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The depiction of transgender women characters in mainstream television has been offensive, insulting and derogatory. An article from GLADD called “Victims or Villains: Examining Ten Years of Transgender Images on Television”, examines 102 episodes and storylines on mainstream television that contained transgender characters since 2002. Of these, more than half were characterized as containing negative representations of transgender. In 2007 only 1% of television series had a recurring transgender character, which has slowly increased to 4% in 2013.
Negative portrayal of transgender tv characters
Many television shows have transgender characters portrayed offensively, which clearly demonstrates a widespread problem. Transgender characters are being portrayed as “victims”, cast as killers, and working as sex workers. The first thing that writers in the media think of when using a transgender character is prostitution. This is the immediate preconception because in reality sometimes the only job a trans person can get is in sex work. As we saw in Screaming Queens, the transgender community was forced into prostitution among many other degrading consequences of being trans. This idea has stuck and is more likely to be portrayed in media when it comes to assigning roles for transgender characters.
There are many shows that contain anti-transgender lingo and negative categorizations. A few examples of some of the cruel portrayals include: Rebecca Romijn played the first recurring trans character on Ugly Betty in 2007 on ABC. She was a scheming, lying and conniving woman. She went from “behind-the-scenes villain to a more complicated role as a ruthless magazine publisher” (Kane, 2013). Although this role was a first primetime ...
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...pectful) way“ (Valenti, 176). I hope that the portrayal of transgender people and characters on television can evolve even more so, and depict the transgender community in an inspiring and positive light.
Works Cited
Kane, Matt. “Transgender characters that changed film and television”. Entertainment
Media at GLAAD. 12 November 2013. Web. 09 Mar. 2014.
Kane, Matt. “Victims or Villans: Examining Ten Years of Transgender Images on Television.” GLAAD. N.p., 21 Nov. 2012. Web. 08 Mar. 2014.
Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria. Dir. Susan Stryker. 2005.
Documentary.
Serano, Julia. Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating
of Femininity. Emeryville, CA: Seal, 2007. Print.
Valenti, Jessica. He’s a Stud, She’s a Slut and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman
Should Know. Berkeley, CA: Seal, 2008. Print.
Hate violence is a predominant issue against transgender women who wish for acceptance from society. Individuals believe they have the right to perform violence against these transgender women because of who they are. For example, in the novel Stone Butch Blues, Jess Goldberg is physically a women but prefers to live life as a male. Since Jess chooses to live life as a male, or butch, she is frequently a target of policeman and other individuals because of her identity. The society views Jess as a criminal because during the 1960’s homosexuality was illegal and it was considered a mental disorder. Apparently, our society has made much more progress today against transgender women, but they still face a multitude of hate violence. A major example
Today’s media outlets are slowly broadening their views of society to integrate representation of people from the LGBTQ community. While I applaud and respect their efforts, I believe mainstream television has only begun to scratch the surface of the challenges the LGBTQ community face on a daily basis. The LGBTQ storylines I’ve seen, as I will describe in this paper, feel almost like an afterthought. As if a character or issue were added to complicate the main plot or possibly placate what the broadcast station may consider a fringe group of viewers, not to accurately portray the true multi-faceted and challenging life queer people face on a daily basis. I believe most shows not only misrepresent LGBTQ characters, but tend to float over the
...a and the cause of violence against LGBTIQ persons. I am so glad that articles, such as Putnam's and Cokely's, deconstruct Disney and lift the vial that Disney has placed on so many of it's viewers. I hope that articles such as these will change Disney films, making them more accepting of gender identities and sexual identities that fall off of the spectrum.
Grant, Jaime M., Lisa A. Mottet, Justin Tanis, Jack Harrison, Jody L. Herman, and Mara Keisling. Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey.Washington: National Center for Transgender Equality and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, 2011. 158-59.
Surprisingly the characters in the show never seem to have or display negative opinions toward trans and transvestite characters. However, in episode “Sheesh! Cab Bob” there is another story told. This episode in season one at first glance may not seem to petrary transvestite in a negative light but it does. In this episode, Bobs decides to take on an extra job to afford to throw Tina a birthday party. The job he ends up getting into is driving a cab at night for someone he knows. However, as he soon finds out is that he will be having some interesting customers. Soon he runs across some very unusual consumers who are transvestite’s males who work as hookers. Bob does not judge them but how they are draw up and portrayed could be offensive to the LGBT community. Rigjt when bob meets them there is a direct focus of the camera on their male features. To many this depiction could be taken as offensive cause it is emphasis that they are not female. They also have crazy names as well which even more makes it hard for the audiences to take them seriously. On top of this they show the Transvestites as being hookers who abuse drugs and alcohol. This portrayal in this episode is quite negative and far from positive. This episode after re-watching it really does not paint a good picture of transvestites. All it provides the viewer is a negative view toward transvestites and
This addition of multiple different depictions of same-sex couples and gay and lesbian people by television is being widely praised by the LBGT community. It makes the idea of homosexuality more common and representative of the actual community.
