I haven't had much in the line of "news" here lately (or much of anything, for that matter), but my latest news is this: I finally got to see that damned Taboo: Changing Gender episode that aired a little while ago but which I didn't see yet.
And it wasn't terrible, as transgender-related documentary shows go, but it was definitely a mixed bag. Here are my feelings about it.
The people featured most prominently include a transgender MTF/FTM couple named Ashley and Tony, Balian Buschbaum (FTM German pole vaulting champion), and Chris Tina Bruce (nonbinary AMAB woman who identifies as a "hybrid"). I remember they had a clip of Loren Cameron, too, that was from a different episode (Taboo has at least three episodes that have some sort of transgender or gender variant story).
I'm going to start with the bad parts because... well, I like the show Taboo and I'd rather leave this writing feeling OK about watching it. I don't know. Anyway, here we go:
First, there is a really heavy emphasis on surgery, as with most documentaries. Both of the trans men have had bottom surgery, and while this is much more common than I think most FTMs (at least newer ones) recognize, it still paints a very genital-centered portrait of transgender life. Ashley and Tony's story is hinged on helping each other get through hormones and surgery. Then there's Balian, gushing over his new penis. All love to Balian, but really?
Now, it's not like this isn't an important part of transgender lives, but it's such a documentary trope at this point that putting most of your effort into talking about surgery and genitals is just a let-down.
Then there is the focus on appearance. In particular, Balian's section involved a talking head that was talking about so-called "genetically gifted" transgender men whose transitions give them "great beauty." The first thing I thought about after seeing this was that loathsome "Obesity Research Institute" and the commercials proclaiming that body fat is "unattractive." Normative statements being presented by experts and "experts."
The worse part is that seriously, this is most of what I can remember about the episode. Talking about surgery and looks. Which is I guess what most cis people are looking for, but can't a guy hope there will be at least one popular portrayal that isn't like that?
Finally, and this is pretty much a universal concern that deals with the several shows dealing with transgenderism on Taboo, not enough racial diversity. People of color who would qualify as transgender or gender variant are usually selected from non-Western cultures for the exotic appeal... so yeah, we get hijras and kathoeys and what-not, but we forget that there are trans people of color here, too.
Still, a pretty standard transgender documentary, but there was one thing about it I liked a lot, which was the inclusion of a nonbinary person from a Western culture... most of the time it's like they seek out third gender or alternative gender categories from other cultures, again, for the exotic appeal, but sort of imply that in the West you're going to stick to male or female. It also interests me that this person is AMAB (assigned male at birth), but I guess that could be a cultural bias on my part: Maybe because I am FTM or maybe because there is more tolerance of AFAB androgyny, most genderqueer/nonbinary people I meet are AFAB, and often to the exclusion of AMAB nonbinary persons. Then again, though, I haven't seen AFAB nonbinary persons in a large, cis-targeted documentary series, either.
I actually just really liked Chris Tina Bruce's section altogether because she does break some of the established tropes of cis-targeted documentary filmmaking... she isn't gung-ho about surgery, she isn't trying to be a stereotype, and she at least seems to be very happy with who she is.
If I were to give a grade to this, I'd say it's better than a lot of cis-targeted transgender films out there, but it still plays in to a lot of the "standards."
