Retro TV clips that will make you laugh and hiss.
“Tranny Fest 1998 Program.” Tranny Fest, November 1998. Personal Archives.
Marla Leech’s “Tranny TV” blitzes the audience with a collage of the good, the bad,
and the ugly portrayals of transgender persons on US TV. It treats us to the specter
of transexuals persuaded to come out to their boyfriends ‘live’ on “The Jerry Springer
Show,” and trannies as demented murderers as in “Psycho” and “Silence of the Lambs.”
Unfortunately these are not isolated representations, rather we regularly see transpersons
on prime time, presented in a formulaic way that humiliates and denies the complex
experience of being a transperson. “Tranny TV” also shows positive representations
of transpersons, portrayed not as objects of scorn, but as true subjects and participants
in a gender revolution that has the potential to free us all from the chains of a
deadly bipolar gender system. Begging for audience participation, Leech asks us to
consider what we think of as entertainment and at whose expense?
MacKenzie, Gordene, and Nancy Nangeroni. “Fighting For Our Own Reflection.” GenderTalk
(blog). Accessed December 9, 2023. https://www.gendertalk.com/fighting-for-our-own-reflection/.
