I’ve been watching TransGeneration recently, and it’s basically just a reality TV show that caters to perverse cis curiosity about trans folks.
it has so many fucked up moments, but one of the ones I found amusing was when they took footage of Gabbie the trans woman cutting up hot dogs:
Then just to make sure we didn’t miss the metaphor they zoom in and really focus on her cutting the hot dogs:
just, lmao
I saw a documentary on Hayley from Coronation Street (first trans character on a long running UK soap opera). She was (for the most part) reasonably sensitively portrayed and her actress (a cis woman) was at least very careful to listen to trans voices at the time and I believe has been a decent ally since (if I’m wrong please correct me). She ended up becoming a core cast member that stuck around for 16 years.
The thing that struck me was how the public conversation was really different to how it would be now. The right hadn’t yet re-organised and rallied against “woke”. The anti trans mob wasn’t really a thing (of course transphobia was very real, just seemingly less organised). There was a lot of language that feels icky now but it just didn’t seem like the same level of toxicity we have to deal with in current year.
So back then it was a lot more indifferent and they’d use words that now would be considered outdated and somewhat offensive (like saying ‘transsexual’)?
Yeah you got it. Apparently her character was originally written as a transphobic bit (haha wouldn’t it be funny if the socially awkward guy went on a date and it turned out the date was trans), but I think the actor really took it seriously and the writers consulted with trans advocacy groups and they brought on a trans woman to consult formally and make sure Hayley wasnt just a characature. It wasn’t perfect by any means but it was really interesting to compare with now where a trans person’s inclusion would be considered a pure political statement and the hate machine would immediately spin into overdrive.