Facultat de Filosofia i Lletres
Memòria del Treball de Fi de Grau
Vindicating Transgender Visibility in the American Film Industry: An Analysis on Tangerine (2015)
and Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen (2020)
Paula López Femenías Grau d’Estudis Anglesos
Any acadèmic 2020-21
DNI de l’alumne: 43479448H
Treball tutelat per Patricia Bastida Rodríguez
Departament de Filología Española, Moderna y Clásica
S'autoritza la Universitat a incloure aquest treball en el Repositori Institucional per a la seva consulta en accés obert i difusió en línia, amb finalitats exclusivament acadèmiques i d'investigació
Autor Tutor
Sí No Sí No
Paraules clau del treball:
Tangerine, Disclosure, transgender, visibility, transphobia.
Abstract
Ever since transgender individuals started to appear on screen, they have been subjected to a series of harmful stereotypes that have become socially assumed. In order to put an end to decades of marginalization and prejudice, cultural products such as Tangerine (Baker 2015) and Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen (Feder 2020), aim not only to provide the transgender community with accurate visibility, but also to make audiences reflect on the fact that this specific group is still under oppression. Thus, the visibility that these two cultural products provide acts as a first step into achieving an inclusive society in which transgender individuals can feel included and protected. Nevertheless, giving visibility to the transgender community has been proven to be both highly beneficial but also extremely dangerous for the acts of violence that it implies. The aim of this dissertation is to prove that Tangerine and Disclosure contribute to visibilize the community in mainly similar ways. However, there are a few differences between the products that alter this similarity, and that are crucial when considering a comparison between them. Accordingly, these aspects are going to be further stated and explained in the final conclusions of the paper. By using several scenes, conversations and interviews related to the two analysed products, this dissertation is going to discuss how both the independent film Tangerine and the documentary film Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen contribute to the visibility of transgender identities and experiences.
Key words: Tangerine, Disclosure, transgender, visibility, transphobia.
Table of contents
1. Introduction……….1
2. Tangerine (Baker 2015)………..3
3. Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen (Feder 2020)………...8
4. Conclusion………13
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1. Introduction
The term transgender appears as an adjective in the Oxford English Dictionary with the following definition: “Designating a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond to that person’s sex at birth, or which does not otherwise conform to conventional notions of sex and gender” (Oxford English Dictionary 2021). Therefore, this word can be considered as an umbrella term in which several gender non-conforming identities are included. The appearance of this inclusive term as it is understood in contemporary times, has been attributed to the year 1990 (Stryker 2008, 123), in which its coinage pretended to attain
“rights and visibility for diverse cross-gender identities” (Cano 2014, 180). However, it has been precisely the defiance of socially accepted gender conventions what has made transgender individuals vulnerable to marginalization historically. Therefore, the fight against transgender oppression started in the 1950s when different uprisings started to take place in America. In 1959, the Cooper Do-nuts incident took place in Los Angeles (Stryker 2008, 60). Similarly in 1966, the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot originated in San Francisco (Stryker 2008, 64), and in 1969 the Stonewall Riots in New York (Stryker 2008, 152). Transgressive in their time, these riots inspired many transgender individuals to not only fight for their rights and visibility, but also against transphobia and prejudice.
The media coverage of transgender individuals started in 1952 with Christine Jorgensen, an American transgender actress that became famous for having received the first successful sex reassignment surgery in the United States (Stryker 2008, 47). Her story attracted the nation’s attention at the time, establishing the foundations of transgender visibility in America.
While there is no denial of Jorgensen’s essential contribution, some scholars have argued how her whiteness and femininity played a crucial role in her journey to becoming a renowned celebrity: “Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was those transwomen (primarily Jorgensen) depicted with the most proximity to white womanhood, who gained the most visibility in the mainstream press and whose stories therefore came to define the boundaries of “transsexual” identity”
(Skidmore 2011, 271). However, the embodiment of socially accepted gender roles by white transgender women was not enough to fight against transphobia at the time. Jorgensen herself, received several threats when her story became famous, an unfortunate but frequent consequence of the attempt on the part of transgender individuals to attain visibility.
