Blog Project!!!

Overall I’m not sure how much I learned from this project but I don’t feel it was as much as I should have. Had I done more research, spread it out, I definitely would have made some much better conclusions from this work however I’m satisfied with what I have now. Connecting trans representation and real world implications is something I enjoy doing and the broadening of my research does provide a better foundation for future works.

To start off with some Vloggers I mentioned:

Erin Armstrong aka Grishno https://www.youtube.com/user/grishno Great person who has documented almost all aspects of her life in regards to transition, providing guides for navigating day-to-day stuff to less frequent actions like being discriminated against.

Kat Blaque https://www.youtube.com/user/TransDIYer An active social justice writer and vlogger. Her daily activity ensures an acute awareness that she takes full advantage of.

TS ROADMAP http://www.tsroadmap.com/index.html An oldie, definitely helpful for eggs (those who haven’t come out yet aka hatched into chicks... or dudes or anything else) and although it has not really had much maintenance done it’s still something useful for most trans stuff to start off with. A swiss army knife of trans resources, but more akin to the one that you’ve had laying around a drawer for a few years because it doesn’t match up to a full-blown toolkit

Writing http://www.strangehorizons.com/2015/20150928/1morgan-a.shtml Some major points on writing better trans characters. You don’t have to be trans to write a character who is, but you should know what you’re doing at least. 

The trouble with seeing trans people on media is that it often is in a demeaning or inaccurate manner. Lazy writers, growing arrogance, and a lacking of a need to change (money keeps on flowing) means that the status quo will remain unaffected. This has real world implications, such as contributing to stereotypes and fueling hate through misrepresentation. A solution is still far from reach due to the numerous barriers around.

Earlier I’ve brought up some possibilities to solve this issue somewhat, although this problem has many roots so no one solution can solve everything.

Trans people in trans roles: It’s possible to have a trans person play a trans character at any point in life and transition. The use of cis people playing trans folk perpetuates harmful stereotypes as previously discussed and further bars the community from employment.

Trans people in cis/undisclosed roles: Countless roles when they’re written are just as easily switched genders on paper, yet somehow them being trans is a taboo idea. A better checklist to decide if a character can be trans is: Do this character’s genitals play a role that other genitals cannot? If not, then they can either be trans or cis, and if so then still they can be many cases. With the exception of pregnancy, pretty much nothing would exclude them. Erin Armstrong aka Grishno (vlogger) does some great commentary in her video on “Trans Face” and pretty much anything Kat Blaque (vlogger also) says on this is great to hear.

Proper recognition: To be openly trans and still receive an award that isn’t carelessly thrown around (Caitlyn Jenner) is rare. It’s part of the systematic bias that exists in the entertainment industry. The awards that are specifically for trans people (Trans 100 for example) have their own issues and even then aren’t exclusive to trans people, which isn’t what their true point is but the overall coverage is almost nonexistent outside the lgbt community.

Make a greater statement about how transphobia affects life. I’m proud that it was a friend of mine, Sarah Rose (trans musician), who started the petition about Zoolander 2 and become very vocal about it. No, it didn’t succeed in the end but what it did accomplish was generating more awareness on why this was an issue (writing and casting). It was an attempt at a cheap laugh at a film that barely made 10% into the black, but it’s a commonly seen one.

Get educated. Casting choices have been made by ignorance (Dallas Buyer’s Club, Stonewall) on trans actors and actresses and the general knowledge about transitioning are astounding. Educational initiatives aren’t entirely effective and even policies implemented don’t affect mentalities the same way as learning a relative or close friend is trans, where still it isn’t a definite thing as the astounding rates of homelessness and unemployment indicate.

The importance of proper representation means safer treatment in real life along with a spread of proper information.

“Bathroom bills”- Legislation is made based on false ideas and imagined threats. These in particular criminalize the very people who need protection. These garner support through fear campaigns and pandering to hatred and ignorance, and who should tell them they’re wrong when all their favorite shows present “men in dresses” for comedy.

