Transitioning into a new gender can be an daunting experience.
Many stigmas and stereotypes exist in the world surrounding the transgender community, which are hard to shake.
Often, the only exposure society has to the transgender community is:
Fortunately for us, the representation of transgender people is becoming much more varied and realistic.
For example, the acclaimed actor Sean Bean (a man we are much more accustomed to playing in a typical "hard man" role) played the part of a cross-dressing individual called Tracie in the 2012 BBC drama series Accused. In the episode "Tracie's Story", titular Tracie is portrayed as a well-rounded, articulate and well-read person, shown to have a life outside of her transgender identity. She is easily capable of verbally defending herself from a drunken bigot in the local pub she visits. By day, Tracie lives her life as a rather beige-looking Simon, an English school teacher, albeit a very dissatisfied one. Tracie loves books. Tracie is complex.
It is quickly established that Tracie isn't supposed to be a mere joke, or a punchline.
We don't find ourselves laughing at her (most of us won't anyway, some inevitably will).
This is despite the fact that Sean Bean is extremely UN-androgynous (and admittedly, quite jarring) when wearing high heels and a dress.
No, Tracie is not a victim. She is portrayed as intelligent and insightful, able to read the people around her easily.
She is vulnerable too, perhaps lonely.
Yet this only serves to represent and humanise her character in a relatively believable way, to a wider audience. And by proxy, Tracie represents the struggles of transgender people as a whole.
Not just the ones who's expressed gender appropriately or "passably" matches up to their physical build. The audience empathises with Tracie's personal choices, despite the initial gut-reaction of first seeing Sean Bean in a dress.
Tracie even goes on to have a momentarily positive and intimate experience with her lover, Tony (played by This is England actor Stephen Graham), a satellite installer who hides the fact that he is married to a cisgender woman.
This is bold, daring territory for television. Bean and Graham are nothing short of brilliant throughout the episode. The actors are able to summon up shockingly genuine emotional reactions, from both the transgender and cisgender perspectives.
In particular, Tony's unsavoury attitudes towards Tracie come uncomfortably close to reality, even today in 2017. There were some quite tender moments between Tracie and Tony, don't get me wrong. But Tony's shame in relation to his attraction towards Tracie, as well as his anger towards Tracie's appearance not measuring up to personal stereotypes of femininity...as uncomfortable as these sentiments make us, it is critical that they're brought to the forefront.
How else could we challenge them?
****SPOLIER WARNING AHEAD****
*****************************
Predictably, Tony and Tracie's relationship doesn’t exactly end on a high note. The last quarter of the episode feels a bit rushed. Everything sort of devolves into a courtroom drama after Tony kills his wife to start a new life with Tracie, and subsequently gets caught.
Which is a damn shame. After all, healthy intimate relationships between transgender and cisgender individuals are hardly represented in the media.
There are others things to question too.
Like, why couldn't an actual transgender actor have been cast for the role of Tracie?
It could certainly be argued that casting Sean Bean was a ploy to gain viewers.
Also, was it really necessary to include casual sex in the story of Tracie?
Doesn’t that just play into the deeply embedded stereotypes of transgender folk as sexually deviant?
There is still a way to go in representing Trangender people, but at any rate, I think "Tracie's Story" is a step in the right direction.
Many stigmas and stereotypes exist in the world surrounding the transgender community, which are hard to shake.
Often, the only exposure society has to the transgender community is:
- as the butt of jokes in comedy sketches,
- portrayed as crazy serial killers on TV,
- portrayed as perverse sexual deviants on TV.
Fortunately for us, the representation of transgender people is becoming much more varied and realistic.
For example, the acclaimed actor Sean Bean (a man we are much more accustomed to playing in a typical "hard man" role) played the part of a cross-dressing individual called Tracie in the 2012 BBC drama series Accused. In the episode "Tracie's Story", titular Tracie is portrayed as a well-rounded, articulate and well-read person, shown to have a life outside of her transgender identity. She is easily capable of verbally defending herself from a drunken bigot in the local pub she visits. By day, Tracie lives her life as a rather beige-looking Simon, an English school teacher, albeit a very dissatisfied one. Tracie loves books. Tracie is complex.
It is quickly established that Tracie isn't supposed to be a mere joke, or a punchline.
We don't find ourselves laughing at her (most of us won't anyway, some inevitably will).
This is despite the fact that Sean Bean is extremely UN-androgynous (and admittedly, quite jarring) when wearing high heels and a dress.
No, Tracie is not a victim. She is portrayed as intelligent and insightful, able to read the people around her easily.
She is vulnerable too, perhaps lonely.
Yet this only serves to represent and humanise her character in a relatively believable way, to a wider audience. And by proxy, Tracie represents the struggles of transgender people as a whole.
Not just the ones who's expressed gender appropriately or "passably" matches up to their physical build. The audience empathises with Tracie's personal choices, despite the initial gut-reaction of first seeing Sean Bean in a dress.
Tracie even goes on to have a momentarily positive and intimate experience with her lover, Tony (played by This is England actor Stephen Graham), a satellite installer who hides the fact that he is married to a cisgender woman.
This is bold, daring territory for television. Bean and Graham are nothing short of brilliant throughout the episode. The actors are able to summon up shockingly genuine emotional reactions, from both the transgender and cisgender perspectives.
In particular, Tony's unsavoury attitudes towards Tracie come uncomfortably close to reality, even today in 2017. There were some quite tender moments between Tracie and Tony, don't get me wrong. But Tony's shame in relation to his attraction towards Tracie, as well as his anger towards Tracie's appearance not measuring up to personal stereotypes of femininity...as uncomfortable as these sentiments make us, it is critical that they're brought to the forefront.
How else could we challenge them?
****SPOLIER WARNING AHEAD****
*****************************
Predictably, Tony and Tracie's relationship doesn’t exactly end on a high note. The last quarter of the episode feels a bit rushed. Everything sort of devolves into a courtroom drama after Tony kills his wife to start a new life with Tracie, and subsequently gets caught.
Which is a damn shame. After all, healthy intimate relationships between transgender and cisgender individuals are hardly represented in the media.
There are others things to question too.
Like, why couldn't an actual transgender actor have been cast for the role of Tracie?
It could certainly be argued that casting Sean Bean was a ploy to gain viewers.
Also, was it really necessary to include casual sex in the story of Tracie?
Doesn’t that just play into the deeply embedded stereotypes of transgender folk as sexually deviant?
There is still a way to go in representing Trangender people, but at any rate, I think "Tracie's Story" is a step in the right direction.
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