Once transgender individuals made it to the American film industry, they only appeared subjected to a series of negative stereotypes: “Cinematic representations of transgender characters have been notorious for their portrayals of the transgendered as psychotic serial
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killers or as figures of fun and comic relief” (Rigney 2003, 4). For instance, Judith of Bethulia (1914), “one of the earliest feature-length silent films” (Haynes 2020, n.p.) featured a gender non-conforming character that appeared involved in a violent scene. Later films such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) or The Silence of the Lambs (1991), were the ones that started to portray transgender individuals as mentally ill or killers (Rigney 2003, n.p.), perpetuating inaccurate tropes that still can be found in contemporary cultural products. On a similar note, films such as Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) represented transgender individuals as jokesters.
It is worth mentioning how the American film industry has historically marginalized transgender individuals of colour to a greater extent than their white counterparts. This issue arises from the history of racism in America, and the consequent discrimination against individuals of colour. The absence of Phillip DeVine’s death in Boys Don’t Cry (1999) precisely illustrates the historical erasure of Black individuals in the industry, an issue that has been actively denounced by scholars (Snorton 2017, 178). When considering the prejudice against transgender individuals of colour in film, the term intersectionality coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 (Phoenix and Pattynama 2006, 187), comes into play. It has been defined as:
“[A] nodal point than as a closed system—a gathering place for open-ended investigations of the overlapping and conflicting dynamics of race, gender, class, sexuality, nation, and other inequalities” (Lykke cited in Cho, Crenshaw, and McCall 2013, 788). Therefore, this term implies how the gender/race dichotomy plays a major role in the discrimination against racialized transgender individuals, since apart from being oppressed for their gender identity, their race aggravates the situation.
This paper examines the representation of transgender identities in the US media by focusing on the analysis of the independent film Tangerine (Baker 2015) and the documentary film Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen (Feder 2020), which aim to visibilize and prioritize transgender voices and experiences. Visibility for the community works as a crucial first step towards a much-needed social change, and that is precisely what these two cultural products try to achieve. Moreover, the aim of this dissertation is to critically analyse Tangerine and Disclosure in order to prove that they contribute to visibilize the community in mainly similar ways. However, even if these two products tackle alike issues, they differ in aspects such as the platforms in which they were released. Although the differences may appear insignificant, they need to be addressed in order to elaborate a proper comparison of the two cultural products. In order to do so, this paper is going to rely on specific scenes and conversations of the two products, along with interviews that were made to their participants. These are going to be explored considering insightful contributions of scholars from Gender Studies, Transgender
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Studies, Intersectional Studies, Queer Studies, Media Studies and Film Studies, along with those from relevant social activists within the transgender community. By focusing first on the analysis of Tangerine, followed by the one on Disclosure, a chronological sequence is going to be used in order to contextualize the products within their respective years. By analyzing the various ways in which the two products visibilize the transgender community, this paper is going to examine how the film Tangerine and the documentary film Disclosure, contribute to the visibility of transgender identities and experiences.
2. Tangerine (Baker 2015)
2015 has been considered the year of trans visibility (Taylor 2015, n.p.). Several transgender individuals started to get more recognition and appearances in various platforms such as renowned magazine covers, television series, films, and other forms of media. For instance, the transgender actress Laverne Cox who became extremely famous for her paper in the well- known television series Orange Is the New Black (2013), was one of the first transgender women to appear in renowned magazines such as People (Taylor 2015, n.p.). Consequently, Cox can be considered one of the pioneering transgender women to attain media recognition in the 21st century. Similarly, Caitlyn Jenner became the center of attention in 2015 when she gave an interview in which she identified as transgender, and later for her appearance in the Vanity Fair magazine cover (Lovelock 2017, 675). On a similar note, television series such as Becoming Us (2015) and Transparent (2015) along with reality shows such as I am Jazz (2015), featured several transgender individuals which greatly favored the community’s representation.
When it comes to transgender visibility in the American film industry, the independent film Tangerine has been considered one of the most remarkable cultural products that came out in this pioneering year. Directed by Sean Baker and starring the black transgender actresses Kitana Kiki Rodríguez and Mya Taylor, Tangerine depicts the twenty-four-hour journey of Sin- Dee (Kikitana Kiki Rodríguez), a transgender sex worker that is trying to find her boyfriend and the girl he has been cheating with. Parallel to Sin-Dee’s mission, the film also depicts the day of Alexandra (Mya Taylor), another transgender sex worker and Sin-Dee’s best friend.
