{"id":34616,"date":"2020-12-06T23:14:03","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T07:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=34616"},"modified":"2020-12-06T23:14:03","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T07:14:03","slug":"trans-visibility-on-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2020\/12\/06\/trans-visibility-on-tv\/","title":{"rendered":"Trans Visibility on TV"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ellen Page <\/strong>is now Elliot Page<\/strong>.  And Elliot is not only transgender, but also nonbinary.  \u201cI love that I am trans.  And I love that I am queer.\u201d  While I applaud this, it also confuses me \u2013 because some people are criticized if you use a trans person\u2019s so-called \u201cdead\u201d name.  I am quick to point out that Elliot didn\u2019t appear in Juno<\/em><\/strong> and get an Oscar <\/em>nomination \u2013 Ellen did.  It\u2019s like when Caitlyn Jenner <\/strong>posed with those Olympic <\/em>medals \u2013 which I believe Bruce <\/strong>won.  Anyway, Page (first name redacted) added this: \u201cThe truth is, despite feeling profoundly happy right now and knowing how much privilege I carry, I am also scared.  I\u2019m scared of the invasiveness, the hate, the \u2018jokes\u2019, and the violence.\u201d  Well, that takes the wind out of the sails of this item.<\/p>\n

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When I saw the first episode of the reboot of Saved by the Bell<\/em><\/strong>, I was shocked \u2013 shocked at how awful it was.  But I was triple shocked by Josie Totah<\/strong>, who plays mean girl Lexi.  What shocked me first was how fantastic she was \u2013 but I\u2019ve always had a penchant for mean girls.  Then I was shocked when her character announced that she was trans \u2013 I had no idea.  Then I was shocked one last time when I learned that Josie is trans in real life \u2013 where have I been?  Regardless, I say, \u201cGood for her\u201d.  She not only had a hand in shaping her character\u2019s narrative, she\u2019s also a producer on the show.  And, thus far, she is the only \u2013 and I do mean ONLY \u2013 reason to tune in.<\/p>\n

I was thrilled to see Alexandra Billings <\/strong>on The Conners<\/em><\/strong> last week.  The trans actress plays a trans character who is a supervisor at the factory where Becky works.  She was really terrific \u2013 and I\u2019m thrilled to announce it wasn\u2019t just some one-and-done scene.  She\u2019s gonna be around for a while.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s J.J. Hawkins <\/strong>\u2013 another trans actor \u2013 who has been cast as a trans college student on Charmed<\/em><\/strong>.  One of the trades reported the news this way: \u201cThis is another step forward in authentic representation with a trans actor playing a trans role.  The news of Hawkins\u2019 casting doesn’t come at a better time considering this week marks Trans Awareness Week<\/em>.\u201d  What I find more important than the casting is that all of these trans characters are showing up matter-of-factly in high-profile shows.  Well, some high-profile shows.  And Charmed<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ellen Page is now Elliot Page.  And Elliot is not only transgender, but also nonbinary.  \u201cI love that I am trans.  And I love that I am queer.\u201d  While I applaud this, it also confuses me \u2013 because some people are criticized if you use a trans person\u2019s so-called \u201cdead\u201d name.  I am quick to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34616"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34617,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34616\/revisions\/34617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}