Representations of transsexuals in cinema

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I've just seen "A Mighty Wind", in which for comic effect one of the characters suddenly reveals themselves as a would-be transsexual late in the film.

This made me wonder, are there any films which feature transsexuals as anything other than objects of humour or fear?

― DV (dirtyvicar), Monday, 26 January 2004 23:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Boy's Don't Cry
Irreversible

― Leee Majors (Leee), Monday, 26 January 2004 23:51 (twenty-two years ago)

possibly related:

Chris Guest's Treatment of Homosexuals in his Mockumentaries - C/D

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 26 January 2004 23:51 (twenty-two years ago)

John Lithgow in The World According To Garp is a pretty sympathetic portrayal... yes?

― andy, Tuesday, 27 January 2004 00:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 01:30 (twenty-two years ago)

The Fisher King- humor but also tragic... I was so disappointed the character sort of got ditched by the story at the end and you didn't get to see any more after a great buildup. (well haven't seen it in like 10 yrs tho.)

― sucka (sucka), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 01:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Leee in Irreversible the trans-sexual suddenly reveals her penis during the hero's psychotic revenge trip, prompting our hero to freak out and press the knife right up to her throat. The way the camera revealed her penis was clearly intended to shock and freak us out, too.

The only trans-sexual in Boys Don't Cry was a POTENTIAL trans-sexual who never got the chance.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 02:01 (twenty-two years ago)

On the small screen Prime Suspect had one.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 02:08 (twenty-two years ago)

"different for girls"!!!

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 02:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Priscilla Queen of the Desert

― j.lu (j.lu), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 02:57 (twenty-two years ago)

On the other hand, if last night's Golden Globes were any indication, television's portrayal of transsexuals has become a decidedly solemn affair.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 04:06 (twenty-two years ago)

blame Milton Berle

― Huck Everlasting (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 19:07 (twenty-two years ago)

This made me wonder, are there any films which feature transsexuals as anything other than objects of humour or fear?

try the more exotic section of your adult video purveyor.

(sorry... but not really, i mean he was asking for it!!!)

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 19:10 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm sorta serious, actually. Cross-dressing is one of TV's oldest sight gags, and as such it's nearly a nearly unsurmountable obstacle to get "mainstream" people to react to transgender/sexual in any other way.

― Huck Everlasting (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 19:14 (twenty-two years ago)

The only trans-sexual in Boys Don't Cry was a POTENTIAL trans-sexual who never got the chance.

I don't know -- Chloe Sevigny's nose always seemed pretty suspect to me.

― Charles Hatcher (musenheddo), Tuesday, 27 January 2004 19:21 (twenty-two years ago)

I suspect cross-dressing gags are older than TV.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 02:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I didn't say Berle invented it, I just said that he was the electronic Columbus of "hey ma! that lady has an Adam's apple!"

― Huck Everlasting (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 14:24 (twenty-two years ago)

The crying game

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 14:30 (twenty-two years ago)

The best depiction of a transsexual I've seen in mainstream movies is Joel Schumacher's "Flawless", where Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a sympathetic (but not flawless) transsexual saving money for the operation. One of movies themes is Robert de Niro's character getting over his disgust towards Hoffman and his transvestite friends, but thankfully this is done in a non-schmaltzy way. Bill Murray's character in "Ed Wood" is also portrayed sympathetically, but the role is a minor one. The Thai film "Iron Ladies" also has a male-to-female transsexual protagonist, but she's obviously played by a good-looking non-transsexual women, which is probably done to downplay audience objections.

It's been ages since I saw The Fisher King, but I don't remember there being a transsexual character in that flick. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 15:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I found that bit of 'A Mighty Wind' a bit cheap. Other parts of the film are truly hilarious, but that seemed really uninspired. It got a big laugh from the audience when I saw it though.

Pedro Almodovar's 'All About My Mother' has transexual characters. The main one is a humourous charcter, but not an object of humour. It's a very good film.

― Cathy (Cathy), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 18:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Whatsisname (Michael?) Jeter plays a transvestite in the Fisher King (parts of which were filmed at my high school, which is the only reason why I saw it), but I don't remember if he was specifically a transsexual.

I guess I could have checked the name on IMDB but eh.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 18:11 (twenty-two years ago)

that fucking voice was amazing

― Fell This Boy (Felcher), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 18:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I kind of knew I'd get called out about Boys Don't Cry and Irreversible. Yet I mentioned them anyway.

On Ally McBeal there was a cross-dresser/transvestite who got on rather well with the main cast. Yes I watched Ally McBeal.

― Leee Majors (Leee), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 18:38 (twenty-two years ago)

what about Drew Carey?

― Huck Me Gently (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 28 January 2004 18:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I dimly remember Twin Peaks having a crossdressed FBI agent (played by David Duchovny?), who was presented as by-the-book in every other characteristic.

And if we are counting crossdressing as a form of trans- or intersexuality, Ed Wood.

― j.lu (j.lu), Thursday, 29 January 2004 04:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Porn Theatre.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 29 January 2004 04:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I dimly remember Twin Peaks having a crossdressed FBI agent (played by David Duchovny?), who was presented as by-the-book in every other characteristic.

Hey, that's right! First time I ever saw Duchovny in anything -- half the time he was regular suit/tie guy, the other half he was Denise or something.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 29 January 2004 04:55 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, but it was pretty goofy. that whole era of twin peaks was such garbage.

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 29 January 2004 06:21 (twenty-two years ago)

The documentary Paris is Burning is about drag queens, some of whom are in various stages of transsexuality. As a documentary, this is perhaps in a different category of "representation" -- but academics Judith Butler and bell hooks both had a field day arguing about how the drag queens/transsexuals were portrayed. (Sympathetically, on the surface, but with all sorts of problematic subtexts, as you might expect gender theorists to point out.)

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 29 January 2004 06:30 (twenty-two years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.