One of the main reasons why Tangerine has been considered to be a revolutionary cultural product in terms of transgender visibility lies behind the casting of Rodríguez and Taylor as protagonists of the film. The fact that the two of them are real transgender women of color that have a past as sex workers, provides the film with a realist approach that Baker wanted to achieve at all costs: “We wanted to capture real street realities” (ScreenSlam 2015, 1:45).
Specifically, he wanted to focus on the areas of Santa Monica and Highland since apart from
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not being recurrent sets for films, they are known for the prostitution practices that take place there (Film at Lincoln Center 2015, 14:57). Additionally, Baker was extremely careful when trying to capture the reality of transgender women of color that engage in sex work. He and his co-writer, Chris Bergoch, did not only listen to both the protagonists and other transgender women experiences, but they also paid special attention to ensure that the opinions and suggestions of the protagonists were satisfied at all times: “We were two cisgender white guys from outside that world, so we did not want to in any way go in there with a script. We wanted to figure it out once we immersed ourselves” (Film at Lincoln Center 2015, 15:52).
Accordingly, the humorous component of the film was Taylor’s own suggestion since, as she states in an interview, it has always been a coping mechanism for her and for other women of color that work in the streets (Film at Lincoln Center 2015, 20:21). In fact, Baker realized while considering this suggestion, that he was originally intending to adopt a more serious tone for the film, a common approach that is often used to depict transgender lives and experiences in media. Taylor’s proposal helped not only to leave behind the stereotypical “victimhood narrative” (Capuzza and Spencer 2017, 226) for this film, but it also showed how humour is pivotal within the community as a way to cope with reality: “My approach I thought was what might have been more of a plight type of film going in, and not really using the humour that I saw these women use themselves to cope every day. Then I realized how right [Maya] was”
(Film at Lincoln Center 2015, 21:25). Baker’s decision to let Kiki and Maya decide how the plot and the dynamics of the film would take place was immensely transgressive since transgender women of colour have usually been marginalized and erased within the American film industry. The active participation of the two actresses in the decision-making processes of the film helped to symbolically grant the black transgender community with a position of power.
The raw and harsh depiction of transphobia in Tangerine is another key factor that contributes to the realist approach of the film. Based mainly on the actresses own hardships and struggles, the most obvious depiction of transphobia in the film is the fact that the protagonists engage in sex work in order to make a living and avoid poverty. As Taylor recounts with her own experience: “I did sex work because I couldn’t get a job. Before my transition of course I had many jobs […] I actually caught people discriminating against me post-transition” (Film at Lincoln Center 2015, 26:20). She adds: “I did twenty-six interviews in one month, and I did not get one job at all. It was all due to the fact that I looked like a girl but my name on my driver’s license didn’t say a girl’s name or a girl’s gender because I didn’t have enough money to pay and get it done” (Film at Lincoln Center 2015, 27:14). Consequently, with the lack of economic
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stability, the pressure to fit into socially imposed gender roles becomes even harder for transgender women. The payment for name and gender changes in identity documents, hormones, sex reassignment surgeries and many other feminization procedures are also another reason why many transgender women are forced to work in the streets. Therefore, throughout the film, Sin-Dee and Alexandra are constantly referring to their transitioning process in a derogatory way. When the two protagonists appear for the first time on scene, they comment on each other’s journey with female hormones. Sin-Dee praises Alexandra for finally having developed breasts, but Alexandra only seems to focus on the parts of her body that she still considers as masculine (Baker 2015, 01:28). Similarly in another scene, Sin-Dee rejects her genitalia: “God gave me a penis. That is pretty damn cruel don’t you think?” (Baker 2015, 10:07) since she believes that only individuals with vaginas can be considered as real women.
The binary conception of gender leads transgender women into thinking that their body features are not valid. The pressure to appear as feminine as possible forces many of them to risk their own quality of life for the sake of fitting into socially imposed gender roles.
