Gender Stereotypes In Film

Throughout our lives, we gather inspiration from characters in films and TV shows, but imagine turning on your television one day only to find that there aren’t any characters that you can relate to. Unfortunately, this is a reality for transgendered men and women who are massively underrepresented in mainstream media. When trans characters are shown in the media, they are either forced into harmful stereotypes, or they are being portrayed by cisgender actors who know nothing about the struggles of that community, therefore giving inaccurate depictions of what it is like to be trans. Due to the exclusion from mainstream media, this lack of representation could be especially toxic towards transgendered youth. I believe that the media could provide positive representation for this community by broadening roles for transgendered characters and enlisting actual Tran’s actors to portray these roles. Recently, many films have been released that aim to tell the story of a transgendered person, films such as The Danish Girl and About Ray. And although the film maker’s intentions seem to be positive, a lot of them have underlying motives. Gaby Dellal, the director of About Ray, a film about a female transitioning into a male,

When a transgendered person is shown on television, they’re forced into tiny stereotypes such as; the punchline of a joke, a sex worker, or a dead body. Popular shows that have wide audiences are guilty of enabling these stereotypes. Since 2002 there has been a 54% rating of a negative depiction of Tran’s characters in television, in contrast to a 35% rating that was considered ‘suitable’ content, and a tiny 12% rating that was considered inspiring and positive. This is damaging to the transgendered youth and can cause them to refrain from fully transitioning due to a lack of hope for their future as their desired