User:ReadingIsFun173/Media portrayals of transgender people

singhasandu

Film
In the 1980s, writer, filmmaker, and actor Jake Graf said that he couldn't "find himself in any of the TV or film characters he saw" and called the worst manifestation of this was in the 1999 film, Boys Don't Cry. He called the film the "most horrific representation" which put him off transitioning "for another ten years." He said, when interviewed in 2017, that representation of transgender people is improving from being portrayed negatively or as the "butt of the joke."

Films depicting transgender issues include: Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean; The World According to Garp; The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert; Dog Day Afternoon, All About My Mother and The Crying Game. The film Different for Girls is notable for its depiction of a transsexual woman who meets up with, and forms a romantic relationship with, her former best friend from her all-male boarding school. Ma Vie en Rose portrays a six-year-old child who is gender noncomforming. The film Wild Zero features Kwancharu Shitichai, a transsexual Thai actor. When the main character is conflicted about falling in love with a "woman who is also a man", Guitar Wolf tells him "Love knows no race, nationality or gender!"

Southern Comfort is a documentary film, directed by Kate Davis (IMDb),  that goes over the life of a transgender man, Robert Eads. As a transgender man, Robert was denied health care for his ovarian cancer because doctors were afraid their reputation would be negatively affected (IMDb). The film being a documentary accentuates the factuality of the discrimination transgender people go through.

The film took the audience through the life of Robert Eads– it showed his family, “chosen” family and his battle with ovarian cancer. His chosen family were his friends that he considered to be family. Due to the denial of attention to his ovarian cancer, Robert Eads passed away (Jobe).

By walking through Robert’s life the audience is introduced to the various struggles that transgender people may face. This documentary film mainly focused on the struggles transgender people face in the health care system. The recognition of these issues advocated for change by displaying the prejudice and discrimination faced by transgender people in the health care system (Jobe). The documentation of his life steps away from the narration of transgender people being the joke and gives the audience a chance to understand transgender people on a more personal level.

In February 2006, Logo aired Beautiful Daughters, a documentary film about the first all-trans cast of The Vagina Monologues, which included Addams, Lynn Conway, Andrea James, and Leslie Townseand directed by Josh Aronson and Ariel Orr Jordan. Also in 2006, Lifetime aired a movie biography on the murder of Gwen Araujo called A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story.

Additionally, in 2017 Jake Graf, a trans filmmaker released a short film called “Dusk ” which tells the story of a trans man from his childhood through adulthood. The film highlights the struggles trans men go through with transitioning and the lack of resources and acceptance in society available to them. Chris in the film meets a dream woman named Julie but struggles with self-identity and how life could be different. One of the struggles depicted is how gender roles are critiqued and expected in a closed society. Ultimately, the film ends with Chris being old with Julie and still in their romantic relationship, which helps Chris understand that some questions in life have no answers or right ones which make us who we are.

In 2013, GLAAD noted a number of films which they felt had positive transgender representation. The organization specifically listed The World According to Garp (1982), Second Serve (1986), The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), Ma Vie en Rose (My Life in Pink) (1997), Southern Comfort (2001), Normal (2003), and Transamerica (2005). Bustle also argued that TransAmerica had positive depiction of transgender people.

In 2017, Nikki Reitz of Grand Valley State University examined transgender representation in film and television in an article in the journal, Cinesthesia. Reitz wrote that often trans women are cast as villains in film and television, citing examples of bad representation in the films Sleepaway Camp (1983) and Silence of the Lambs (1991), and further criticizing TV shows such as Law & Order (1990-2010), CSI (2000-2015), NCIS (2003-Present), and The Closer (2005-2012) as doing the same thing. Reitz further criticized the practice of "casting cisgender men in the roles of trans women," in films such as The Danish Girl (2015) and Dallas Buyers Club (2013), while saying that often lauded characters in Orange is the New Black (2013-2019) and Tangerine (2015) fall into existing tropes, while the film Boy Meets Girl (2014) does not, for the most part. Reitz concluded that casting trans actors and actresses to portray transgender characters will "slow the perpetuation of negative stereotypes of trans people" and will cause public opinion of trans women to improve, along with the "quality of life" for such individuals.

In 2012, PhD student Jeremy Russell Miller argued in his dissertation, “CROSSDRESSING CINEMA: AN ANALYSIS OF TRANSGENDER REPRESENTATION IN FILM ,” that there should also be an emphasis on the recurring issue of the use of Transgender characters in comedic films. There has been a constant theme or trend of utilizing male characters dressed as women for comedic effect. In award-winning films such as Victor/Victoria, Some Like It Hot, and Big Momma’s House, there is an implication of having male-identifying actors become and act as female characters to bring a focus of laughter. Each film grossed over $20 million dollars and won an Oscar over ten other nominated films. Miller’s argument highlights the fact that profit is made from the humiliation of the display of transgender people. They are often used as the bud of the joke and made into objects to ridicule. While comedies should be taken lightly and not seriously, they should still be called out for how damaging it can be to associate transgender people as subjects of laughter. Further, films such as Mrs. Doubtfire and 100 Girls invalidate the process of transitioning that display heteronormative privileges that cisgender men have over transgender people. As these movies cut from a character being one gender to another, it allows for each character to keep their heteronormative identities. This helps preserve their privilege of being heteronormative. Even then, if the process is seen, it is treated as torture which furthers heteronormative privilege.

In March 2022, Professor Cáel M. Keegan argued against the idea that more favorable media portrayals of transgender people could greatly change how they were treated within society. In his article for Film Quarterly, he discussed how appropriate portrayals end up overshadowing more nuanced or unconventional depictions, thus becoming more “assimilative” than revolutionary. In light of this issue, Keegan suggested that portrayals commonly considered to be aversive (or “‘bad’ trans object[s]”) might actually be better equipped to produce thought-provoking depictions because they “cannot fit within the aesthetic system” at all. While examining the films Tootsie (1982), It’s Pat (1994), and The Assignment (2016), Keegan also attempted to vindicate their controversial portrayals of transgender people by claiming that their uncomfortable natures “point to…broader vision[s] for trans politics” overall.

During the four-year period of 2017–2020, GLAAD's annual Studio Responsibility Index found that major studios had produced no films with transgender or nonbinary characters. However, in March 2021, Patti Harrison became the "first known trans actor to voice a character in a Disney animated movie," specifically Raya and the Last Dragon.

In December 2022, Michelle H. S. Ho from the National University of Singapore wrote an article published in SAGE Journals discussing the changing ways in which “‘transgender’…tarento [or]…television personalities” are represented in “Japanese Media Culture[.] Ho detailed how the “historical context…of trans women in Japan” is connected to the personas of the “onē (queen) and nyūhāfu (new-half)[,]” which are of “come[d]ic…[or] sexual” natures. Ho then spotlighted Nishihara Satsuki an “internet celebrity-turned-tarento…who identifies as ‘toransujendā’ (transgender) and” is considered to be a more modern representation “…of trans tarento as entertainers” overall. Though Ho acknowledged that Satsuki “…subscribes to ‘transnormativity,’” which relies “‘upon a binary medical model[,]’” she ultimately emphasized how “…Satsuki demand[ed] mainstream media…take trans representation more seriously” as a whole.