Likewise, other forms of transphobia are accurately depicted in the film. The scene in which Alexandra is robbed by one of her clients after finishing her job is something that Taylor experimented herself while on duty (Film at Lincoln Center 2015, 21:50), a consequence of the prejudice against transgender women that aggravates if they are racialized sex workers (Sausa, Keatley and Operario 2007, 768). Another shocking scene in which transphobia is performed by prostitution clients is when Sin-Dee is thrown a cup of urine by a group of men. This is another event that Taylor experienced while she was a sex worker, inspiring Baker into incorporating it to the film (Film at Lincoln Center 2015, 21:17). Similarly, there are a great deal of transphobic comments in different scenes of the film. The protagonists are addressed with derogatory nicknames such as “tranny faggot” (Baker 2015, 1:23:22) and “gay prostitutes”
(1:11:24). They are also made fun of for their appearance: “He’s going to rip that cheap ass wig off your head” (Baker 2015, 42:34), and misgendered often: “Oh, my God…these are men”
(1:10:45). These kind of transphobic actions against the transgender community were included by the director in the film in order to illustrate the rough treatment to which transgender individuals are often exposed to on daily basis, which once again emphasizes the realist component in Tangerine.
A low budget was the main reason why Tangerine was recorded with a total of three iPhones 5s. However, these recording devices contributed to the portrayal of a particular kind of realism that is known in Cinema Studies as aesthetically motivated realism, which according to Susan Hayward (2000, 311) “attempts to use the camera in a non-manipulative fashion and
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considers the purpose of realism in its ability to convey a reading of reality, or several readings even.” It is precisely the effect of using a conventional iPhone camera that allowed the actresses to feel much more comfortable while recording, and that allowed audiences to reflect on the issues of the film to a greater extent. Nevertheless, processes that were done in post-production such as colour editing, altered in a way the realist approach of the film. According to Malone (2020, 70):
[T]he clarity and precision of the images in Tangerine do not necessarily correspond to viewers’ sense that what they are seeing is real, given the oversaturation of the image and close shots defy what viewers expect out of a realist film. In fact, the unusual colours give off a kind of other-worldly, dreamy quality to parts of the movie, which destabilises the audience’s sense of reality.
What Malone argues is that a film that portrays transgender individuals and their realities does not necessarily need to be “gritty, washed out, or documentary-like” (Malone 2020, 74) in order to connect with the audience, it can also be “colorful, beautiful, crystal clear, close-up, and dreamy” (Malone 2020, 74). This mixture is what the director and editor of Tangerine achieved, a realist film that presents accurate transgender representation, mixed with a kind of editing that dissociates audiences at the same time. This association ought not to be understood as obscure or contradicting, but as an emerging way of “artistic and gender expression” (Malone 2020, 74).
There is no denying so far that Tangerine is a transgressive film on its own. However, this statement is made even more apparent when this film is compared with others that came out the same year and that show many problematic and controversial issues. Accordingly, The Danish Girl (2015) based on Lili Elbe’s real transitioning story, was not only highly criticized for inaccurately portraying several historical events, but also for the cast that was chosen for the film. The character of Lili was interpreted by Eddie Redmayne, a cisgender actor, a common decision that has many negative consequences for the transgender community. The most obvious consequence is the lack of employment for transgender actors and actresses. As Cáel M. Keegan (2016, 51) argues: “LGBTQ film roles are written for straight and cisgender (i.e.
non-transgender) actors who might win awards, while queer and transgender actors struggle to get work.” Another consequence is the creation of stereotypes that commonly arise from both featuring cisgender actors and directors in transgender themed films. It is for this reason that transgender women are usually portrayed performing their femininity in an exaggerated way.
In the case of The Danish Girl (2015) as Carol Grant (2015, n.p.) argues: “Like Redmayne, Hooper exaggerates and conflates feminine imagery to the point of parodizing them. His camera
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doesn’t linger, or observe, or examine—it leers.” What Grant also suggests is the evident cisgender gaze that operates in the film which has, as a consequence, the failure at portraying Lili Elbe’s story accurately (Grant 2015, n.p.).
