Year: 2009
Type: article
Abstract: This dissertation examines transgender images in film, television and media from the 1950s through the present, with an emphasis on images from the 1980s through today.The primary goal of the dissertation is to interrogate the various gender and sexual ideologies contained within the representations to determine the social status of trans people in American society.How do these images function to both encourage and stymie the liberation of transgender people in the United States?The dissertation deploys trans, queer and feminist theories to critically analyze the cultural work performed by these mass-media texts.What are the trends within the trans media canon, and how do they relate to the treatment of real-world gender-nonconforming people?In order to answer these questions, I separate the trans images into four different stereotypes.For each of these stereotypes, I analyze three to four films to compare and contrast the way the films deal with the issues of gender and sexual variation.The first stereotype I examine is the Transgender Deceiver.The Transgender Deceiver utilizes drag and gender transformation to obtain something they want from society.While the films analyzed are comedies (Tootsie, Just One of the Guys, Sorority Boys, and Juwanna Mann), I argue that they are not as innocuous as they appear due to the way they stereotype gender-variant people as duplicitous, selfish and conniving.Next, I examine the trope of the Transgender Mammy.Through turning my analytical lens on To Wong Foo, Holiday Heart and Flawless, I look at the stereotype of x Trans Monsters Raging Against the System?.........................
Author: Joelle Ruby Ryan
Institution: Bowling Green State University
Language: English
Topic: Gender and Feminist Studies
Subfield: Gender Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W90661436