Transmasculinity on Television

Patrice Oppliger

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781032068992
• eBook ISBN: 9781000620207
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Gender Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

This book explores how television and streaming services portray transgender characters who identify as male or nonbinary in television media.

Transmasculinity on Television takes a closer look at transmasculine and nonbinary characters on broadcast, cable, and streaming services between 2000 and 2021. Significant changes have occurred since the release of the 1999 film Boys Don't Cry, and in particular through the increase in transgender producers, writers, and actors playing those roles. While a great deal of research has been published on gay, lesbian, and female transgender characters, very little analysis has been done on trans male representation in American media. This book examines the history of how film and television have portrayed transgender characters, how these depictions have developed over time and what impact these representations may have on audience attitudes.

This accessible and engaging study is suitable for students and scholars in Gender Studies, Media Studies and LGBTQ Studies.

1Introduction

DOI: 10.4324/9781003204404-1

According to Abrams (2020), gender essentialism assumes that qualities attributed to women and men are linked to chromosomes and other biological traits. Seeing these qualities as fixed, intrinsic, and innate denies an individual’s ability to self-determine gender identity and gender presentation. Scholars have traced this notion back to Plato’s philosophy of essentialism (Abrams, 2020). By the mid-20th century, according to Abrams (2020), it was scientifically proven “that sex doesn’t necessarily determine or indicate anything conclusive or permanent about an individual’s gender identity, personality, or preferences.” Findings such as these have not deterred religious and conservative political groups. In fact, discrimination and bigotry have increased as transgender issues have gained more media coverage. Gallagher and Bodenhausen (2021) argued that the increased visibility of transgender individuals challenges a “dominant cultural model of gender,” the result of which leads to the perpetuation of sex binaries that remain unchangeable from birth to adulthood.

Just as scientific and medical studies have advanced our understanding of sex and gender, language describing gender identity has also evolved. “Transsexual,” one of the earliest terms to describe gender variance, was added to the American lexicon in 1949 (Whittle, 2010). Critics have since found the word “transsexual” to be offensive and stigmatizing because it incorrectly labels transgender people in a way that makes them seem mentally ill or sexually deviant (Abrams, 2019). The term “transgender” (coined in 1971) is currently seen as more inclusive and affirming because it embraces individuals’ experience whether or not they pursue medical changes to affirm their gender. Transgender is often used as “an umbrella term for gender-variant bodies,” according to Halberstam (2018). “Cisgender,” in contrast, refers to someone whose current gender identity is the same as the one they were assigned at birth (Blair, 2019). These terms have long and sordid histories that reflect “multiple, sometimes overlapping, sometimes even contested meanings” (Stryker & Currah, 2014, p. 1).

Examples of transgender and nonbinary gender identification have been around for millennia, tracing back to the Gala priests of Sumer around 2450 BC, who identified as neither male nor female (Roscoe, 1996). In the modern era, Christine Jorgensen signified the first public figure in the United States to undergo gender reassignment surgery in 1952. In 1976, Renee Richards’s surgical transitioning made headlines. Richards challenged the United States Tennis Association’s genetic screening requirement for women’s tennis players. Although she lost in the first round, she was allowed to play in the women’s US Open tournament. In the popular culture realm, Laverne Cox, famous for her role as a transfeminine character Sophia on Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black (2013–2019), became the first openly transgender person to appear on the covers of Time (Westcott, 2014) and Cosmo (Wong, 2018) magazines. Caitlyn Jenner’s transition announcement in 2015 prompted even more media coverage. That year, hers was the second most Googled name (Sebastian, 2015), her interview on ABC’s 20/20 attracted over 20 million viewers (Berman, 2015), and she broke the Guinness Book of World Records for amassing one million Twitter followers in the shortest amount of time (Parkinson, 2015).

