SOC 0851 Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Trans Man, Trans Woman, Cisgender
10 Jun 2018
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• Transgender in the Media
o Where does the control lie in the creation of media content?
o Media power perspective – media is a culture industry concerned only with
profit
o The Internet, TV, video games, and other digital content are mass-produced to
keep us distracted from the real problems of the world
o Audience power perspective – there’s roo to reate our o geder eaigs
o The power lies not with the big media corporations alone, but also with us as
potentially critical media consumers
o What messages do the media send about the nature of gender?
▪ Is gender assumed as a given?
▪ Is gender immutable?
▪ Is gender a barrier that cannot be crossed?
▪ Does the depiction of gender in the media reinforce sexual dimorphism,
the belief that there are two and only two sexes – male and female?
o How do the media depict transgender individuals?
▪ Of the 102 depictions in the GLAAD study, 54% were categorized as
otaiig egatie depitios, 5% raged fro proleati to
good, ad oly % ere osidered to e groudreakig, fair, and
accurate
▪ Transgender characters were depicted as villains 40% of the time
▪ At least a fifth of all transgender characters were depicted as sex workers
▪ Anti-transgender slurs, language, and dialogue were present in at least
61% of the depictions
▪ Transgender characters were depicted as killers or villains in 21% of the
depictions
▪ Transgender are largely seen as either victims or villains much of the time
in the world of TV
o Trasgeder atiists hae ritiized Hollyood’s urefletie ad lusy
decision to generally use cisgender individuals to play transgender roles
▪ For transgender people who have been deprived of authentic
representations of themselves, having a trans actor in a role is one small
step toward creating a truer depiction of trans experiences
▪ Without the participation of transgender people in the narratives being
created about them, the stories tend to fall into the same trope – man in
a oa’s dress
• The experiences of the transgender community are much more
diverse
• Transmen, or people who were born biologically female and
decided to live as men, are rarely depicted in the media
• The experience of transmen can be very different from that of
transwomen, but their stories have been rendered largely
invisible in the media
• Most depictions focus on those who surgically transition
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