If the portrayal of transgender characters in film and television has been marginal and one-sided in the past, such as Chandler’s father in Friends, her character brings a touch to the audience but still presents stereotypes that are fixed in transgender characters. To clarify here, I have no intention of questioning the prejudice and suffering of the trans community, but rather feel that in the past their stories should have had more possibilities. Today’s streaming platforms, unlike the limited traditional industrial model, offer new spaces for the expression of gender, sexuality, other forms of diversity (Goddard & Hogg, 2020).

However, the portrayal of transgender characters is not always successful. As mentioned in the lecture on the series Transparency, critics point out that this aggregation is not about the transgender experience, but rather about the impact of a particular transgender on a particular family(Goddard & Hogg, 2020). It ended in a scandal with cis actor Geoffrey twice allegedly abusing trans colleagues, ironically. 

(Ranking transgender characters – help: MTF 2022)

It is heartening to see that works that make a positive impact still exist and gain popularity. Sex Education Season 4’s Transgender Female Character Abbi Played by the same-identity actor, Cal is also played by nonbinary actors. Jules in Euphoria, Elektra in Pose, Alex in This is Us, etc.

(LGBTが登場するドラマ17選 2023)

When I was living in Japan, I noticed that the number of related film and anime productions has increased in recent years, and the themes have also diversified. Life As a Girl, episodes featuring trans women, What Did You Eat Yesterday? TV series focuses on a gay couple, 恋せぬふたり, the protagonists are an asexual couple (LGBTが登場するドラマ17選 2023), Fake Marriage, a story about a gay man and a bisexual woman. However, during my research, I found that these roles were played by cis male/female actors, and the number of trans woman roles far exceeded trans man roles. Also, writers have been criticized. For instance, the writer of Fake Marriage is a straight man who depicts a 10-episode series in which a female character who falls for a gay man suddenly becomes a lesbian and then turns back into a straight woman who chooses to marry and live with a gay man. The series, despite featuring well-known actors, still received poor reviews. Because the story itself was considered a farce by the audience. This is one of the reasons why the appearance of transgender characters on television is a small step for transgender people (Goddard & Hogg, 2020).

Reference

Goddard, E. and Hogg, C. (2020) ‘Introduction: Trans TV dossier, III: Trans TV re-evaluated, part 2’, Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies, 15(3), pp. 255–266. doi:10.1177/1749602020937566. 

LGBTが登場するドラマ17選【日本の名作から海外作品まで】 (2023) LGBT就活・転職活動サイト「JobRainbow」. Available at: https://jobrainbow.jp/magazine/lgbt-drama (Accessed: 19 November 2023). 

Ranking transgender characters – help: MTF (2022) YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/XOUWzN24_d8?si=XlpsF_bK4DRGKId- (Accessed: 19 November 2023). 

Written by: Siyi Liu