Other 2015 films that were controversial for either casting cisgender actors or excluding the transgender community are 3 Generations (2015) and Stonewall (2015). The film 3 Generations (2015) includes a trans masculine character named Ray that was interpreted by a cisgender actress named Elle Fanning, a decision that was not publicly acclaimed (Simon 2017, n.p.). As for the case of Stonewall (2015), it was highly controversial since it erased crucial figures that took part in the Stonewall riots such as several transgender women (Juzwiak 2015, n.p.).
Overall, it has been argued how Tangerine accurately visibilizes the transgender community, through innovative formulas and its realist plot. Nevertheless, some critics have argued that the film presents problematic traits that need to be analysed in order to make a proper evaluation of it. For instance, the main issue that critics pointed out is that Sin-Dee appears as a violent character, since she inflicts violence over Dinah, the girl that has been sleeping with her boyfriend (Zoller 2015, n.p.). The portrayal of Sin-Dee is indeed negative and stereotypical, but only to a certain extent. The audience needs to consider how this issue appears as balanced in the movie when Sin-Dee and Dinah finally come to terms with each other and are able to reach a mutual understanding (Zoller 2015, n.p.). Similarly, the beautiful depiction of Sin-Dee and Alexandra’s friendship contributes to the audience’s perception of Sin-Dee as an emotional character. Another issue that critics have pointed out about Tangerine is how it supposedly perpetuates the stereotype of transgender individuals as sex workers (Juzwiak 2015, n.p.). This argument debunks itself considering that the two protagonists do not have enough economic stability to survive, and need to engage in the sex work industry precisely for that reason. Additionally, the film accurately portrays the sex worker-client relationship of abuse and violence, unlike other films. Several scenes in Tangerine show this aspect, such as Alexandra being robbed by a client or Sin-Dee being thrown a cup of urine at her face. Lastly, the fact that Sean Baker and his film crew were all essentially white cisgender men was also seen as problematic (Juzwiak 2015, n.p.). Even if there is no denial that the director and his crew are obviously subjected to a position of power, it has been argued how the film is not based on their own assumptions, but instead, the plot and creative process relied on the opinions and stories of the transgender individuals that participated in the film. As the critic Manohla Dargis (2015, n.p.) argues: “Mr. Baker hasn’t simply looked in a mirror for his inspiration, but into that infinite word of possibility that is other people.” What is more, Baker has constantly
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referred to his privileged position as a white cisgender man, an aspect that is rarely acknowledged by other white cisgender directors and filmmakers. Therefore, it can be said that Tangerine accurately reinforces transgender visibility and that it can be considered as an exemplary transgender cultural product.
3. Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen (Feder 2020)
In the five-year span that took place between 2015 and 2020, the representation of transgender individuals in the film industry and in media increased. TV series such as Pose (2018), and Euphoria (2019) were a complete success which highly benefited the transgender community in terms of visibility. However, the increasing appearances of transgender characters entailed terrible consequences. 2020 has gone down in history as one of the deadliest years for the transgender community since it was reported that at least 37 transgender individuals were killed in the US, most of them being Black (Roberts 2020, n.p.). Therefore, visibility for the transgender community appears as a double-edged sword, that allows transgender individuals to be represented, but it also entails the subsequent acts of violence the community has to endure. This contradiction is studied in detail in Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility (2017). This critical anthology presents the dichotomy of visibility and violence as a paradox, in which the opportunities that visibility brings such as “entrances to visibility, to resources, to recognition, and to understanding” (Gossett, Stanley, and Burton 2017, xxiii) are referred as “doors”, and the consequences that this visibility implies as “traps”
(Gossett, Stanley, and Burton 2017, xxiii). Accordingly, in order to put an end to this paradox, the community needs the direct implication and protection of powerful institutions such as governments. However, the relationship between transgender individuals and governments has historically been one of struggle. It was precisely in the 2020 American context, when several bills passed by the Trump Administration highly marginalized the transgender community, being the first two the most controversial. The first one allowed health care institutions to deny services to transgender individuals (Romero 2020, n.p.) and the second one hindered the community’s access to homeless shelters (Cole 2020, n.p.). Consequently, with the lack of the government’s protection, transgender individuals had to experience a major reduction of their rights back in 2020. However, the election of Joe Biden as the new president of the United States restored hope within the transgender community. Biden became the first president in history to mention the community in a victory speech (Kitchener 2020, n.p.). The president also
“acknowledged the unique struggles that transgender people face[d] throughout his campaign, specifically calling out the disproportionately high death rate for transgender women of color”
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(Kitchener 2020, n.p.) and he then “promised to reverse President Trump’s policies that threaten the rights of LGBTQ populations” (Kitchener 2020, n.p.). According to many LGBTQ activists, Biden generally accomplished many of his promises in the first 100 days of his presidency, but many others still felt like he was not doing enough (Yurcaba 2021, n.p.). Therefore, even if powerful figures such as Biden are starting to give more recognition to the community, granting transgender individuals with positions of power is essential to not only act as representatives of the community, but also to change the system from within.
