I'm kind of upset that there is minimal trans representation in the media

Orange is the New Black had a transwoman character played by real life transwoman Lavern Cox. Degrassi had Adam, a transguy, who was played by a ciswoman. And I think the CW's pitching a new show called "Ze", which is supposed to be about a recently out transguy, possibly non-binary character.

I agree though. It's my belief that media representation is part of the key to overall acceptance and I'm hoping in the next few years we'll be seeing more and more fairly portrayed and complex trans characters in mainstream media.

 

Are you SURE you want that?

The 'media' can't seem to get away from the idea that all gay men are flaming queens and all lesbians are butch or part-time lesbian. I dread to think what they might cook up for us!

"Oh Mr Darcy, I've had ever such a nice time!"
"My dear, our evening is only beginning..."
*fondle fondle grope fondle*
"OH Mr Darcy! MMMMMM"
*fondle* *breast form falls out*
"ACH TU LEIBER! DAS IST NOT EINE BOOBY!"
*Lady looks at camera and shrugs*
"Oh well, there's always NEXT week"
*theme music* *roll end credits*

 

..What??

 

She's basically saying stereotypes to the extreme, unless you're talking about the german, in which case "(something) (something) lover! That is not a booby!"

 

I'm not trans myself but, it seems to me, that trans issues are the new frontier. We need to increase understanding and we need to start educating our kids about this now.
But trust me when I say you'll be disappointed if you look to government or the mainstream media for guidance or help on this. Ignore them. And encourage everyone you know to do so too.

 

From what I hear Glee has a Unique...and although probably not the best way to make trans issues more relevant, at least it begins to normalize things the way Ellen and Roseanne did.

As for the sitcom example: Don't forget about Will & Grace. I thought they did a halfway decent job portraying homosexuality in a realistic way. With Will being all straight-laced and serious (who I have friends he reminds me of), and Jack being quite flamboyant (only have one gay friend like that).

 

You're right. In England we have a soap called Coronation Street and there is a much loved trans character called Hayley (Who happens to be dying of cancer now :tears Thats one of the only shows I can think of that really educated the audience... Hell, even my dad loves Hayley! There was a scene a few weeks ago that really touched me, where Hayley's friend who is also dieing from cancer became very ill and ended up kind of reliving her past when she was in the hospital bed. Hayley was terrified she would end up reliving her days as Harold because they were hell for her, so she wants to end her life before she gets seriously ill. I think that hit home with a lot of people that watched it. I do wish more shows would show things like this, it is a good way of getting more people to understand.

 

Sadly the only way i've seen trans on TV is to be more of a laughing stock. A butt of the joke sort of thing. Honestly until trans* is more accepted, I don't look forward to seeing it on TV.

But i get what OP is saying, it can't just be ignored.

 

I'm not convinced that its a bad thing. I certainly support more media representations for non-heterosexuals, and more gender expression diversity in the media. But I fear more media for trans people will make it harder for some of us to go unnoticed. The aims of trans people and cisgendered non-heterosexuals are often different - we want to blend in, live normal lives and they want to be accepted for who they are, and blending in doesn't really help that.

 

I do kind of wish there were more trans characters in the media. It makes me sad that a lot of them are just the butt of jokes, like Bill on Two and a Half Men who only appeared in one episode (that I know of).

 

Most people have no clue about transgender anything.
Then again, aiming for the lowest common denominator isn't going to get us much sympathy. What we need to do is portray transgender people in many different ways, and hopefully the rest of the world will understand we're just trying to be ourselves.
Wishful thinking? Perhaps. But taking the freedoms of our fellow humans is not cool. At all.

 

For a while, there was this project in the works. It's a little rough because it was a concept video, but it was essentially a plan for a tv show with trans writers, and trans people in all the trans roles.

The Switch - Featurette - YouTube

 

I think the first trans character on TV I ever really identified with was Jadzia Dax. Think it's time for an avatar change anyway.

I think the medium that has been most friendly toward us has honestly been Anime. There are some trans films like Beautiful Boxer that really helped me when I saw them.

I would really like to see a trans woman be able to kick ass in something. But then again I like it when any woman is allowed to kick ass in something. I don't mean violent necessarily. I just mean like action and heroic, like Chel in Portal. That's the kind of portrayal I'd really like to see some time, trans people being the main character and having more than just their transness being focused on.

Also if you really want to brighten up your day look at the movie aliens. Sexual orientation and gender are basically non-issues and every character's bio includes whether they had a sex change. You can read more here, Aliens (1986 film) - TvWiki, the free encyclopedia . I think one of the main characters was even trans.