Calling the Media on Trans Representation This article is only a portion of the full article. If you are already a premium subscriber please login. If you are not a premium subscriber, please subscribe for access to all of our content.
DIRECTED BY Sam Feder, Disclosure is a Netflix original documentary in which notable trans actors, writers, academics, and activists examine the history of trans representation in film and television. Throughout his directorial career, Feder has maintained a focus on the lives of trans people and their challenges and triumphs. His documentary Boy I Am (2006) looked at the lives of three transitioning transmasculine people in New York City and the stigma they faced from parts of the cisgender lesbian community. No More Lies (2010) is a documentary short that, like Disclosure, reviewed trans representation in the media. Kate Bornstein Is a Queer & Pleasant Danger (2014) followed the trans performance artist and activist on tour as she explored gender issues through her art.
Disclosure, which falls neatly into Feder’s wheelhouse as a filmmaker, finds him interviewing prominent figures across disciplines to investigate how trans people have been portrayed in film and on television, a topic that most people know little about. Laverne Cox serves as the primary narrator throughout, opening the documentary with this statement: “I never thought I’d live in a world where trans people would be celebrated, on or off the screen. … I never thought the media would stop asking horrible questions, and start treating us with respect. Now look how far we’ve come.” The arc of this historical process is what this film aims to examine, along with the benefits—and the risks—of such representation for the day-to-day lives of trans people.
Writer-activist Tiq Milan asserts: “The paradox of our representation is: the more we are seen, the more we are violated.” While Disclosure interrogates the stereotypical and often fear-based depictions of trans people across film and television over the years, Jamie Clayton (known from her role on Netflix’ Sense8) argues that positive representation holds risks as well as rewards, as it can put trans people in danger by effectively creating a more visible target for those who would seek to harm them. Da’Shaun Harrison, a trans author and managing editor of Wear Your Voice magazine, put it succinctly: “To be visibly queer is to choose your happiness over your safety.”
Positive representation is still relatively recent, however, with examples few and far between. Over decades of screen history, trans people were portrayed either as the butt of the joke or as a target of disgust. Moving away from these stereotypes affects not only how trans people are viewed by the world but also how they view themselves.
Just as important as increasing the number of trans stories in the media is the issue of who gets to tell these stories and play these characters. The importance of people with the lived experience of trans-ness having control of the story is demonstrated by Feder’s film. Cisgender people are seen appropriating not only control of the stories but also the portrayal of trans people. This has led to trans characters often being flattened into far less than three-dimensional people. In a role with a cis man playing a trans woman, say, the focus of the performance is likely to be on how successfully he pulls off the gender reversal.
Faces from Disclosure (from top): Tiq Milan (media maker), Laverne Cox (actress), and Yance Ford (filmmaker).
Disclosure is an insightful look into the ways that the media shape people’s views of trans people and their image of themselves. By allowing trans people to speak for themselves, Feder provides an incisive critique and a wellspring of knowledge that is made much more accessible by the platform on which it is provided. While the journey of trans representation has come a long way, Disclosure makes it clear that it can only be a small part of the “broader movement for social change” required to improve the lives of trans people.
Craig Hale, one of the hosts for the podcast I Want You to Watch This, reviews films for Letterboxd.com.
DISCLOSURE
portrayed in film and on television, a topic that most people know little about. Laverne Cox serves as the primary narrator throughout, opening the documentary with this statement: “I never thought I’d live in a world where trans people would be celebrated, on or off the screen. … I never thought the media would stop asking horrible questions, and start treating us with respect. Now look how far we’ve come.” The arc of this historical process is what this film aims to examine, along with the benefits—and the risks—of such representation for the day-to-day lives of trans people.
disgust. Moving away from these stereotypes affects not only how trans people are viewed by the world but also how they view themselves.