It goes without saying that Disclosure was released in a turbulent year for the transgender community. Aiming to promote positive and accurate visibility, the Netflix documentary film analyses and criticizes the depiction of the transgender community in Hollywood. By offering a substantial number of clips from different American films, TV series and talk shows such as The Flip Wilson Show (1970), Victor/Victoria (1982), The Crying Game (1992), Dallas Buyers Club (2013) and many more, the documentary denounces years of inaccurate representation from the first portrayals of transgender individuals to contemporary ones.
There are several reasons why Disclosure was highly acclaimed by critics. One of them lies in the fact that every participant that took part in the project was either transgender or identified as non-binary (Barquin 2020, n.p.). With a cast of over thirty influential actresses and actors, historians, journalists, writers and many more, Disclosure is an inclusive project in which transgender individuals are given the main voice (Barquin 2020, n.p.). A connection with the film Tangerine can be observed since both cultural products were able to prioritize transgender voices and experiences. However, Disclosure appears as the most inclusive product, since not only the cast was transgender but also the crew behind the scenes. An additional transgressive element of the documentary film is the fact that it featured transgender individuals from diverse races, most of them being Black, Asian, and White. It was precisely this choice which made Disclosure an intersectional product in which different variables such as race, sexuality and gender appear as interconnected. As the film critic Tre’vell Anderson points out: “One of the things that I love so much about the film is the ways in which it kind of pairs transphobia with racism” (Netflix 2020, 7:32). Therefore, elements such as the problematic usage of blackface in films such as Birth of a Nation (1915) and A Florida Enchantment (1914) or the erasure of Asian-Americans transgender individuals from the film industry are discussed in the documentary. In comparison with Tangerine, there is more racial diversity in Disclosure, since not only black transgender individuals are featured.
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Transphobia is one of the most recurrent topics in Disclosure. It appears analysed in different ways, one of them being the real experiences of the cast with this prejudice. Laverne Cox is the first person in the documentary who shares how she experienced transphobia pre- transition: “I was so viciously harassed on the streets of New York early in my transition, and I would arm myself. It was warpaint, going out in the world and just wanting to feel at my very best because I knew I would be misgendered. I knew that I would immediately feel unsafe just walking down the street, and that was certainly the case” (Feder 2020, 33:26). Another experience is shared by the actress Jen Richards who recounts how she endured transphobia within her own family: “I had to be okay with my mom saying, ‘I will never call you Jen because Jen murdered my son’. I had to be okay […] in order to deal with not being able to see my grandma before she died because I could only come home if I dressed as a boy” (Feder 2020, 1:32:46). All these shared experiences prove that Disclosure favors a realist approach, since not only fictional stories are analysed, but also real ones. Additionally, transphobia is also mainly denounced in the documentary with the mentioning of transgender stereotypes that appear in different forms of media. Nick Adams summarizes the most common in one sentence: “That we are dangerous, that we are psychopaths, that we are serial killers, that we must be deviants or perverts” (Feder 2020, 17:20). Accordingly, the depiction of transgender individuals as killers in Alfred Hitchcock’s movies is mentioned: “Alfred Hitchcock seems to be obsessed with people who traverse gender stereotypes being murderers” (Feder 2020, 17:34). The different narratives in which transgender individuals are often depicted is also subjected to stereotypical assumptions. For instance, the problematic victim narrative in which transgender individuals usually die or are murdered is acknowledged in the documentary: “Unfortunately, Hollywood has spent many years especially on police shows and hospital shows, perpetrating the transgender victim narrative, and it usually falls into a couple of different tropes. One, someone is murdered because they are transgender. Or the other version, in the hospital drama, is they come into the ER, and their hormones are killing them” (Feder 2020, 38:01). On a similar note, Jane Richards also mentions the radical-feminist assumption that transgender women are performers of femininity who reinforce patriarchal stereotypes. She later argues how this conception is inaccurate by stating: “I think it is really unfair and ahistorical to foist the same perspective on people who are just trying to survive” (Feder 2020, 35:03). Finally, transphobia is also analysed with the casting of cisgender actors that interpret transgender characters:
Having cis men play trans women, in my mind, is a direct link to the violence against trans women. […] Part of the reason that men end up killing trans women out of fear that other men will think that they are gay for having been with trans women, is that the
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friends, the men whose judgement they fear of, only know trans women from media and the people who are playing trans women are the men that they know identities (Feder 2020, 1:01:48).