Transmasculine individuals, on the other hand, have received far less attention. One of the earliest public transmasculine figures was Billy Tipton, a jazz musician and band leader from the 1930s–1970s. Although he was assigned female at birth (AFAB), he lived as a man, socially transitioning without surgery or hormones (Green, 2016). His gender status was not revealed to most people he knew, including many of his wives and three adopted sons, until his death in 1989. According to Alex Schmider (2021), the associate director of GLAAD’s Transgender Representation, “The subsequent media attention was almost uniformly dehumanizing and disrespectful, with media stories and books misgendering Billy and accusing him of deceiving his family and the public.” In 2011, Chaz Bono’s appearance on Dancing with the Stars marked the first openly transgender man to star on a major network television show for something “unrelated to being transgender” (Advocate, 2011b). Most recently, in 2021, Elliot Page became the first openly transgender man to appear on the cover of Time magazine.

Transgender Cinema Studies

Judith Butler’s (1990) frequently cited book Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity was influential in developing the interdisciplinary field of transgender studies and gender performativity. According to Stryker and Currah (2014), editors of the first issue of TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, this theoretical framework provides “a broadly inclusive rubric for describing expressions of gender that vary from expected norms” (p. 5). In order to study media representations, scholars have employed transgender cinema studies with the understanding that gender identity is socially constructed rather than a stable, fixed phenomenon. Henry (2019) noted that in the past two decades, transgender studies has emerged as a discipline led by pioneers such as Susan Stryker and Jack Halberstam. A “new generation of screen and media scholars” includes Helen Hok-Sze Leung, Cáel M. Keegan, Eliza Steinbock, and Akkadia Ford.

Halberstam (2005) identified three categories that describe various queer representations in cinema: trivialization (queer life is “dismissed as non-representative and inconsequential”), stabilization (queer narratives are “defused by establishing the queer narrative as strange, uncharacteristic, even pathological”), and rationalization (“filmmaker finds reasonable explanations for behavior that may seem dangerous and outrageous”). Typical Hollywood portrayals appear to treat transgender characters as objects to be exploited rather than the subjects of the story. Henry (2019) noted that many mainstream films display “a cisgender gaze upon transgender bodies and lives, a gaze often focused on the body or physical transition in a mode of voyeuristic spectacle, and marked by curiosity, wariness, pity, or tragedy.” Tsai (2010) claimed that mainstream culture exploits “otherness” to make differences more palatable—in this case, making the characters comical (i.e., to not be taken seriously) or psychopathic (i.e., to be viewed as abnormal). In addition, these films reveal a great deal about the current state of politics and community reception, according to Leung (cited in Steinbock, 2019).

History of Gender Variance in US Films

Steinbock (2017) noted that on-screen gender transformation and cross-dressing first appeared in the silent film era (e.g., Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel dressing as women). Films such as I Was a Male War Bride (1949) and Some Like It Hot (1959) used cross-dressing as a comedic device. A cross-dresser is “a person—typically a cisgender man—who sometimes wears feminine clothing in order to have fun, entertain, gain emotional satisfaction, for sexual enjoyment, or to make a political statement about gender roles” (“Gender Identity,” n.d.). According to Bornstein and Garber (2008), cross-dressing is more likely theatrical or performance-based rather than an expression of gender identity. The characters in these farces are most often compelled to cross-dress because of desperation or an economic advantage (Miller, 2015). While the endings of the films hint at the possibility that the characters have evolved during their time spent cross-dressing, the lessons are lost once their transgender identities are discarded and the characters resume their cisnormative identities (Miller, 2015).

Films with cross-dressing female leads follow a similar formula, mostly passing as men in order to temporarily gain access to areas deemed off-limits to women (Rigney, 2003). For example, the cisgender female character Yentl dressed as a man and assumed her brother’s identity in order to continue her education because females were not allowed to study religious scripture in 1904 Eastern Europe (Yentl, 1983). In the film Albert Nobbs (2011), Nobbs dons a suit and passes as a man in order to get jobs as a waiter in late-19th-century Dublin. Another character in the film, Hubert Page, similarly takes on the identity of a man after leaving an abusive husband. While some reviews reference Nobbs as transgender, the filmmakers were adamant that Nobbs was not (Advocate, 2011a).

