Trans People as Fetish Objects

In my first essay on this site, I started off stating that trans people are treated as fetish objects or freaks. Judging from the reaction to that essay, that seems to have pissed a few people off. However, that statement, despite its lack of nuance, holds true.

In fact, one only needs to look as far as Literotica's own sister site, Chyoo.com, as a bit of confirmation. There's stories about BDSM, straight sex, gay sex, lesbian sex, pretty much anything you'd like gathered into neat little sections to make browsing for whatever trips your particular trigger easier.

Except, of course, stories featuring transgender characters. In fact, there's only a couple of those, and you have to hunt to find them. I found them. They're placed squarely under the category "Fetish".

(Seriously, Literotica/Chyoo, get on this. Not cool.)

We can dig deeper into other porn sites like PornHub, where videos featuring trans people are tagged with #fetish as well as such wonderful words as #shemale, #tranny, and so on. In fact, I'd question whether there's a single site, outside of support sites, where trans people aren't treated as some sort of fetish. I have yet to find one.

But I digress.

So what does this prove? Well, it proves that there's a serious lack of positive representation of transgender people in the media, in in film, in porn, pretty much everywhere. We're portrayed as prostitutes, criminals, or some other form of tragic figure, often with few, if any, redeeming qualities.

This has changed some. Laverne Cox, for instance, portrayed a transgender civil rights attorney on the short-lived CBS series "Doubt", and is set to portray Kacy Duke on the upcoming Netflix miniseries, "Inventing Anna", quite possibly the first time I've ever heard of a trans woman portraying a cisgender woman in a major TV production.

Outside of that, however, you would be hard pressed to find many positive portrayals of transgender people in television, film, or theater. Often, transgender characters aren't even portrayed by transgender actors or actresses, which lends a lack of authenticity to those roles. Not for lack of available talent, as the TV show "POSE" proves, as almost all of its lead characters are portrayed by trans actors. There are other instances, such as one episode of "The Good Doctor" and the series "Supergirl", which featured Nicole Maines as Nia Nal, but it's extremely rare.

So what can be done? A lot, it seems.

First, writers (I'm looking at the majority of people who will likely be reading this essay) need to become more educated about transgender people and stop simply portraying stereotypes and tropes. Often, those stereotypes and tropes are outdated, exaggerated, or simply false. Writing stories that portray us in a more positive light would make life easier for everyone involved.

Second, try using transgender actors to portray transgender characters. With the exception of "Dallas Buyer's Club", which featured a transgender character (yet another tragic character portrayed by a cisgender actor, Jared Leto), transgender characters portrayed in film are largely panned by critics as being over-the-top, inauthentic caricatures, as actors rely on tropes and stereotypes on which to base their portrayals. Using a trans performer would lend authenticity. That said, to Leto's credit, he spend a ridiculous amount of time researching his role, spending time talking to and getting to know thransgender people, and he remains an ally to our community. If any cisgender actor did it right, it's him, and I have a lot of respect for him for doing so.

Third, producers, directors, and content providers need to insist on having authenticity in their content. By allowing these sorts of portrayals, they only serve to feed these incorrect stereotypes and tropes, which further reinforces them to the general public. Public opinion toward transgender people will never change unless the portrayals people see change.

It would also help if the public at large would educate themselves on what being transgender actually is. Transgender visibility is a very, very new thing. It's only recently that trans people like Ty Turner, Stef Sanjati, and Maya Henry have started making YouTube channels, and people like the afore-mentioned trans actors and actresses have really become visible. If there's something you don't know about trans people, ask one of us, pick up a book, find a website like "Susan's Place". Do some research, rather than relying on what your sister's boyfriend's cousin's fiancee's father's friend said while he was half drunk. If something sounds bigoted, weird, or just plain wrong, it probably is.

This in particular would go a long way towards breaking down those stereotypes and tropes that reduce us to fetish objects, because the more people realize we're just human beings trying to live our lives, the less these stereotypes and tropes will be allowed to stand and propagate.

There have been some strides, but there's still a very, very long way to go.