As in the case of Tangerine, Disclosure also deals with the transphobia that lays behind sex work. It is approached as a common trope that can be found in different forms of media in which transgender characters are often depicted as prostitutes. Accordingly, the documentary provides the audience with some data by mentioning a GLAAD study which concluded that
“the most common profession shown for a transgender character was sex worker” (Feder 2020, 36:18). Examples given in the documentary film that illustrate this issue are the films The 40- Year-Old Virgin (2005) and Blast from the Past (1999). However, sex work is also acknowledged as the only way transgender individuals often have to survive: “Many transgender women particularly, are pushed into sex work because of the unemployment discrimination […] three times the national average, and four times the national average if you are a trans person of colour” (Feder 2020, 36:28). What Disclosure (2020) finally concludes with this association is that when a transgender sex worker character appears in media, “no explanation is given as to why” (Feder 2020, 36:45) because it is assumed that “it is just what trans women do” (Feder 2020, 36:46). Similarly, feminization procedures are also mentioned in relation with prostitution: “The sex workers, who have to hyper-feminize their body in order to compete for clients in order to survive” (Feder 2020, 34:32). It is for all these reasons that the denouncing of transphobia in Disclosure appears as an essential trait of the documentary film which is both shown in fictional products and in real experiences.
The choosing of the documentary film format for Disclosure was not coincidental. Bill Nichols (2008, 1) mentions that “among the qualities that distinguish films considered documentary are: (1) explicit reference to the historical world that surrounds the film” and “(2) a persuasive effort that encourages viewers to see or understand some aspect of the actual world in a particular way” (Nichols 2008, 1), which is precisely what Disclosure does. It offers a historical insight on the representation of transgender individuals in Hollywood, and it forces the audience to reflect on the discrimination against the transgender community. Another trait about documentaries is that they call to action (Binns 2018, 69), which in the case of Disclosure is essentially shown in the last minutes of the documentary. Sentences such as “there is still a lot of work to do” (Feder 2020, 1:41:50), and “changing representation is not the goal, it is just the means to an end” (Feder 2020, 1:42:25) are aimed to encourage the audience into taking part in the fight for transgender rights.
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Among the many traits that reinforce transgender visibility in Disclosure, the streaming platform in which it was released plays a major role. Netflix is an American streaming company known as “the world’s leading Internet television network” (Burroughs 2018, 3). Transgender representation in this kind of globally known streaming companies is highly beneficial for the community since it reaches a wider audience. Furthermore, Netflix is known as the “most LGBTQ+ friendly source of TV” (Opie 2019, n.p.) since it contains a high number of characters belonging to this community. However, there has been ongoing debate on whether “the company genuinely cares for the queer community or simply saw a gap in the market it could fill” (Opie 2019, n.p.), suggesting that Netflix might be taking advantage of the poor LGBTQ+
representation in the industry. There is no denial however, that Netflix seems to portray LGBTQ+ characters in a positive way, avoiding the stereotypes which the community has been historically subjected to (Opie 2019, n.p.). It is for all these reasons that Disclosure has had an impact on the audience not only for the accurate visibility that it provides, but also for Netflix’s far-reaching effect.
The comparison of Disclosure with other transgender audio-visual products that came out in 2020 does not necessarily show a remarkable contrast as in the case of Tangerine.
