Pop Matters
by Michael Abernethy

According to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, there were nine gay or lesbian characters on the broadcast networks last year, comprising 1.3 percent of the total number of regular characters. There were no bisexual or transgender characters. 

The number of GLBT representations shoots up if you count cable, daytime, and reality programming, but still some GLBT advocates argue that it's not enough.

Right, just what we need, Gender Bender hour.

Oh I know...A survivor series for TS. They can take a bunch of TS and dump them in the middle of RedNeck USA and tell them to transition there and see who lives.

I seriously want Fox to do The Swan with TS. I'd do that in a hearbeat. Free FFS, Free SRS....conditioning, training....omg that would so rock!!! And talk about coming out!! No chance of stealth, but ya know....your secret would be out.

And you could turn it into a book deal and probably a TV Movie.

Since broadcast TV is getting less and less relevant, the ratings to get into the top 20 keep going down all the time, I think that counting LGBT representation in all media is what's important. On TV at large (including broadcast, cable, etc) at least, the numbers are certain more than 1.3%, probably close to 3%. Considering that the number of LGBT in the general pop is hard to acertain and many minorities are even more badly represented (latino's), I think the situation is getting pretty good.

Also, there are limits to representativity of all kind, from a storytelling point of view, a casting point of view. If you've got a cast of 10, should you really shoehorn a gay role in there? That would mean 10% are now gay, more than needed, and some other minority like asians could get cut out.

You say, ha lets put a gay asian in there, it will solve everything, brilliant... Except the story's set in the black New Orlean Community, oops! Hmmm, lets make the gay black and next time, we'll replace a caucasian by an asian to balance things out and give the token black role to an asian... (LOL completely insane!!!!!).

Yet, that's how activists would want it to work.

Well... I don't really think that's how the activists want it to work.

Most of the people picking the programming don't give a flying f*** about diversity or tolerance, so they stick in arbitrary token characters into shows, however they can make them fit, and characterize them however they want.

Meh.

One thing though, if its not relevant to the story, I would you know if the character is Gay, straight, or likes to eat cornflakes with butter on top. You don't have a clue.

In a sense, why should being a declared GLBT be more relevant on TV than in real life. We live most of our lives looking like the majority without even trying.

In CSI, for example, a gay character's gayness would come up when? Never, unless they do one show on hate crimes and the characters past, for that one episode, comes to the forefront.

Many many shows are like CSI and law and Order in construction.

On shows based on relationships like Gray's anatomy, there is a bigger chance the character's TSness would be relevant to the show.

A passable post-op TS character could emerge if its stealthness had to be broken and everybody had to deal with the consequences. Actually, that would be a fantastic storyline if they introduce a very attractive compassionate female character, let everybody, even the bigots, become
very attached to it and BAM!! have the character's TS status be
uncovered accidently. If done well, in such a popular show, that would be an jaw dropping eye opener.

It seems very crass - but I was waiting on a relevant 'what not to wear' US/UK series :| not literally waiting, but expecting it...

There was an episode of ER where they were trying to trace down a source of contamination in the ER. All of the employees had to be screened and one person mentioned that he had a TS girlfriend. It was a passing moment and not played up for any guffaws and did not relate to anything else in the storyline. Just a fact about a person he had dated. Well the character anyway.

   Another possibility is to showcase a transperson would be to have a semi background character, like an office or lab worker who doesn't have to be a part of the main cast, but who is known by the regular cast to suffer GID. Then on occasion the regular character can say like, "Have you found that therapist you were looking for?" and the TG/TS in drab could say like, "No, I'm having a hard time finding a therapist who has serious experience with Gender Dysphoria." Kind of office chatter but without being sensationalized.
   So, it would come up now and then AND the background character could make some progress over time and eventually go full time.  This method provides a sort of exposure for us in a way that shows there is more than just waking up and saying "I feel like a girl today. Tee Hee!"
   Some shows like CSI have these types of background people who you learn a little at a time about and then on occasion, the character is given a little more 'up front' time.

QuoteA passable post-op TS character could emerge if its stealthness had to be broken and everybody had to deal with the consequences. Actually, that would be a fantastic storyline if they introduce a very attractive compassionate female character, let everybody, even the bigots, become
very attached to it and BAM!! have the character's TS status be
uncovered accidently. If done well, in such a popular show, that would be an jaw dropping eye opener.

I recall an episode of Law & Order where they let go the attractive blonde assistant DA.  They cycle through them every year it seems.  Anyway she had some conflict with somebody else and they fired her.  After a full season or two with her in the series, she said "This isn't because I'm a lesbian is it?"  There had never been any discussion of it. There had been no reason to let it out... except for just at that very moment.  It thought it to be ser cool.

Cindi

I think i saw something similar on law and order .. SVU or something and they had someone who was TS who was supposed to be being put in prison with people of their previous gender... That must be awful.

I agree it should be more people in the background as opposed to major characters, that draws attention to people less and proves that there are TS people in all walks of life and that they can blend into the background and not be a 'major' thing.

Quote from: Judge Yourself on May 29, 2007, 04:18:13 PM
I think i saw something similar on law and order .. SVU or something and they had someone who was TS who was supposed to be being put in prison with people of their previous gender... That must be awful.

I remember that episode - if I recall correctly it was about a girl living in stealth, who killed a guy who found out she was TS. And they put her in a mens prison because she had been self-medicating and was never diagnosed as having GID, where she was raped and assaulted.

Megan

They don't have to make a big deal out of characters that are minorities or GLBTQ, just acknowledge that we're all basically normal people who do honestly exist in the real world (really!) rather than as marginalized tabloid fodder.

There shouldn't be a big deal whether the -blank- type of person is a major character or not. For the most part, they're going to be like anyone else and have problems that people can relate to more or less.

That's all I want. Not stereotyping, caricaturization, or playing up differences in extreme ways. Just having visible characters at least on occasion that act and live like normal --blank-- people.

And if they're feeling brave, along the way they can highlight a few of the personal difficulties that happens to be unique to that character, just as you would any other.

   Too bad we couldn't scare up the money and start our own network like the Lifetime channel. Then we could create the programming we want and buy some rights to existing programs that we respect and also hopefully share in the profits.

   We could create Military shows where the soldiers are all crossdressers on there own time and the officers are FTM.   And all the straights would be respectful because it doesn't mean anything to them, because, it's a perfect world (except for the war).