Transgender on Screen PDF
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Transgender on Screen John Phillips Transgender on Screen ‘Offers progressive views on the complex phenomenon of transgender as represented in popular culture from mainstream cinema to the Internet. Supported with up-to-date thinking tools, the study concludes on the potential impact of transgender on the reshaping of desire. Truly an eye opener on the subject.’ Gaëtan Brulotte, Distinguished University Professor, University of South Florida, Tampa ‘As Phillips rightly asserts in this study, the considerable cinematic and cultural exposure of transgender in recent years is largely unmatched by serious scholarly criticism of these representations and discourses. This highly readable and lucid book, wide-ranging in its coverage and eclectic in its theoretical approach, constitutes a significant step towards redressing the balance. Phillips’s work offers a timely and essential contribution to the fields of interdisciplinary sexuality studies and film criticism.’ Dr Lisa Downing, Reader in French Discourses of Sexuality, Queen Mary, University of London ‘In this fascinating exploration, John Phillips proves that transgender is central to understanding contemporary problems with sexuality and gender. By using cultural theory to examine visual staples from cinema and the Internet, Phillips has created a remarkably clear and to the point work. Phillips’s incisive examination illuminates the politics behind transgender and points toward ways that we can escape from binary fixity, anxiety, and guilt. He teaches that learning to come to terms with the laughter and revulsion that transgender inspires means coming to terms with the modern age.’ Dr Lisa Z. Sigel, Depaul University, Chicago ‘This is a book that needed to be written. John Phillips has found a topic that is both original and important and combines breadth with a clear focus. It should therefore appeal to a wide audience without diminishing or trivialising the potential subversiveness of its material … it will make a valuable contribution not only to gender and representation but also to social and cultural studies.’ Dr Owen Heathcote,Reader in French Studies, Bradford University, UK Transgender on Screen John Phillips © JOHN PHILLIPS 2006 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2006 978-1-4039-1242-8 All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced,copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988,or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,90 Tottenham Court Road,London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2006 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills,Basingstoke,Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St.Martin’s Press,LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States,United Kingdom and other countries.Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-4039-1243-5 ISBN 978-0-230-59633-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230596337 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Phillips,John,1950- Transgender on screen / John Phillips. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4039-1242-4 (cloth) – ISBN 978-1-4039-1243-2 (paper) 1.Transvestism in motion pictures.2.Transsexuals in motion pictures.3.Internet pornography.I.Title. PN1995.9.T69P35 2006 791.43(cid:2)653–dc22 2006043198 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment; for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God. (Deuteronymy, 22:5) ... there is no way to think dominant culture without transgender ... To cross from one gender to another may suggest that those genders are in place, have their place, prior to the possibility of crossing. But there is no acquisition of gender without such a crossing, a dangerous crossing into cultural norms that brings both pleasure and fear. (Judith Butler, Afterword, SexualitiesVol. 1(3), 355, 359) This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgements viii 1 Introduction 1 2 Transgender in the Historical Imagination 30 3 Cross-dressing in Film Comedy 51 4 Psycho–Trans 85 5 Drama Queens and Macho Men 115 6 Walking on the Wild Side: Shemale Internet Pornography 147 7 Representation and Reality 165 Notes 174 Bibliography 184 Index 192 vii Acknowledgements This book was completed with the aid of an Arts and Humanities Research Council award, which matched funding from my employ- ers, London Metropolitan University, to give me a six-month sabbat- ical leave in 2005. I am grateful to both institutions for their support. A longer version of Chapter 6 first appeared in International Exposure. Perspectives on Modern European Pornography, 1800–2000, edited by Lisa Z. Sigel (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005). My thanks to Lisa Sigel and the publishers for permission to reproduce this essay here with some revisions. Nearly fifteen years ago, Camille Paglia (1992: 99) wrote ‘The time is right for a major scholarly book on transvestism that would speak in lucid, sensible language to a general audience.’ I am far from sure that this modest contribution to the subject lives up to Paglia’s high standards, but I have tried to make it readable for the general audi- ence she rightly identifies as the only one that really matters. viii 1 Introduction This first detailed study of screen representations of transgender has the following main aims: • To demonstrate that perceptions of transgender are mediated by culturally constructed images. • To explore these cultural representations of transvestism and trans- sexuality in modern (late twentieth century) screen media (film, Internet), against the historical background of the evolution ofsuch representations. • To identify and account for the ambivalence that underlies the depiction of transgender in modern film. • To reposition and redefine sexual desire against sexual fascination with transgender. Not merely a topic of intellectual debate in universities and academic writings, transgender has become a major preoccupation in western culture. In the mid-1970s, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Lou Adler, 1975),a drag version of earlier science-fiction films, stimulated a fash- ionable interest in cross-dressing that influenced rock-stars and other icons of popular culture in the 1980s and 1990s, from David Bowie and Boy George to Divine, Ru Paul, and many others. This trend has continued into the new millennium. Among recent instances, an Israeli male-to-female transsexual, Dana International won the Euro- vision Song Contest in 2001, a Spanish male-to-female transsexual, Nadia, won the UK reality TV show, Big Brotherin 2004, the UK’s lead- ing TV soap-opera, Coronation Street has for several years featured a 1
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