In a positive light, we can attribute the delay in representations of these communities to a combination of lacking information and misrepresentation, or at least attempts not to misinform. Historically, ‘othered’ communities have been positioned to disguise or feel ashamed of their differences from traditional and binary identities. Therefore it can be argued the space for discourse within their community and beyond has been minimised, which creates setbacks for the ‘transing’ of TV .

As a result, the access to information about what trans or non-binary means has only recently emerged. Which would mean that any attempts to characterise these orientations would either be based on limited knowledge or simple depictions that nuance what it means to live in a society as a trans or non-binary person. Furthermore it would also risk falling into the trap of generalising and eliciting a character which operates as a token for achieving lazy representative quotas.

The shift in representations from the TV show Transparent (2014-2019) to Pose (2018-2021) illustrates the progressive shift to expose and combat issues of misinformation and elicit an honest space for the discourse of these identities.

The show is arguably progressive but also faces fundamental issues of casting a heterosexual cis male performer to play the central role, this lack of interaction with transgender actors is a beacon for the progress that still needs to be made in including these communities into the sphere of cinema.

Conversely, Pose, created by queer TV icon Ryan Murphy, appears to be a representational response to these issues with its celebration of the 80s New York ballroom scene with a predominantly transgender cast and set of writers. It enables a far more ethnographic style of television which enables a voice spoken by people from the community, enabling a more honest and accurate portrayal of identities whilst informing us about what it means to be trans. It exudes a far more natural and exciting energy which feels liberating of identities rather than pigeon-holed.

Goddard and Hogg mention that despite its ‘Gold Standard of Representation’ this is still relative to an arguably ‘low level of achievement’ in the ‘transing’ of TV. This bolsters the argument that there is still a lot of progress of expression and information that needs to be made and then shared with wider society in order to honestly depict what it means to be trans and non-binary without nuancing these community dynamics to that which becomes a bingeable drama or horribly misrepresents a complicated set of identities.

References

Michael Goddard and Chris Hogg 2020, ‘Introduction: Trans TV Re-evaluated part II’, Trans TV Dossier 3, Critical Studies In Television 15: 3

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