Representing trans: visibility and its discontents

Koch-Rein, Anson; Yekani, Elahe Haschemi; Verlinden, Jasper J.

doi:10.1080/13825577.2020.1730040

Cited by 138 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 25 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…It is at this point that Euphoria attempts to go beyond clichés and stereotypes by trying to represent Jules as a trans woman who also inhabits other spaces beyond those related to the margins and exclusion. This is how a multidimensional image of the character is constructed through the more complex affective relationships she develops (Koch-Rein et al, 2020). The love story between Jules and Rue distances Jules' character from the streets, from violence and death, and therefore, from the archetype of the "fallen woman" (marginalized and humiliated female characters linked to death), which has tended to be connected in fiction to trans characters (Ford, 2017).…”

Section: From Fetishism To Love: the Trans Female Character As Subject Of Valuementioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the “Trans Fact”? Trans Representation in the Teen Series Euphoria: Complexity, Recognition, and Comfort

Masanet

Ventura

Isern

2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recent anti‐LGBTQ+ discourse has increased the threat of violence against people who do not follow the cisheteronormative mandates. To face these dialectics, the media can offer alternative discourses, in particular by providing realistic and non‐stereotyped LGBTQ+ representations. Media portrayals can be seen as both positive and negative. On one hand, they may offer stereotypical and narrow representations, but on the other, they can include representations that can become aspirational models and improve visibility. The objective of this article is to explore this second perspective by analyzing the representation of Jules, a trans female character from the American series <em>Euphoria</em> (Levinson et al., 2019–present). To this end, we conducted a close reading analysis (Castelló, 2008) of the first season of the series. The results show three axes of representation that move away from the traditional portrayal of trans characters: (a) a narrative that moves beyond the “trans fact” and presents complex and plural stories, (b) a representation of the trans individual as an element of value and love, away from fetishism, and (c) a link between the trans realm and specific spaces of comfort and freedom.

show abstract

Section: From Fetishism To Love: the Trans Female Character As Subject Of Valuementioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the “Trans Fact”? Trans Representation in the Teen Series Euphoria: Complexity, Recognition, and Comfort

Masanet

Ventura

Isern

2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Shifting the discussion of trans from a question of representation to one of reading, Koch-Rein et al’s recent academic article, ‘Representing Trans: Visibility and its Discontents’ (2020), is one of the few to consider both Transparent and Pose, among a range of other trans representations. The authors suggest drawing on work by queer and trans theorists Jack Halberstam and Susan Stryker among others, asserting that they want to foster such an ‘expansive’ interpretation of both terms ‘trans’ and ‘representation,’ which should be considered open for debate and not tied to any clear-cut definition […].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In such an understanding, ‘trans’ itself can be understood as a methodological tool to analyse media. […] In such a ‘speculative’ framing of trans, similar to the notion of queering as a verb […] representing trans is fundamentally tied to the ambivalences of visibility in relation to embodied trans lives (Koch-Rein et al, 2020: 6).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On this basis, the article suggests that the plethora of recent trans representations on television and elsewhere should not just be seen as ‘a progressive signposting of liberal inclusion and a celebration of more “mature” and realistic depictions of trans lives’ (Koch-Rein et al, 2020: 6), but as a veritable ‘transing’ of existing television genres and conventions. They embody this approach by offering a reading of the non-realist aspects of both Pose and the Transparent finale that brings different aesthetic strategies together as a ‘transing’ of contemporary television:Like Pose’s ‘woke’, but at times anachronistic, conversations from the coffin and the splendour of its soapy lip-synched extravaganza, the recent musical finale of Transparent also resorts to defamiliarising aesthetic choices and thus can be read as part of such a queering/ transing of form that departs more radically from the confines of realism.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Introduction: Trans TV dossier, III: Trans TV re-evaluated, part 2

Edited

Goddard

Hogg³

2020

Critical Studies in Television

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This is the second more substantial part of the introduction to the final Trans TV special issue, distributed across issues 15.2 and 15.3 of this journal. As well as introducing the contents of this issue, we reflect in this introduction on the Trans TV project as it has developed since 2017, via an engagement with two key televisual texts namely Transparent (2014–2019) and Pose (2018–). We argue that this certainly reflects positive developments in terms of transgender representation and authorship but this progress is more complex when considered in terms of television aesthetics and politics. We also propose, drawing on the work of Koch-Rein et al (2020), a shift form representation towards the concept of ‘transing’ as a reading strategy, and argue that this has been at the heart of the Trans TV project all along.

show abstract

“…The editors go on to argue that some of the political and representational tensions around Transparent are resolved in Pose (2018–present), in which transgender media professionals were much more present. Echoing the argument of part I of the conclusion to the dossier (15.2), Goddard and Hogg conclude that what is at stake is not so much representation of trans identities, and their inclusion in mainstream programming, but rather the ‘transing’ of the medium itself, its aesthetics and politics: as Koch-Rein et al have argued, ‘the politics of trans representation are not limited to the notion of ‘authentic’ or ‘good’ trans representations but ideally intervene and trans our ways of looking at the world’ (2020: 6–7). This view of trans television informs the articles that follow (which are introduced in more detail in Goddard and Hogg's introduction), and indeed the whole Trans TV project.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Editorial

Lacey

2020

Critical Studies in Television

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There is a great deal of critical scholarship about Breaking Bad (2008-13), some of which has appeared in the pages of this journal (see Chisum, 2019: 415-428). It might seem that everything that needs to be said about the series has already been said, but this issue starts with an essay which reaches into television studies from outside to mount a different kind of argument. Ewan Bowlby is a doctoral researcher based at the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, who is using popular artworks (novels, films and television series) to design new forms of art therapy which provide emotional, psychological and spiritual care for cancer patients. Bowlby has used Breaking Bad therapeutically with people living with cancer and argues that the series can encourage patients to recognise and reconsider damaging reactions to their condition. This involves patients seeing Walter White (Bryan Cranston) who is, of course, living with cancer, as a 'silhouette' of a path not taken, a lesson in how not to respond to the disease, which can encourage those living with cancer to adopt more open, honest and constructive attitudes. Bowlby draws on the theological concept of a 'silhouette of goodness' and Jungian theory to argue that White's increasingly chaotic descent into criminality could help caregivers to meet the need for symbols in cancer care. The next contribution, by Max Romanowski and Zachary Sheldon, examines the ethics of satire in the Internet age. The article explores some of the ways in which YouTube, and Internet culture more generally, has affected and generically shaped forms of contemporary US television comedy. The focus is on satire, especially in the form that engages with the public as unwitting participants in the television event for the entertainment of the viewer. This form of television is not new in itself-as the authors note, it has been a thread in television comedy since the 1940s, when Candid Camera (1948-2014) first appeared. What is distinctive about contemporary examples, however, is the way they use the aesthetics and ethics of Internet video culture to reshape the genre, revelling in 'bad taste' and 'shock' for satirical purposes. The main examples the authors explore are two US series, The Eric Andre Show (2012-) and Nathan for You

show abstract

Representing trans: visibility and its discontents

Cited by 138 publications

References 25 publications

Beyond the “Trans Fact”? Trans Representation in the Teen Series Euphoria: Complexity, Recognition, and Comfort

Beyond the “Trans Fact”? Trans Representation in the Teen Series Euphoria: Complexity, Recognition, and Comfort

Introduction: Trans TV dossier, III: Trans TV re-evaluated, part 2

Editorial

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About