'If you don't "pass" as cis, you don't exist'. The trans audience's reproofs of 'Cis Gaze' and transnormativity in TV series

There are currently more trans characters than ever in television series, while at the same time scrutiny of trans people is intensifying in social and public debate, and the correspondence between this increased presence in the media and improvements in the trans community's rights is in dispu...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Villegas Simón, Isabel, Sánchez-Soriano, Juan-José, Ventura, Rafael
Format: article
Status:Versión aceptada para publicación
Publication Date:2023
Country:España
Institution:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repository:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10459.1/466935
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/02673231231163704
https://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/466935
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Estudios gais, lesbianos y trans
TV series
Estudis LGBT
Audience Studies
Description
Summary:There are currently more trans characters than ever in television series, while at the same time scrutiny of trans people is intensifying in social and public debate, and the correspondence between this increased presence in the media and improvements in the trans community's rights is in dispute. This research aims to find out how trans audiences relate to their portrayal in TV series, to learn about their perceptions and opinions, and to understand how these depictions affect their everyday lives. A qualitative analysis was conducted of 19 trans people in two focus groups and nine semi-structured interviews. The findings show that the participants perceive a clear distance between their realities and the most popular narratives about trans lives. They iden- tify cispassing as a transversal element that drives the production, creation, and distribution of media narratives, leading to a transnormative representation. Consequently, the trans audience demands the inclusion of trans people in the (audiovisual) cultural circuit in order to combat the 'cis gaze' and to create more diverse narratives.