Friday, November 26, 2010
Anna Madrigal: The Same Old Cis?
Posted by Gina at 10:02 PM
http://skipthemakeup.blogspot.com/2010/11/anna-madrigal-same-old-cis.html (http://skipthemakeup.blogspot.com/2010/11/anna-madrigal-same-old-cis.html)
If one were to ask those who care about such things which is the best known trans character in fiction, very likely many, both in the US and Europe, would mention Anna Madrigal, the trans woman landlady (and pot grower) from Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series. Okay, yes there is Gore Vidal's 1968's satirical cause célèbre Myra Breckenridge (and its followup of a few years later called Myron), but both of those books are currently out-of-print, mostly unknown by anyone under 40 and neither has aged especially well—especially after the disastrous 1970 film adaptation of Myra starring Rex Reed (as pre-transition Myron) and Raquel Welch as the title character. It's campy fun for the first half-hour but a near unwatchably bad movie.
Tales of the City, on the other hand, remains a hugely popular series whose 8th installment just came out, entitled Mary Ann in Autumn. Not only is a very aged Anna Madrigal still alive and kicking, but the book also features a trans man character, Jake, who is the assistant to gay series stalwart Michael (Mouse) Tolliver in his gardening business. Still very much in demand, the Tales series is far more popular in England, France and Germany than it is in the US, where it's always had a strong fan base, but has had a complex history with American media who are seemingly attracted by its Dickensian multi-part serialized cliffhanger format but scared off by its mostly gentle homoeroticism and gay and trans characters. Fortunately, its initial TV version in 1993 was a wildly successful, award-winning adaptation made by Channel 4 in Britain but shown in shamefully expurgated form in America on PBS.