Dove, a company famous for its campaigns emphasising the “realness” of people, has just launched another one called #RealMoms. The internet is ablaze with mostly positive commentary around one of the campaign’s ads. It features a transgender mother.
Netflix series Orange Is The New Black has reached critical mass in its popularity and has had a huge influence on the rise of transgender characters and lives on screen due to its nuanced handling of trans character Sophia Burset (played by Laverne Cox [below]).
Now, let’s step back for a second. Way back.
It’s 1997 and an episode of Ally McBeal called ‘Boy To The World’ has just aired. The premise of the show is stock-standard TV dramedy. It was never known for tackling the ‘big issues’, but certainly skirted them from time to time – in the case of ‘Boy To The World’, while pointing and nervously laughing.
Ally (a lawyer) has to defend her client, Stephanie (played by Wilson Cruz), against solicitation charges. Stephanie is a fashion designer who turned to prostitution because of financial pressures. To Ally’s great surprise, Stephanie is revealed to be transgendered.
I watched this episode with my housemate a week ago. We both had mixed feelings about it. On one hand, we felt the show was progressive for even including a transgender character in a semi-sympathetic light. On the other, the entire episode was a cringefest of insensitive, ignorant and just unfunny dialogue that would have absolutely zero chance of flying today.
For those counting at home, we’ve already reached one transgender screen trope: prostitution.
Ally’s defence of her client is – Lord help us – an insanity plea based on “transvestite fetishism”. Let’s add ‘mental instability’ to the trope list.
Stephanie decides not to use the insanity defence (hallelujah). Watching the parade of psychological experts descending upon her in court inspired an impressive exercise in self-control for me. I had to force myself to keep looking at the screen while the rest of my body tried to pretzel itself in response to the intensity of my cringing.
Ally tries her darnedest to get them to diagnose Stephanie with gender dysphoria. The best they can do is diagnose her with ‘confused’.
There’s a scene where she’s apparently identified by her Adam’s apple. She’s also referred to as “it” and “he/she”. Stephanie seems to be the only one not confused about her identity. Everybody else is flailing because she’s interrupted their binary flow. It’s implied that her unwavering belief about her identity is a signifier itself of mental illness. I mean, how can you be OK with being transgendered? You must be crazy.
The rest of the episode trundles along with no surprises. Stephanie returns to prostitution and is murdered.
A cop explains to Ally that some “John went crazy when he found out the Jane was a guy”.
In its final breath, the episode tries to restore some dignity to Stephanie by having Ally apply make-up to her corpse’s face so she can be buried as her true self. Grim, but hey, they tried?
I know this episode was aired 20 years ago, but somehow it doesn’t feel like it. It’s strange how change is a series of minute transformations that can feel like they’re quietly happening outside of our conscious observation, until suddenly we look up, and everything is different.
The same can’t be said for people who are caught inside of it all. For a trans person, the 20 years between Ally McBeal’s ham-fisted representation of themselves and the #RealMoms campaign have felt like 20 years because they’ve been fighting tooth and nail for every second of them.
[Pictured above: Wilson Cruz in Ally McBeal]
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This Week:
On Friday April 21, head on down to Giant Dwarf in Redfern for the April edition of Queerstories. Hosted by Maxine Kauter, the storytellers include musician Jessie Lloyd, Alice Williamson, social worker and activist Paul Van Reyk, David Cunningham, Bastian Fox Phelan and Twitter sensation Rebecca Shaw. Like they say, there’s more to being queer than coming out and marriage, so come on down to hear stories from a diverse group of awesome queer people. The event is Auslan interpreted.
On Saturday April 22, The Shift Club is throwing an ’80s dance party. Your hostess for the evening is Ms Connie Cartier, joined by performers Stephen Carrington and Ms Marcia Monterey. Be sure to wear your retro best, as DJ Tim Rogers will be making some ’80s magic happen on the dancefloor.
And for the diary, on Saturday May 6, Girlthing will be kicking off its national Jelly Wrestling tour at the Metro Theatre on George Street. Bigger, better and wetter than ever, billing itself as the classiest event of the year, the wrestling matches will of course be in the midst of a gigantic party hosted by Marzi Panne, and featuring queer DJ faves NatNoiz, Cunningpants, Double A and Catlyfe. Expressions of interest in becoming a contestant are still welcome and tickets are available now. The tour will be travelling to Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Darwin.
