Trans(re)lating 006: A Response to Trans Film with Nobilis Reed, Part 1

Part 2 00:00 Opening 01:05 Introduction 02:25 Conversation with Nobilis (first half) – Nobilis: Actors change themselves all the time for roles. Why is gender identity different than things like hair color? – DDog: Hair color isn’t the right analogy. Some totally inadequate comparisons are blackface and characters with disabilities being played by actors without […]

Part 2

00:00 Opening

01:05 Introduction

02:25 Conversation with Nobilis (first half)

– Nobilis: Actors change themselves all the time for roles. Why is gender identity different than things like hair color?

– DDog: Hair color isn’t the right analogy. Some totally inadequate comparisons are blackface and characters with disabilities being played by actors without those disabilities. Some people have power and privilege over others, and there is something wrong when the people without the power are overwhelmingly portrayed by the people with it.

– Nobilis: But blackface just looks wrong; you know the person isn’t really black. You don’t know if someone isn’t really trans unless you’re reading their mind, because trans-ness is not something that is intrinsically visible, unlike sex, race, etc.

– DDog: That construction implies that being trans is like a hat that someone can put on and take off at will, which in general it is not. Even for the people for whom that is the case, being trans has a social meaning and effect that hair color doesn’t.

– Nobilis: What effect does that actually have on the real world? Does the media change and popular perceptions follow, or vice versa?

– DDog: I think it can go back and forth. You see it on TV and it becomes less of a big deal to see them in your own life; and you see it in real life so it’s less of a shock to see it on TV. Some creators may try to push the envelope with varying degrees of success; most media portrayals are initially negative but evolve into something more representative with time.

– Nobilis: I see mass media as being far behind social reality. Eventually there is enough social inertia that media simply resists less and then you see better representations.

22:49 Promo for The Good Parts

24:30 Closing and contact information

25:50

Links mentioned:

Trans(re)lating 005, “Trans Film”

Nobilis Erotica and @Nobilis on Twitter

The Good Parts, a podcast about the process of writing erotica with Nobilis Reed, Ann Regantin and Helen E. H. Madden

Recommended reading on “crip drag”:

Where Are All the People With Disabilities? by s.e. smith at this ain’t livin’

And if this keeps up, there won’t be any by Anna at FWD/Forward

Glee: “That’s why we call it dismissing legitimate concerns instead of acting” by Anna at FWD/Forward

Trans(re)lating 006: A Response to Trans Film with Nobilis Reed, Part 1