Really interesting documentary about trans folks in entertainment, throughout history and today. It explores the state of affairs for trans performers looking to build a career as well as how Hollywood’s portrayals of trans folks affect the lives of real people in society.
Featuring a wide assortment of trans performers and footage from across decades of film and television, the participants explore early memories of trans and gender-nonconforming people being depicted onscreen, how that affected them, and what their own opportunities have been. It’s a documentary that covers a wide array of subjects within the larger discussion of trans representation.
There’s a lot to look at here. Obviously, one of the biggest is the simple fact that most depictions of trans folks in film/TV throughout history don’t include any actual trans faces. The participants go through a laundry list of cisgender actors who’ve played trans roles, often to great acclaim. From Hilary Swank to Jaye Davidson, they unpack the difficult dynamic of being starved for representation and finding a kinship in these depictions onscreen, even as the casting continually cut actual trans people out of the conversation and reinforced notions that, for instance, trans women are “really” just “men in dresses.” And even many minor roles that have been played by trans performers have suffered from a lack of trans voices in the writers’ room. There are some devastating, disgusting clips of Candis Cayne playing a victim on one of the CSIs, showing the regulars scrutinize her body and add up the “inconsistent” details before they arrive at the “reveal” of one of the investigators peeking up her skirt.
That leads into another big theme of the documentary: not just who is playing trans folks onscreen or who’s telling their stories, but what ideas are being promoted through those stories. The late ‘90s/early 2000s were not nearly long enough ago to reconcile that Ace Ventura: Pet Detective culminates in a mass vomit session over the existence of a trans woman’s body, and multiple performers track the trends of trans folks in media beginning as deviants/predators, moving into victims/objects of pity, and only recently being allowed to portrayed as humans. When you try to explain your gender identity to someone, having them go, “What, like Buffalo Bill?” is not a helpful association.
When it comes to trans men and nonbinary people, for most of Hollywood’s history, they straight-up haven’t been shown to exist. Much like anti-trans bathroom bills fearmonger about “men in dresses” (leaning on the same tropes of too many movies/shows) and anti-trans school sports bills scream about the “unfair advantage” of “biological males,” hardly acknowledging the idea of trans men in men’s bathrooms, trans boys playing on boys teams, or nonbinary folks existing at all, Hollywood has largely ignored these members of the trans community. In the documentary, trans male performers have few places to look to for early representation, instead turning to movies about girls disguising themselves as boys (and the inevitable, ludicrous scene of them “coming clean” by flashing their breasts.)
In addition to the similarities between anti-trans laws and transphobic media portrayals, we look at other ways that Hollywood’s depictions of trans folks affects real trans people. The “gotcha” moments where the guy finds out that the woman flirting with him is trans and reacts with shame, disgust, and/or violence has plenty of real-life parallels and feeds into the “trans panic” legal defense that’s been used by men who murder trans women. The preoccupation with transition and trans people’s bodies that led Katie Couric to ask trans model Carmen Carrera about her genitals during an interview and then just not understand why that wasn’t something she should do (seriously, how many cis people does she question about their genitals during interviews?!)
Luckily, even though much of the history (and the present) is and has been a shit show, it’s not all terrible. The documentary also looks at newer, more respectfull work that centers the experiences of trans people and features trans performers. Performers like Laverne Cox that are breaking important ground and starting a wider conversation after decades of thankless work from numerous trans performers. Shows like Pose that allows trans characters played by trans people to be emotional, funny, strong, petty, flawed, and human. Shows like Billions that recognize nonbinary people exist. Creatives like Joey Soloway, the Wachowskis, and Rebecca Sugar that are bringing trans/nonbinary perspectives to the entertainment industry. Performers like Sandra Caldwell, who spent decades passing in her career, in constant fear of being outed in her career, finally deciding to come out. There’s still an incredibly long way to go in terms of trans performers/creatives getting equal opportunities in Hollywood and and trans characters in film/television being depicted with the full range of humanity afforded to cis characters, but progress is being made, and determined trailblazers are continuing to work at it everyday.
Warnings
Violence (including hate crimes,) sexual content, language (including transphobic slurs,) and strong thematic elements.
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