With “Trans” being the so called hot topic as producers try to follow the money, why shouldn’t we also follow it too? It is not the trans community those portrayed but simply the storytellers scooping up what they can. 

A notable example is the vogue and ball subculture in New York where “The Fame went to Livingston and fortune to Madonna. The subculture itself... disappeared back into the world of sex work, HIV, and queer glamour, and within five years of the release of Paris is Burning, five of the queens in the film were dead (Halberstam 158).” None of the featured queens in the movie looked anywhere close to the end of their life, and yet that’s what happens. One was even killed during the filming. And who got the money from the film’s profits? Nobody featured in the film, that’s who.

The problem a lot of writers and executives have is that they can follow the money but don’t see what’s making it. Take for example Deadpool and consequentially Batman Vs Superman. Deadpool, a film worked on passionately, kept true to its calling and brought a witty and imaginative screenplay to life with a pretty crude sense of humor. Snyder & execs saw the R rating and record breaking sales and concluded to advertise a 3-ish hour director’s cut that would be R-rated on the DVD. Lots of us even saw this coming and yet here we are. So how does this come around to trans characters?  A noticeable increase in trans themed jokes and trans characters has been happening lately and while no one can pinpoint an exact reason for this (Lots of fingers point to OITNB), the changes being made aren’t the right ones. With the current vulnerabilities of the trans community and constant threats to our safety, not all representation is good representation. With being called “tricking men” like in The Crying Game, trans people get a pretty notable rep as deviants and criminals. We aren’t a rock band or an up and coming star who wants a name out there, we want the truth, respect, and protection. The public image of a trans person, however, is usually misgendered on a tombstone.

And now, the topic at hand: How to write a joke about/with/using a trans person. Quite simply: Incorporate gender without making it the joke.

I got knocked out by a girl. She must have been a dude!

“I just flew in from the gender neutrality conference and boy or girl are my arms tired!” -@TheChrisSchmidt

There’s a difference (a few actually) between the subject and punchline. In (1) the joke is the gender with tones of misogyny while in (2) the joke uses gender to change a classic joke into a new one. The guy who told it isn’t even trans and it’s genuinely funny albeit something that is definitely classified as a “dad joke” (or mom joke).

One of the main issues plaguing trans representation is the use of cis actors and actresses for trans roles (later I’ll discuss the use of trans people in their roles). Notable examples being Jared Leto, Lee Pace, and Hillary Swank as characters meant to garner sympathy and have a generally shitty time by the end of the movie. There are quite a few issues with each of these so bullet points are the way to go (Sorry Hillary).

“Sadness sorrow and despair. People dying everywhere (unnamed birthday song)” Major roles for trans characters are not pretty and aren’t intended to be happy stories, at least that’s what cis people are always saying and who should blame them? The ridiculously low life expectancy and high rates of assault only strengthen this stereotype. A trans person’s story cannot be happy because no one has shown what that is.

Casting cis people wouldn’t be a problem were there no other issues, but we aren’t so lucky. Cis actors as cast as trans women and cis women are cast as trans men, perpetuating “man in a dress” and “butch lesbian” stereotypes. In the case of Leto’s role, trans women weren’t even considered for the part. This barrier that “there are no trans actresses or actors” is created by lazy directors and their arrogance (I wish this were an assumption).

Trans people aren’t cast as cis roles and rarely as trans roles. With few shows and movies making efforts to cast trans roles that aren’t written in as jokes/gags, the few opportunities available to trans people are as that: trans people. If trans people were cast as cis characters then most likely roles like Leto’s wouldn’t be so opposed, but that isn’t the case.

Furthermore, the casting of a trans person revolves around a few possibilities. The role is for a single episode, usually the case, and they get to either be killed off or introduced as a date for a main character only to be used as a punch line, with gay jokes made, pronouns switched, and whatever else the writers think is funny to them. The character gets written off at the earliest convenience (The L Word). The character stays as a minor recurring character, and minor even among the rarely seen (Elementary). Or the character just doesn’t make any sense to a logical trans person but nobody really knows that at the time (The L Word again)