Victims or Villians: How transgender folk are portrayed on television.

[Deleted User]

Hi Marian and everyone at TgR, I’m Rosemary and new to this forum.
I found this article interesting and for the most part agree with it, but I will throw another point on the discussion board, in movies, frocking up as a way to escape from the bad guys is a well-used comic ploy and dusted off and reused many times. The earliest use of this story line I remember is, Tony Curtis & Jack Lemon in, Some Like It Hot (1959), through to Big Arnie Schwarzenegger, frocking up in one part of the film Junior (1994) as 2 examples.
What I will relate to Marian post is outside the 10 year survey by GLAAD but shows the Trans community in different ways and one way it was presented to children as “OK”, back in the dark ages of the 1970’s, please think back to how many times you have seen Bugs Bunny frocked to fool & trick the stories bad guys. Again jumping back to the 19th century, who remembers the American Comedy/Soap television series Twin Peaks (1990/91), a small town of bizarre characters where everyone has a skeleton in there closet. Enter DEA Agent Denise(Dennis) Bryson played by David Duchovny, as Denise’s character unfolds, Denis, began wearing women’s clothing during a DEA undercover operation and found that it relaxed her and then changed her name to Denise for the purpose of the operation, and retained it afterwards, finding it comfortable, this on I would call this a positive.
Going back to GLAAD’s findings of profiling Trans-character as negative and problematic goes way back, Peter Capaldi, (yes Peter, Dr Who, Capaldi) played Vera(Vernon) Reynolds in the 1993, in the 3rd season of television series, Prime Suspect, the series was supposedly set in the 1970’s and written to show problems women faced in The Met during that time period, the lead character is DCI Jane Tennison is played by Helen Mirren. During the story Vera is treated as suspect, victim, and of being a sex worker, I’d call this a big negative.
2002, Tom Fisher played Angelica Bain the transsexual serial killer in the first story of the television series, Wire In The Blood, as the story unfolds and they suspect a transsexual, of course they check the files of all TS sex workers, again I’ll call this on a big negative.
Why isn’t the Trans community displayed more positively in television? Consider this point, in the general community there is very little known about us, whilst there is more understanding, acceptance and information available in this present day and age. Many of us still go about with a certain amount of secrecy about ourselves, whilst I do go out and about and socialise as Rosemary, I do protect my anonymity, why, look at the way Caitlyn Jenner and Jan Hamilton have been treated by some sections of the media. Last Tuesday I heard an interview on the radio with Caitlyn, some of it was really good and I understood where she was coming from. Then the male interviewer opened his mouth with 2 questions poorly presented and expressed that put Caitlyn on edge, I’m sure this interviewer still thinks crank phone calls on air are funny, he has done it in the past until he was caught out with one that made headlines, need I say any more.
In some respect I think of the Trans community similar to an iceberg you will only every see about 10% of us, the other 90% is unseen behind their front door. I have over the years corresponded with many T-girls on line and for lots of them the front door is a boundary they don’t pass. Will positive portrayal of the Trans community increase, one will hope so as new writers come into the television industry, but it’s still easy to use an old stereotype that has worked in the past. I look forward to hearing others comments on my ramblings.
Rosemary, Maitland NSW.
If you would like to correspond privately, send me a message through private message system and I’m happy to swap email addresses

[Anonymous]

Thank you for a thoughtful post Rosemary.
You maybe interested in a book “Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety”
By Marjorie B. Garber. Garber explores how cross-dressing is represented in culture. She discusses how for some charcters cross_dressing is ok but for others it is need as a form of representation.
I was fascinated about Garber’s account of the Billy Tipton story. Tipton was a successfully male jazz singer was married a number of times and had a number of adopted children. On his death the undertaker outed him telling the world that Billy Tipton was a women. His wife claim she only knew Billy to be a man and explained that Billy always wore bandages to cover his genitals having been injured as a child. Of course who is telling what and why becomes an intriguing part of the story.
As for Some Like it Hot in many respects is just a dressing to escape story and to enable a romance until the final scene which is quite subversive for its time:

Jerry: Oh no you don’t! Osgood, I’m gonna level with you. We can’t get married at all.

Osgood: Why not?

Jerry: Well, in the first place, I’m not a natural blonde.

Osgood: Doesn’t matter.

Jerry: I smoke! I smoke all the time!

Osgood: I don’t care.

Jerry: Well, I have a terrible past. For three years now, I’ve been living with a saxophone player.

Osgood: I forgive you.

Jerry: [tragically] I can never have children!

Osgood: We can adopt some.

Jerry: But you don’t understand, Osgood! Ohh…

[Jerry finally gives up and pulls off his wig]

Jerry: [normal voice] I’m a man!

Osgood: [shrugs] Well, nobody’s perfect!

[Jerry looks on with disbelief as Osgood continues smiling with indifference. Fade out]

I like to read this final scene not that Osgood is gay or is open to a gay relationship but is open to a relationship with a trans women. But that just me.

[Anonymous]

I think any minority is victimised, Look how the Indigenous people of any country have been/ are treated, or Gay folk or indeed women. We are just the relatively new one to pick on. Over the years I developed the resilience to push down the humiliation and gain confidence. In fact if I didn’t have to deal with my TG self I doubt I would be where I am today, confident and self assured. Interesting as being TG was my downfall in the formative years (as I was deemed different and therefore isolated and bullied). Now I have a beautiful bunch of friends that have supported me as I transitioned and then finally had sexual reassignment surgery a few months ago.
I suppose what I am getting at is that, as a confident person who has successfully transitioned, I have developed the resilience to help advocate for those still on that journey. It is my job to fight for others as others did for me earlier. I shall set the best example, work hard in my job and be the kind and thoughtful person that I am, so that I, as a member of a minority group can have us all labelled in a positive way. If I was to walk around lacking confidence and portraying a negative image then we would all be labelled that way…it is a sociological fact that is how we think in a community. So it is up to all of us to set the example so that our future can be formed in a positive fashion.

Yours in the kindest regard,
Alana