On one hand I do initially feel good about this. It's nice to finally see VH1 (the Gay MTV) branching out beyond RuPaul's Drag Race into official T territory. While I am certainly happy, I don't think this, even if it and similar programs become more ubiquitous, is the end of our troubles. I used to parody my overly weepy liberal counterparts by joking that the media only looked at how the fashion industry affected girls, but failed to include Trans Girls as well. It seems like that may no longer be just a joke.
I've seen a few episodes, and while I find it ranks equal with most "reality" based shows it still makes me worry. On one hand it certainly normalizes trans people and makes us less scary, by putting a friendly face and simple fact to the oft mythical "->-bleeped-<-". Though now we find ourselves perhaps beginning to encounter another problem. The box.
TRANSform Me is a good step, but it also creates a frame. Yes, for many of us MTFs we fall head over heels into the world of women as I've seen many FTM's do to the world of men; a condition roughly echoing the month or so of "gay puberty" newly outed gays experience. Inevitably TRANSform Me will create a frame, as would any portrayal.
Though let's be honest, this is not one without context. In some sense, TRANSform Me is a sequel to RuPaul's Drag Race, another show whose main fodder is gender variant behavior. With this as precedent, we can already see the context beginning to emerge which can, especially with hypothetically increased coverage, pressure gender variant individuals to conform to these images.
Without engaging in needless detail I'll sum it up thusly: TRANSform Me is ushering T culture into a world nearly identical to that which it wishes to mimic and is thus in danger of acquiring its social ills. One common symptom of which is Anorexia.
That though is only the first half of the problem. While we may see ourselves as one and the same with women let us be honest that this show, by title alone, points out that the rest of the world does not. A T girl has not been added to a line up of women, thus equivocating them, but rather they are singled out in their own show. In some way this may lend itself toward creating a third gender and fourth gender category, but that remains to be seen.
Overcoming masculinity to not only pass as a woman but excel at it, is herein treated as a mark of expertise. The T girl then exists as a testament to the possibility of one's beauty. Both implicit and explicit throughout the show is the need for one to be beautiful in order to feel good. Further, if a T girl, being reduced to their past experiences and current appearance, can look stunning, a real girl must be able to.
Perhaps I'm just too embroiled in academia and Sociology; afterall this mini essay was originally supposed to be a short response. Though I can not look at the mass media's portrayals of both dominant genders (See: Jackson Katz's Tough Guise, & PBS's A Girl's Life) without thinking that a similar problem will arise. That is, if it hasn't already.
