Classifying Transgender Characters in the Media

Julia Serano argues in Whipping Girl that the media presents transgender women in one of two ways: as either pathetic or devious.  For pathetic transgender women, Serano offers the example of John Lithgow as Roberta Muldoon in The World According to Garp (1982).  The character is pathetic because it is obvious to the audience and the other characters in the film that Roberta used to be a man.  Devious transgender women surprise the audience with knowledge that they used to be male.  The classic example, of course, is Dil from The Crying Game (1992), played by Jaye Davison, who shocked the audience as much as the characters in the film with the knowledge that she was born male (and was played by a man).  Serano argues that through these representations, the media is only concerned with the ability of transgender women to conform to conventional standards of feminine appearance.  The pathetic transgender is forever incapable of appearing as the women she claims to be while the devious transgender is pretending to be something she’s not and hiding the truth of her identity from the world.  This concern can also be seen in the interest in showing transgender women in the process of dressing and getting ready for the day in news reports, even if the report isn’t about the woman’s transgender identity but on her actions, activism for example.

While the pressure on transgender women to conform to traditional notions of feminine beauty is important, Some Like it Hot reveals another layer to the reception of transgender women by the audience.  Look at the following picture of the main characters from the film:

It might be difficult to classify them as devious transgender individuals but it also doesn’t seem quite fair to label them pathetic either.  The reason we would be inclined to label the characters pathetic is because we already know that they are played by male actors.  We know going in that the film features crossdressing and if we know that the characters are played by Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, we may even be able to recognize them.  Most people believe that they would know that someone was transgender; they would be able to pick up on physical and behavioral cues that would reveal the true sex of the individual.  Even the labels “pathetic” and “devious” are based on the belief that we would recognize a transgender person if we saw her/him.  Pathetic transgender individuals can never hope to appear as the gender they feel they are so they are the objects of disgust and ridicule while devious transgender individuals are the objects of hatred and anger because they dared to deceive us for a short time before their true nature could be revealed.  J. Dan Rothwell terms this situation “hindsight bias.” the belief that you already knew something after the answer has been revealed; once you’ve been told that another person is transgender, it’s easy to claim that you always knew.  So film audiences can laugh at or be shocked by transgender characters because of the ability of the audience to recognize the character as transgender.  Marilyn Monroe even expressed this objection after being cast in the role of Sugar Kane.  “Monroe vehemently objected to playing a showgirl so stupid that ‘she can’t tell that the two women she is becoming friends within are men in drag’” (Phillips 213).  Not being able to tell wasn’t a testament to the skill of Lemmon and Curtis’ impersonation but an assault on Monroe’s intelligence.  Since she already knew the characters were being played by Lemmon and Curtis, she didn’t see how she could have ever not knew they were being played by men.

Serano’s argument about media portrayals of transgender individuals is apt but she throws a whole group of transgender women under the bus while making it.  While arguing against the portrayal of transgender women in the media, she states that not all transgender women fit the traditional feminine beauty standards (or would even want to).

That’s why it’s so frustrating that people often seem confused because, although I have transitioned to female and live as a woman, I rarely wear makeup or dress in an overly feminine manner. (34)

But she then goes on to attack those transgender women who do.

While there are certainly some trans women who buy into the mainstream dogma about beauty and femininity, others are outspoken feminists and activists fighting against all gender stereotypes. (34)

Because, of course, feminist and being feminine are mutually exclusive identities!  As a transgender woman who chooses to, and enjoys, wear makeup, dresses and high heels, I am bothered by the constant valorization of non-feminine women while attacking feminine women.  Serano commits the mistake she criticizes in other places in the book by arguing that more masculine ways of dressing and acting are better than feminine ways.  I will agree that being feminine is more than just the trappings of clothes and hairstyles but both feminist and transgender women need to stop attacking their sisters because they choose to wear skirts and heels.  We’re not all just being brainwashed by the dominant ideology.  If femininity really encompasses a wide range of actions and styles of dress, then we need to find a way to build up and support all the varied expressions of femininity without tearing down those women who choose to dress more traditionally feminine.

Works Cited

Phillips, Gene D. Some Like it Wilder: The Life and Controversial Films of Billy Wilder. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 2010.

Rothwell, J. Dan. In Mixed Company: Communicating in Small Groups and Teams. 4th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2010.   

Serano, Julia. Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press, 2007.