I’ve been rewatching the early 90s show Twin Peaks recently, and I just saw the episode where the character of Denise is introduced. Denise, formerly known as Dennis, is a transgender FBI agent. The show walks a line between accepting who Denise is and finding humor in her character. Dale Cooper, the show’s protagonist, quickly embraces Denise and treats her respectfully, while supporting character Hawk makes a joke about Denise’s outfit being a good color for “him.” Twin Peaks is a microcosm of both the transphobia in society as well as the positives of accepting gender expression.
Particularly in this video, Kimberle Crenshaw mentioned an employment discrimination case. Emma is the name of the African American woman who was discriminated in her job. Emma who came from a minority group was seeking better opportunities for her family, so she applied for a job in a factory. However, she was not hired because of gender and race discrimination. She is one of many people who come from minority groups which are not only discriminated against because of their gender, but also because of their race. Basically, we always take into account that a person is discriminated against by only one factor, however, in this case Kimberle Crenshaw emphasizes how Emma was being discriminated different compared to the African American males and white women’s working inside the factory. Although the men remained in the same ethnic group as Emma they were not discriminated against at the same level of an African-American woman. Therefore, Emma suffered what Kimberle Crenshaw called double discrimination. Unfortunately not only women are typically those who suffer sexism but also other groups in our society. Such is the case of transgender people. It is here when we can see how discrimination exceeds more complicated levels when compared to the discrimination and inequality that cisgender people face. For instance, society ignore how transwomen
Taylor, J. K. (2007). Transgender Identities and Public Policy in the United States The Relevance for Public Administration. Administration & Society, 39(7), 833-856.
When television first appeared back in the 1940's, times were very different. What we would consider completely normal today would have seemed quite taboo just a few decades ago. For example, in 1953, Lucille Ball was not allowed to say the word "pregnant" while she was expecting baby Ricky and it wasn't until the 1960's show Bewitched, that we saw a married couple actually sharing the same bed. Considering how conservative the television networks were back then, it is not hard to deduce that something as controversial as homosexuality would be far from discussed or portrayed at any level. It was only in 1973 that television premiered its first homosexual character. Over the next three decades the emergence of gay and lesbian characters in television has increased and decreased as the times have changed. Due to the resurgence of conservatism that came back in the early 1980's, homosexual topics were again reduced to a minimum. Since that time though, as many people can see, there has been a rise of gay and lesbian characters on television. One might think after a first glance at the previous sentence that there has been progress among gay and lesbian communities to have a fair representation in the media. However, if one looks hard at the circumstances surrounding their portrayal, many people may start to believe that if there has been any progress then it has been quite minimal.
Whereas people with disabilties make up 12 percent of the American population, but less than 1 percent of regular series’ characters have disabilities”. While we are seeing more representation of LGBTQ and disabled characters in movies and television stereotypes still prevail. Bisexual characters, for example, are often portrayed as hypersexualized, untrustworthy individuals with low morals and prone to infidelity or as an individual going through a phase which they will then get over when they find the right
The 1990s saw surge of gay characters in both television and movies. From Ellen Degeneres and her character Ellen Morgan coming out under much scrutiny on the TV show ‘Ellen,’ to Julia Roberts and Rupert Everett comedically playing off each other in the motion picture ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding.’ Sure, gays and lesbians have been around forever, especially in Hollywood. But never has there been a time to be more out. With the popularity of shows like Will and Grace, which feature leading gay characters, as well as Dawson’s Creek and it’s supporting character of teenager Jack McPhee, we are slowly seeing gay and lesbian characters creeping into the mainstream media.
Modern social media has coined an acronymic term to capture a sect of feminism making a resurgence in the public sphere. TERFs, or trans-exclusive radical feminists, see the increased visibility of the transgender community thanks to activists like Laverne Cox, Janet Mock, and Carmen Carrera, and have countered with transgender exclusivity. As a result, a divide has deepened in the feminist movement, a war of sorts between trans-exclusive and trans-inclusive activists—a TERF war. In this essay, I analyze the theory behind trans-exclusive feminism, positioning it within contemporary feminist history. This essay asserts that trans-exclusive radical feminism undermines feminist theory by perpetuating a misguided relationship between sex and gender,
Within the recent years, the transgender movement has become more apparent than ever. With television shows like “RuPaul’s Drag Race”, “Keeping It Up With Cait” and “I Am Jazz”, the voices of transgender people are more public than ever. Celebrities like Caitlyn Jenner and Laverene Cox are changing the face of the movement by showing people that it is never too late to be their true selves. American laws acknowledge the rights of transgender people, but not in a positive way. These are just people trying to be their best selves.
Media portrayal of the LGBT community is varying. It may be very positive and a “good” portrayal or negative and instead focuses on the stereotypical aspects of the LGBT community. One definition of a good LGBT television portrayal is one that depicts an LGBT character without over glaringly obviousness of their sexual orientation, or without adding many LGBT stereotypes that are all too often added.