More commonly, cross-dressing films are framed as lighthearted comedies. Set in Paris in 1934, the cisgender female character Victoria, looking to escape poverty, poses as Victor, a female impersonator (Victor/Victoria, 1982). In Shakespeare in Love (1998), Viola de Lesseps, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, dresses as a man to audition for Shakespeare at a time when all women’s roles were played by men. Teen characters also appear in cross-dressing comedies such as Just One of the Guys (1985) and She’s the Man (2006). In Just One of the Guys, a male teacher tells high school student Terry that an attractive girl like her should have a backup plan, such as modeling, in case her desired career in journalism falls through. His failure to take her and her writing seriously motivates Terry to cross-dress as a boy and go undercover at a neighboring school with the goal of writing an exposé on how she is treated when others identify her as male. In She’s the Man (2006), the lead character Viola poses as her twin brother so she can play on the boys’ soccer team after her school cuts the girls’ squad.

Highly critical of these portrayals, Miller (2015) argued that the characters quickly abandon their disguises in order to resume a cisnormative life. In almost all these films, a heterosexual, cisgender male character falls for the cross-dressing, cisgender female character, adding an element of homophobia that heightens the relief when her true gender is revealed. As with Yentl, Victor/Victoria, and Shakespeare in Love, the audience, as well as the other characters, are assured that the gender transition is temporary by including a big reveal scene (e.g., exposing their womanly breasts). In these examples, gender diversity is purely functional rather than an inherent aspect of their identities.

Perhaps the earliest film to address various aspects of gender variance is Ed Wood’s film Glen or Glenda (1953). A movie poster described the film as “[t]he strange case of a ‘man’ who changed his sex!” It portrays gender variations from Patrick/Patricia, who dies by suicide after being arrested a fourth time for dressing as a woman, to Alan/Anne, who is diagnosed as intersex and goes through several operations to present as a woman. The title character, Glen, is presented as having a compulsion to dress as a woman. The psychiatrist Dr. Alton, also the narrator of the film, explains to Glen that his condition was brought on by the absence of his mother’s love and his sister’s shunning. He tells Glen that by transferring the need for maternal feelings onto his fiancée Barbara, the compulsion will cease.

A notable feature of transgender films is that they are significantly more likely to focus on transfeminine characters. There is a range of mainstream and indie films, fictional and biographical, spanning the genres of dramas and thrillers to comedies. These films include The Crying Game, Transamerica, Normal, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Dressed to Kill, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Myra Breckinridge, The Danish Girl, The World According to Garp, Dog Day Afternoon, Tangerine, Dallas Buyers Club, Soldier’s Girl, and Grilled. Representations of transgender men have been notably absent in film and television, according to a study by McInroy and Craig (2015). Two non-mainstream comedy films have included prominent transmasculine characters. John Waters’s film Desperate Living (1977) is an example of a campy portrayal of Mole McHenry, “a man trapped in a woman’s body.” Mole arrives at the John Hopkins Sexual Reassignment Clinic and threatens the doctor, “If you don’t give me a sex change, I’ll cut off your peter and sew it on me myself.” Mole presents his new penis to his lover, Muffy, who screams, “Get away from me with that deformed worm! You’re sick, Mole! You’re a weirdo pervert!” She vomits and tells him to rid his body of that “disgusting transplant!” She confesses she only wanted to make Mole jealous by talking about other men. In true Waters form, Mole cuts off the penis with scissors. The main character Anna in Itty Bitty Titty Committee (2007) is a lesbian who regrets a one-night stand with Aggie, a transgender man. When Anna questions Aggie’s membership in the “CIA,” or “Clits in Action,” activist group, her friend Sadie responds, “Aggie gets a free pass for being born with a clit.”

