The Issue

Representation of Trans People in the Media

In the modern age and especially during a pandemic, all forms of media are crucial to our lives. Now more than ever, we rely on television, movies, social media, and the news to keep us connected. However, how do the media we consume reflect the diverse lives of the people taking in the media? More specifically, how does the media misrepresent and exclude certain voices such as trans voices?

Gross Underrepresentation

As will be explored later in the Statistics section of the website, trans people and trans characters do not take up much space in the mainstream media. More than that, the depictions of trans and gender non-conforming (GNC) people are mostly inaccurate, offensive, or one-note. For example, trans women are represented far more than trans men and non binary people (Bendix). The minimal representation of a section of the transgender and GNC community has the capacity to influence the general public's perception of trans men and trans people as a whole, especially for people who do not personally know a trans person.

Many of the trans female characters throughout time have been played by cisgender men like Eddie Redmayne in the 2015 Oscar-winning film, The Danish Girl about a trans woman who receives gender affirmation surgery. The fact that trans actors are passed up in favor of cis actors is inherently problematic since a trans actor could make the portrayal more realistic and offer an insight and perspective that a cis actor can't bring.

Stereotypes and Tropes

As with most marginalized groups, trans people are faced with a number of stereotypes and boxes they are put into by the media in order to push storylines. Some of these stereotypes include:

Victim/Villain Myth

The Victim/Villain myth about trans people is that they can only be either a victim (of transphobia, domestic/sexual violence, murder, etc.) or a villain (GLAAD, 2012). Both of these depictions are clearly wrong, with the former only framing trans people as constantly being victimized and the latter vilifying trans people and playing into transphobic ideals of a dangerous trans person.

Acceptable Targets

The Acceptable Target trope is used a lot in comedies where the trans person is the butt of the joke or an object of ridicule for the other characters and the audience (TV Tropes, Acceptable Targets). This archetype is embodied in shows like Friends where Chandler Bing's parent is transtioning from male to female and is often joked about disparingly (Jobe, 21).

Trans Tribulations

A final trope often used in the media's portrayal of trans people is the Trans Tribulations archetype (TV Tropes, Trans Tribulations). This portrayl of trans people only shows the hardships about being trangender and makes the character's whole storyline about their struggles. A perfect example of this is in the 1999 movie Boys Don't Cry starring Hilary Swank (a cis woman) as Brandon Teena, a young trans man brutally murdered in his town (Jobe, 15).

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Now that we've gone over the issue at hand, click below to see how trans representation has evolved over the years.

Works Cited

“Acceptable Targets.” TV Tropes, tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AcceptableTargets.

Bendix, Trish. “How a New Class of Trans Male Actors Are Changing the Face of Television.” Time, 2 Feb. 2020, time.com/5686290/transgender-men-representation-television/.

Jobe, Jessica N., "Transgender Representation in the Media" (2013). Honors Theses. 132. https://encompass.eku.edu/honors_theses/132

“Victims or Villains: Examining Ten Years of Transgender Images on Television.” GLAAD, 2012, www.glaad.org/publications/victims-or-villains-examining-ten-years-transgender-images-television.

Header image credit: “Image of Various Media Outlets.” Leverage Edu, 23 Mar. 2021, leverageedu.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Media-Convergence.jpg.