Exploring Differences: A Research Project on the Transgender Community

What problems do transgender individuals face in the media?

There are many common misconceptions that are held about the trans community. These misconceptions have been known to cause issues, as transgenders are represented as the villains. The Netflix original film and documentary "Disclosure" (directed by Sam Feder) discusses the misconceptions that are spread in media about the transgender lifestyle. "Disclosure" explores transgender representation in film throughout history, including very famous movies like Silence of the Lambs (1991), Boys Don't Cry (1999), and The Danish Girl (2015). Some of which, including Silence of the Lambs, put transgender individuals into negative light. The serial killer in the 1991 movie, based on the book written by Thomas Harris, is named Buffalo Bill, who murders girls and skins them - to make a skin suit for himself. Buffalo Bill creates this well-known character, which the public begins to resignate with the transgender community. Jen Richards, one of the transwoman interviewed for the documentary, mentioned that when she first came out to a friend, the friend replied with "Oh, like Buffalo Bill?". This documentary also emphasizes the fact that most of the negative impact that transgender individuals receive from the media is that men are playing transwomen, instead of transwomen playing transwomen. For example, in The Danish Girl, Eddie Redmayne (a cisgender man) plays a transgender woman who wishes to undergo a sex-change surgery in the 1920s. Richards believes that transwomen are feared because they aren't seen as women, they are seen as men dressing up as women. She believes that transwomen are women, and they should be played as such. She states "..when you see these women off screen still as women, it completely deflates the idea that transwomen are men in disguise" (Feder, 2020).

There are still positives to representation in the media, though. Most of the information and education about the transgender community comes from the media, especially movies and television shows. Seeing a transgender character can help transgender youth have someone to resignate with and relate to. In Disclosure, Nick Adams states "We don't know a trans person when figuring out who we are. So, we're looking to the media to figure out, 'Who's like us?'" (Feder, 2020). Adams states that transgender individuals look to the media to figure out their identities, just like cisgender individuals look to the media for representation of transgender individuals. Without this representation (and correct representation), the transgender community would be very difficult to understand to those who do not look further than the media. Therefore, it's important to have this representation.