Media Representation

In the year 2000 (so, over twenty years ago), I saw a transgender character played by a cisgender actor as the closest person to representing on screen how I felt inside as a teenager, in a movie for the first time.

That movie was Boys Don’t Cry, and that character was Brandon Teena. The story was based on the real-life tale of Brandon Teena, a transgender man who lived and was murdered in the Midwest.

I did not see a transgender male leading character in a film again until 2024. That’s twenty-four fucking years without inclusion, without representation. Hollywood, this is beyond shameful.

If you are not a transgender man, how would you feel if, for most of your life, you never saw characters that represented your community included in leading roles, and aside from that, let’s not forget the concurrent exclusion existing in television shows, commercials, news articles, magazine features, etc? You probably wouldn’t even know where to begin answering that. I know exactly why. Because it does not happen to any other group of people, think about it, in the last 24 years, we’ve seen cisgender men and cisgender women dominating leading major motion picture roles.

The visibility level differs immensely for transgender women as opposed to transgender men (with both numbers reflecting that trans inclusion still in cinema is nowhere near where it needs to be).

Over the last 26 years, there has been a significant increase in the representation of transgender women and trans feminine characters, with about 45 to 70 films featuring a lead/protagonist who falls into this category. If we look over at the transgender men and trans masculine category, there are about 10 to 20, with these films mainly being independent and on festival circuits.

Think about it, if you are familiar with trans cinema, some of the films that have gained visibility in the last 26 years include:

• Transamerica
• The Danish Girl
• Tangerine
• Monica

Now, you go ahead and name me the trans masculine-centered films that you’ve watched. See, not much to go on, but realistically, that doesn’t accurately reflect the trans masculine experience, as there is a wealth of lived experience to draw on and much to discuss in terms of leading full and entertaining lives that make for deeply authentic stories to be shared with audiences.

So Hollywood, what’s the hesitation with about my people?

Well, perhaps it has something to do with some of the following points:

Hollywood follows pre-existing power dynamics.

Suits greenlight stories they directly understand or consider “safe.” For decades, transgender stories have been filtered and told through cisgender writers, producers, and directors’ lenses, who were more familiar with sensationalized transition tropes than actual lived trans masculine experiences.

Trans women became a “visible” target of public obsession.

The news media often focus on what the general public already fixates on. Transgender women historically have been hyper-visible in tabloid media, crime shows, talk shows, and in religious moral panic narratives. However, transgender men such as myself are often overlooked, rendered invisible rather than sensationalized.

In storytelling, masculinity is treated differently from femininity.

An AFAB person transitioning challenges cultural beliefs about womanhood, sexual desirability, and gender roles in ways the entertainment industry has often struggled to showcase with nuance and respect. If you want to make great transgender films, hire transgender professionals and place them in positions of authority, and give them healthy budgets to work with.

Studios remain underestimating audiences.

Many conservative key decision-makers incorrectly assume transgender men’s stories are “too niche,” despite evidence that audiences respond positively to specific, authentic human interest stories when they are well-crafted.

There are fewer transgender men in positions of authority.

Representation behind the lens and in boardrooms matters for so many reasons. When transgender men are employed as writers, directors, producers, and/or showrunners, trans masculine characters tend to become more substantial, centralized, and well-developed.

With all that said, as a proud gay transgender man, I’m not hurting for stories myself; my community and I are hurting for the opportunity to be included in the business of entertainment to accurately and authentically represent our lived experience as a whole so the stories that claim to be about us actually are done well.

So for now, how can you help? Share the damn article with people you know who can move the needle, and if you can’t do that, buy a book of mine or two (I have two), or let’s consider making a series, but let’s certainly not just sit around on our asses and act as if this hasn’t been happening for the last twenty-plus years in plain sight.