To date, Boys Don’t Cry (1999) stands alone as a mainstream box office success featuring a transmasculine character. The film, starring cisgender female actor Hillary Swank, is based on the true story of Brandon Teena. It follows themes common to transfeminine films, such as focusing on surgery/hormones, fear of being outed/rejected by others, and transphobic bullying/violence. The film includes a significant number of transgender tropes, especially in the first 15 minutes. In the opening scene, Brandon is gazing at himself in the mirror as his cousin Lonny cuts his hair to make him look more masculine. Brandon adjusts the roll of socks he has placed in his crotch after Lonny tells him it looks like “a deformity.” Lonny also references Brandon’s mother’s threats to lock him up again for continuing to present as male. Brandon faced obstacles, such as finding and disposing of tampons after getting his period, fearing his gender identity would be revealed. When his girlfriend Lana discovers his chest bindings, he tells her that he is a hermaphrodite. He likewise lies to John and Tom after they find a pamphlet entitled “Cross-dressers and Transsexuals: The Uninvited Dilemma” in his bag. John and Tom take him into the bathroom and pull down his pants to expose his genitalia, and they eventually rape and murder him.

A lesser-known mainstream Hollywood film 3 Generations (2015) stars cisgender actress El Fanning as Ray, a transitioning boy. Originally titled About Ray, Rojas (2017) noted that the film distributor’s changing of the title to 3 Generations “seems to downplay the importance of Ray’s situation by comparing his mother’s and grandmother’s non-existent life crises.” While Boys Don’t Cry took in over $20 million in box office revenue, 3 Generations only earned around $680,000 (IMDB, n.d.). Fanning is made to look traditionally masculine by adding outward features such as short hair (noticeably a wig), dressing in flannel shirts and stocking caps, and riding a skateboard. The film focuses on predictable themes such as medical transitioning, bullying, and lack of support from family members. The first scene focuses on Ray’s doctor explaining hormone treatments. Ray later comes home with a black eye after being confronted by a bully in an alley who asks, “Hey, you a girl or a boy? Huh? Show me your dick, girl.” The character Ray laments, “I just want to be normal in a regular school. I get to stop feeling like someone in-between … My whole life, I’ve searched my body for scars because I know part of me is missing.” Ray needs his absent father to sign consent forms to start puberty blockers. His father falters, arguing, “What if she changes her mind?” Ray’s mother responds, “What if he commits suicide?” Ray’s grandmother Dolly, herself a lesbian, tells him, “I just don’t understand why we’re in such a hurry. I’m sorry, it just feels like mutilation, to me.” By the end of the film, Dolly has a change of heart, telling him, “I thought you were too young to know what you wanted, but you do know. And I was just afraid. And now I realize that who you are and who I love is staying the same and everything that’s changing is just details … I’m saying that it’s about time that we had a man in this family.”

Television and Media Effects Perspective

Media has been credited as the principal source where both transgender and non-transgender individuals learn about transgender issues (see heinz, 2012; Shelley, 2008). Thus, media representations influence and inform the general public’s attitudes and have a significant impact on transgender individuals’ gender identity development. Research has shown that media use can help marginalized people feel stronger, fight adversity, and find communities (Craig, McInroy, McCready, & Alaggia, 2015). More specifically, Capuzza and Spencer (2017) claimed, “Television has the potential to demystify gender nonconformity, to confront transphobia, and to confirm transgender subjectivities” (p. 217). Because viewers’ perceptions of trans-gender characters are mediated by culturally constructed images (Phillips, 2006), an investigation into portrayals of transgender characters is of great importance. Thus, representations shape public opinion and can affect transgender individuals’ gender identity development and their lived experiences. Without direct experience with a particular phenomenon, as is often the case with transgender individuals, people receive most of their information through the media (Morgan, Harrison, Chewning, Davis, & Dicorcia, 2007). The importance of this type of analysis cannot be understated. Both transgender and cisgender people turn to the media to learn about trans-gender matters (McInroy & Craig, 2017); therefore, it is imperative that television producers get it right.

I come at this analysis from a media effects background rather than critical studies. My focus is on audience-centered media effects rather than a critical reading of the text from a cinema studies perspective. For this analysis, I chose to focus on television and streaming series because of their ability to tell more in-depth stories with more screen time than film. Henry (2019) contended...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The Importance of Standpoint
• 3 Transgender Across Genres
• 4 How to Be Television Trans
• 5 Allies and Adversaries
• Afterword
• Appendix: Character Chart
• References
• Index