TV Landscape Changing for Transgender Characters

Both Dirty Sexy Money and Big Shots also make use of the slang “tranny”, a word of great offense to many in the transgender community that is akin to what the “F” word is for many gay men. However, in Dirty Sexy Money the word is used neither so frequently nor so mean-spiritedly as it is in Big Shots which includes characters saying things like “You got a knobber from a tranny?” and “Track down the tranny,” usually accompanied by a smirk or laughter. At one point, a character also laughingly refers to Dontrelle as “half a woman.”

In Dirty Sexy Money, the word is used by Nick George (Peter Krause) when he learns about the affair between Patrick and Carmelita. While the word may still be considered offensive, George uses it in anger and surprise at George’s affair. It is never used as part of a joke or something to laugh at. The fact the affair is with a transgender woman is treated neither humorously nor as something made worse because Carmelita was born a man.

Dialogue is used to indicate many things about characters, including whether they are likable, brave, self-aware and so forth. It could be argued that by using the word “tranny” in such a derogatory fashion, Big Shots is trying to tell viewers something negative about the four male leads who use the word. But given that the show is touted as a Sex and the City for men, it seems doubtful audiences are supposed to view the characters portrayed by Dylan McDermott, Michael Vartan, Joshua Malina, and Christopher Titus as anything other than likable.

In regards to using the word “tranny”, Keisling believes it “…is a word that non-transgender people should not use and transgender people probably should move away from as well, but it varies a lot. It’s a challenging word for us to hear.” When she hears the word on television, Keisling said her reaction is “to cringe. ”

Cayne has a different take on the use of the word. “I’m not turning it into the word ‘faggot’. I’m not giving it that much power. To me, it’s just a word. “

Keisling points to FX as the show with the best transgender character currently on the air. “The absolute best representation ever, the one that’s made me feel personally best is the child on The Riches. He’s shown as very human. His parents are supporting him one hundred percent. They don’t make a big deal out of it. It’s just part of his life.”

Ugly Betty’s storyline about Alex Meade becoming Alexis Meade (Rebecca Romijn) is another one Keisling feels television has got right. “I thought that character was really great. When she was having confrontations with her brother and he was saying horrible things, that felt real to me, like an honest depiction of what some trans people have to face with their relatives.”

But there is still much room for improvement elsewhere. When asked what advice she would give to a television writer considering adding a transgender character, she answered, “I’d love for some regular [occurring] characters. I’d stay away from framing the trans person as any kind of a deceiver. And I’d be very careful about the language. Use the word transgender — never with an ‘ed’ at the end. I wouldn’t want them to use the word tranny or all the other disparaging words like shemale and crap like that.”

But most of all Keisling looks forward to the day when transgender actors get to play non-trans roles. “I don’t think we win when we get to play trans characters. I think we win when we get to play non-trans characters. That’s the home run.”