Transgender Persons/Characters in the Mainstream Media

Elementary has garnered huge support among transgender persons and allies with its recent airing of Episode 1.19 "Snow Angels" as Candis Cayne (a trans* actress) portrays Miss Hudson (a trans* character).  But where is the trans* population coming from in mainstream media?

I do not propose to tackle ALL of media, but I do want to highlight some significant steps in presenting the trans* perspective in popular media in the United States in my lifetime.

In 1991, I was 14 years old, a freshman in high school, and beginning to question how my gender and sexuality fit within the context of the society of which I was a part.  I was born female but have always identified more with aspects of personality and activity that are more typically categorized as male.  The only times I’ve worn dresses/skirts, it’s been under duress in order to please my mom.  During my freshman year of high school, I was the only female in my school not shaving my legs and underarms.  I also have female hirsuitism, which results in extensive and rapid growth of facial hair.  I ran for freshman class treasurer, and my advertising posters were defaced.  My peers used Sharpie markers to draw moustaches and beards and to write the words, “If I win, I’ll shave” on my posters.  I retreated into a silent, solo world away from peers.  I didn't know anyone else like me, and I certainly hadn't seen any examples in the media.  Everyone in the media was cisgender and met a certain stereotype of beauty that I didn't fit.  I conformed to my peers' expectations to some extent, shaving my legs and underarms and beginning to receive electrolysis and medication to remove/control the facial hair.  My mother labeled my natural development as “wrong” and took me to doctors all over Central Texas to “fix” me.  I thought, like other males, I should shave my face or grow a beard and moustache.  However, I became more and more depressed as the years went by.

Silence of the Lambs hit the market in that same year that I was a freshman in high school and “Buffalo Bill” represented one of the first interactions with a transgender person that I had.I had seenThe Rocky Horror Picture Show when I was in grade school, but I didn’t know that Frank N. Furter represented a gender category that might actually be possible in real life. Silence of the Lambs presented a drama that seemed to me to be based on real-life possibilities; whereas, The Rocky Horror Picture Show was fantasy and science fiction.In Silence of the Lambs, “Buffalo Bill” was portrayed as evil, sick, and backwards - very fitting with the label of "wrong" that my mom had given me. Born male, “Buffalo Bill” wanted to be a woman but resorted to violence when the medical establishment wouldn’t help him become a woman.

In 2012, transgender persons received somewhat more favorable portrayals in media, but prejudice still abounds. Fortunately, in college and graduate school, I have been privileged to have been exposed to such great media and literature as Trans-sister Radio, Stone Butch Blues,Transamerica, and Tomboy. I didn't see or hear of Brandon Teena until 2012, which is sad for me because he was so much like me and died in 1993 - when I was a junior and I could have used knowing someone like me. The movie Boys Don't Cry in which Hilary Swank portrayed Brandon came out in 1999, the year I graduated college, and I still didn't hear of it until 2012. The trans* community has mixed feelings about the film. Yes, Swank did an excellent job and Brandon's story is an important one to tell and it is told well in Boys Don't Cry but there are many young trans* actors who could have don't a good job as well, so why not use trans* actors to play trans* characters?

Transgender persons have even found a place on television in Glee.The 16^th episode of season 3 of Glee (first aired April 17, 2012 in the United States), introduced Wade/Unique who decides to perform with Vocal Adrenaline as a female even though he is biologically male. Even Kurt, the openly gay character on the show, advises Wade/Unique against such behavior. Kurt projects “drag” and “cross-dresser” as identities onto Wade/Unique, but Wade/Unique responds, “That’s because you identify as a man.” Wade/Unique is a transgender person and succeeds in performing as Unique, to the shock and awe of many other characters, including Kurt. By 2013, we see Unique coming to school as herself and associating with the girls fulltime.

2012 also saw the release of the Glenn Close film Albert Nobbs. Albert is a woman living as a man in Victorian England. The film does not indicate whether Albert and friend Hubert would identify as trans* or whether they simply live as men because social needs dictate a necessity to do so, but the message is still the same.  Gender identity and expression are fluid and are within an individual.  Hubert and Albert each seek the company of women and live full-time as men, even going so far as to bind their breasts and to take on male names and male societal roles.