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- Title
Psycho Killers, Circus Freaks, Ordinary People: A Brief History of the Representation of Transgender Identities on American TV Series.
- Authors
BERMÚDEZ DE CASTRO, Juanjo
- Abstract
In 1965, popular TV Series The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (NBC) aired the episode “An Unlocked Window”, in which it is revealed that the nurses killer in the area is a transvestite. It was the first time a transgender character appeared on a TV series, and until the late 80s that was the most stereotypical and basic – because it was minimal – representation of transsexuals on broadcast TV series and films: as psychopaths and serial killers. Other examples are Aldo Lado’s Who Saw Her Die? (1972), Brian de Palma’s Dressed to Killed (1980), Robert Hiltzick’s Sleepaway Camp (1983) and Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Throughout the 90s the paradigm changed completely and transsexual characters became much more frequent. However, the change was not for good, as they were turned now into objects of mockery and disgust in comedy TV series and films, in which the protagonist heterosexual male was “deceived” into kissing or having sex with an “abhorrent” trans just as a comic device. In the comedies Soapdish (1991), Ace Ventura (1994), and Naked Gun 33 1/3 (1994), the male protagonist ends up literally throwing up when he realizes that the girl he had been kissing was not born a female. Friends (1994-2004) and Ally McBeal (1997-2002) are also series of the late 90s in which the way transgender characters are represented is far from being appropriate. It has not been until the Golden Globe and Emmy awarded TV series Transparent (2014-2016) when transgender issues have been put realistically on the front line with the accuracy and integrity that they deserve. This article traces back the evolution of the representation of transsexual identities on American TV series in the last decades by exploring the ups, downs, twists and turns that this representation has undergone in its long and hard road.
- Subjects
TELEVISION series; TRANSGENDER identity; AMERICAN identity; KISSING; LGBTQ+ history; DEMME, Jonathan, 1944-2017; GOLDEN Globe Awards; COMEDY films
- Publication
Oceánide, 2017, Issue 9, p53
- ISSN
1989-6328
- Publication type
Article