who have been fine and accepting of my trans status, whereas she is subjected to endless ridicule for hers.

Perhaps the more exposure there is of a particular minority group, the more prevalent the opinions of those who object to the lifestyle/race/what-have-you in question become.

SD

[SarahFaceDoom]

Back when gays were getting so much television exposure, in the US at least, it was gay men who were always at the forefront of it, and it seems to me that the public's acceptance of gays was geared more toward lesbians. In my experience, the majority of straight culture is more accepting of a lesbian than a gay man, if they are prone to homophobia. I honestly wonder if this has anything to do with the overexposure of gay men in the media.

This was mentioned in another thread, but ftms are vastly underrepresented in this new media trend toward transsexual visibility. Apart from Boys Don't Cry, the only real, even moderately recognizable media ftm is Max from The L Word. In line with this, I have noticed more often than not that ftms receive nowhere near the amount of discrimination as do mtfs. My wife is mtf, and we have had plenty of people who have been fine and accepting of my trans status, whereas she is subjected to endless ridicule for hers.

Perhaps the more exposure there is of a particular minority group, the more prevalent the opinions of those who object to the lifestyle/race/what-have-you in question become.

SD

But isn't that divide(in terms of scrutiny) true just in general gender terms?  Women are in general much more scrutinized in society, both on a micro and macro level, than men.  Both by themselves, and by men.  That MTFers might have more problems, is, I'd wager almost entirely due to the unhealthy perception pop culture feeds us of women in general.  Most cigendered women can't even hope to cross the bars our culture sets for women.  And I think MTFers are expected to cross that bar, and then some.  Which is kind of true of any minority when you think about it.  You're always fighting upstream.

You're definitely right about FTMs being underexposed in the media.  It sucks, because there's a lot of great stories there that aren't being told.  On that documentary transgeneration, I thought the most compelling parts of it, were the FTM stories.

I mean, you can just throw Boys Don't Cry out there.  It's only one movie, but it's so so so so so much better than any MTF movie that has been made.  It's really suprising that no one has seen the success of that movie and tried to follow up with it.  Even the Max character on the L Word was really successful.  So yeah.  I don't know why those stories aren't being told.  And it's to the detriment of our culture that they aren't.  Because they are as compelling as anything.

[Hazumu]

I believe good media exposure will help us.  That's the kind where we're seen as ordinary people living ordinary lives, and the fact we were born with the 'wrong' bodies is interesting for like one minute.

We need transgender characters in movies and TV shows who are people first and the transgender part is known but not harped upon, or maybe a character neets a possible romantic interest and THEN the TS thing becomes the motor for the plot for that ONE episode, kind of the way some shows would concentrate one episode on one member of an otherwise ensemble cast (ST:TNG comes to mind...)

Right now, though, the media is in the adolescent-boy stage when it comes to portraying transgenders.  They (the media) need to grow up.

=K

[JENNIFER]

With regard to M to F's, could it simply be in the minds of journalists a matter of men wearing women's clothing?  How often do the press/Television hacks dig into F to M's?  Not as visible maybe?

Girls wear the trousers without question don't they without being attacked as queer or for being in violation of the Vatican or the Koran etc., or the civil codes of Germany or Kansas City etc.?  At worst, they are labelled as Lesbians.

Karen believes that the media will help us.  I honestly hope so and as soon as possible but I shall not be holding my breath. I respect her views and agree that we are resident in bodies alien to our minds.

Do we need transgender characters in mainstream television and movies? Yes, but for me it is only valid if those characters are transgender themselves. That is the one decisive way that we break the barrier of prejudice.  After a while, the press might just become as bored as with the gays etc....

[Marshplains]

I was reading the posts and everyone has valid points , I m really glad i can have a meaningful discussion here .

Almost all have one way or the other talked about perceptions , problems that arise from the way society defines gender . And obviously some of that spills in to the media and i guess dictates to some extent they way that the media portrays a TG person.

It started me thinking though and a question popped  in my mind. What if everything that we know , experienced and felt to be those perceptions suddenly changed . Imagine that tg people were totally , without any questions, accepted in our society . Imagine that the idea of the two genders was no longer taken for a fact , or that external appearance had nothing to do with gender. Or anything else for that matter that you personally thing would be the de facto  acceptance of what you think/feel is your true self. Would that change you ? Would it brake the cycle of denial for example that many have gone through? Or change Katelynn's behavior ?

[cindybc]

My thoughts exactly, thanks for pointing that out Jennifer.

Movies with TS/TG characters acting out the parts, but of course, also what about a movie on the struggles a TS experiences just transitioning through real life experience. Let the viewers see for themselves how some of us are treated just trying to integrate into society, like just getting jobs, and interacting in social circles .

The every day struggles just to be another woman among other members of society. Just that part alone would make for a riveting real life enough biography on the experiences of a TS in transition striving to harmonise soul with body. And that is not to mention a possible sequel of our TS friend finding a partner, and how this partners reaction will be after the TS outs her/himself to them. Will this lover accept them for who they truly are?

Maybe I was lucky, I already had my partner before I transitioned.
As for problems with society, well, I never had that much of a problem with being noticed or attracting attention. I was invisible and a nothing person before, now the only difference is I am just invisible. Actually, I think for the most part, people are friendlier then they were before.

Cindy
   

[JENNIFER]

As for problems with society, well, I never had that much of a problem with being noticed or attracting attention. I was invisible and a nothing person before, now the only difference is I am just invisible. Actually, I think for the most part, people are friendlier then they were before.

Cindy?  Please forgive the selective quotation but that is exactly the point for most of us.

Invisibility is a goal for me, to be just another female in society perhaps a little ugly but respected as female. End of story maybe?