Nevertheless, it goes without saying that Disclosure was by far the transgender themed documentary film with a major impact, and the most critically acclaimed in 2020. The fact that Disclosure was notably successful does not imply however, that other cultural products dealing with similar issues were not praised in the same year. The documentary film Transhood (2020) and the film Cowboys (2020) are the reflection of a substantial evolution in terms of accurate transgender visibility. Transhood (2020), is an HBO documentary film that follows the life of four transgender children in a span of 5 years. It received positive reviews since it realistically portrays the transition process of these children and shows how beneficial it is for them to have supportive parents (Haynes 2020, n.p.). Additionally, the characteristic call to action component of documentaries is also visible in this particular one: “Ultimately, the film is as much a call to action to advocate for legislation protecting trans rights as it is a portrayal of the complexity of transgender lives” (Haynes 2020, n.p.). Similarly, the film Cowboys (2020) shows the relationship between a transgender child and his parents. Joe, a transgender boy, escapes with his father to Montana, away from his unaccepting mother. The film portrays a kind of father-son relationship that, as in the case of Transhood (2020), shows the importance of having accepting parental figures for the transgender youth. Additionally, the casting of Sasha Knight, a transgender actor to portray the character of Joe, is one of the reasons why the movie can be considered as transgressive (Rooney 2020, n.p.). The overall positive reception
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that these cultural products had, show an evolution from those released in 2015, proving that transgender visibility has improved immensely. However, this positive representation is just the means to an end, since much more visibility for the transgender community needs to be achieved in years to come.
It has been argued how Disclosure, contributes in a beneficial way to transgender visibility. However, despite the overall audience and critic’s approval of the documentary film, there are certain critics such as Calden Mark Gardner who have pointed out that Disclosure lacks from important aspects that should have been included. He commented on the fact that the documentary lacks from a commentary on “how a film is cut, how a character is lit, how a camera is angled toward the trans character” (Gardner 2020, n.p.). However, Susan Stryker, although briefly, makes emphasis on the cinematic cut, and how it was used in the film Judith of Bethulia (1914). Gardner also mentions how the documentary does not include certain films, which makes it incomplete. He precisely comments on the absence of Tangerine in the documentary, stating that: “The absence of discussion about Tangerine in Disclosure, despite its wordless ending being briefly shown, remains perhaps one of the most inexplicable of Feder’s choices” (Gardner 2020, n.p.). Nevertheless, it is Gardner himself who acknowledges that the documentary “presents the trans film image strictly in terms of visibility” (Gardner 2020, n.p.) which is the main reason why the documentary was selected for this analysis. Thus, since Disclosure is the first documentary that aims for transgender visibility, it omits certain aspects such as film editing techniques or the inclusion of certain films, perhaps for the sake of not making it excessively extensive. These particular aspects can be further analysed in future cultural products dealing with similar issues.
4. Conclusion
As to conclude, it has been proven how both Tangerine and Disclosure, contribute to the visibility of the transgender community and experiences. Accordingly, it has been argued how they tackle and denounce similar topics such as transphobia and sex work. They both center the main voices on transgender individuals, being the case of Tangerine the most transgressive, since the director is a cisgender man. The aim of the two products seems to be the same as well, since apart from visibilizing the community, they clearly have the intention of making the audience reflect on the unfair treatment given to transgender individuals. The realist approach is shared in both products, since even though Tangerine is a film, it is mainly based on real experiences, and it portrays a realist plot. As in the case of Disclosure, the documentary film format also allowed the inclusion of real events, apart from the fictional ones. Furthermore,
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they share the transgressive trait since both products were influential within their respective years. However, the two products differ not only on the format, but also in equal conditions.
Considering that Tangerine is an independent film produced on a budget, it could not contribute to the visibility of the community in the same way as in the case of Disclosure, that benefited from an extremely famous streaming company. This aspect elevates Tangerine even more, since considering the year in which it came out and its lack of economic resources, the film is a groundbreaking product without a doubt. Thus, visibility for the transgender community has been proven to be on the rise. The new appearances of cultural products aiming to reinforce transgender visibility are necessary as a first step in order to erase all the stereotypes and prejudice that still affect transgender individuals.
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