What does it mean?

Breaking Down the Numbers

From the data collected, we have learned that trans characters and personalities in the media are both underrepresented and incorrectly represented. The fact that a combined 61% of TV shows GLAAD examined in 2012 used the victim/villain trope is indicative of how pervasive these harmful stereotypes are (GLAAD, 2012).

We also found that there is still very little trans male representation and even less non binary representation. However, it seems that this is starting to change; Logan Rozos, a young Afro-Latinx trans male actor, is a rising star and has been recognized for his work on OWN's David Makes Man (Bendix). Non binary actor Bex Taylor-Klaus shot to fame through their work on the hit Netflix show, 13 Reasons Why (Bendix). Both of these newly visible trans and GNC celebrities have the capacity to boost representation for different sectors of the trans community which hopefully will help the general public's understanding of them.

Most of the representation trans folks have is also in a negative light, enforcing transphobic stereotypes and using anti-trans slurs and language. We can fight for representation, but if media outlets are going to missrepresent trans people, it's worth questioning whether this representation does more harm than good.

Even though there is a lot of bad representation of trans people, we have begun to see some positive progress. For example, the FX show Pose has been groundbreaking for LGBTQ+ representation, especially with trans and GNC people of color (POC). As discussed earlier, this show along with The L Word: Generation Q have made leaps and bounds not just in accurately representing trans and GNC people, but also centering trans voices by casting trans actors and having trans and GNC people in the writing room and producing roles. Seeing this new direction of trans representation in media is very exciting and we must keep pushing for these types of portrayals instead of the same tired tropes. We will explore this more in the next section.

Implications for Trans People in Real Life

Since we have established that the media has major influential power on people's thoughts about other people (especially people from marginalized groups), it makes sense that representations of trans people in the media affect trans and GNC people in real life.

Rhianna Humphrey, a researcher at the University of Glasgow, UK, conducted a study about how sensationalist UK tabloid headlines about trans people are damaging to the general population of trans people. Humphrey's interviewees overwhelmingly (78% of respondents) expressed feelings of dissatisfaction with the way these newspapers represent them and almost all of the interviewees (95% of respondents) did not think that these tabloids had trans folks in mind when publishing these damaging stories (Humphrey, 25). Even though this study was done in the United Kingdom and most of our analysis focuses on the United States, these findings are still noteworthy since they clearly show that trans and GNC find this type of 'representation' to be extremely harmful. Some of the respondents reported feeling "frightened, intimidated and unsafe as a result of seeing negative items in the media" which also shows the real-life repercussions that result from harmful represenatation of trans people (Humphrey, 26). Humphrey's findings also echoed the same findings of anti-trans language that GLAAD found (Humphrey,25).

All of this shows that representation in media is crucial to helping out the trans community in more ways than we think. The power of the media has historically been used to harm trans people, but it can also be used to uplift the community.

Content Warning for pictures: Anti-trans language, s*xual abuse, transphobia. Please view at your own discretion and don't feel the need to. If you would like to move on to the final section, click here.

Click below to read the final section about the future of trans representation in the media.

Works Cited

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/.

Humphrey, Rhianna. “‘I Think Journalists Sometimes Forget That We're Just People’: Analysing the Effects of UK Trans Media Representation on Trans Audiences.” Gender Forum: An Internet Journal for Gender Studies, no. 56, 2016, pp. 23–43., http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/155352/1/155352.pdf.

Images (in order of appearance): https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/08e545686d8b416eb551d1bf776644b51871a580/0_805_3449_3673/master/3449.jpg?width=700&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=d4db0754a07983b0b1920f075cee23c1; https://d3o5s8vs2wiz58.cloudfront.net/uploads/2019/12/feature-bindel-sun-copy-807x1024.png; https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DiV9k2uW0AEfENX.jpg; https://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/02/05/fashion/05JENNER-COMBO/05JENNER-COMBO-superJumbo.jpg

“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.