Projecting Transness in European (TV) Series
E-Book, Englisch, 212 Seiten
ISBN: 978-3-593-44775-9
Verlag: Campus Verlag
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Kein
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Trans* Characters in French Series—An Obsolete yet Hegemonic Representation?
Karine Espineira Abstract
French series with trans* characters are rare and recent such as in Louis(e) (2017), Plus belle la vie (2018) and Demain, nous appartient (2019). This chapter examines how these characters are represented. In order to do so, it first undertakes a short comparative study with serial productions of other countries, including those of the United States, which serve as references for trans* presentation in French series. Then it examines the French national specificity, tracing a historical analysis of how transness has been modelled in the media since the popularisation of the trans* life experience at the beginning of the 20th century. By doing so, this contribution assesses the effects these popularisations have had in the construction of popular and media imaginaries in France and questions recent French cultural series that mobilise consensual and sometimes outdated models of transness. Beyond key scenes, this article focuses on the modelling process that constructs very normalised characters, which are more or less subversive in relation to gender and sexuality orders. The representation of trans* people in French television series is infrequent.12 To understand this recent and incipient representation, we need to return to the popularisation of the theme with a perspective between France and the unavoidable reference point represented by the United States. In 2014 and 2015, the French mainstream and specialised community press spoke of a “transgender wave in the media”13 symbolised by the recurrent use of two illustrations on now famous magazine covers: Time magazine with Laverne Cox (2014) and Vanity Fair with Caitlyn Jenner (2015). In the French context, the transgender theme seems to enter pop culture. In the first place, this contribution offers a review of the main stages of the popularisation of the transgender theme from a Francophone perspective. In a second part, we will share the transgender typologies in French series and fiction, updated by a study on the audiovisual corpus in the archives of the Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (INA) undertaken between 2008 and 2012, enriched by analyses of recent productions. In the third section, by using an intersectional approach, we will describe and analyse the models of representation that seem to oppose a consensual, acceptable and demonstrable transidentity, in the face of a more authentic but more subversive transidentity that French creation struggles to represent. 1.Popularisations of the 20th and 21st Century: Biography, Popular Press, Newsreels
We believe that the media coverage of Laverne Cox and Caitlyn Jenner does not mark the beginning of the cultural inscription of trans* people in popular culture. In our research on media modelling of trans* people, we have chosen a number of criteria, including ‘gender shift’14 and media coverage. For example, we could start the ‘media wave’ with the documentary about 6-year-old Jazz Jennings answering Barbara Walters’s questions on ABC (Walters et al./ABC News 2007). This documentary initiates an important media coverage of trans* children and teens in several countries around the world (Espineira 2011), as well as the media coverage of trans* children of stars such as Chaz Bono, son of Sonny and Cher. However, it is necessary to go further back in time. In the twenties and thirties as well as in the forties and fifties, we often find trans* life experiences, autobiographies or stories in the popular press. These narratives gave rise to cultural representations and inscriptions that shape the patterns of trans* representation in series. The early transitions of known trans* people have generated a great deal of public and media interest, with ‘sex changes’ arousing a great deal of curiosity, especially those of trans* women, whose journeys are perceived as more dramatic than those of trans* men. Doctor Alan L. Hart (1890–1962) went, so to speak, under the radar of the popular press, as did Dora Richter (1891–1933), one of the servants at Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute of Sexology in Berlin. In contrast, the stories of the painters Lili Elbe (or Lili Ilse Elvenes, 1882–1931) and Michel-Marie Poulain (1906–1991) go beyond the realm of medical writing in a way that influenced literature (biography) and the popular press. Maxime Foerster points out that Lili’s story inspired Niels Hoyer15 (a friend of Lili’s) to write the first biography of a trans* person, published in German in 1932: Lili Elbe: Ein Mensch wechselt sein Geschlecht. Eine Lebensbeichte, aus Hinterlassenen, and translated into English as Man into Woman: An Authentic Record of a Change of Sex, with a preface by the British sexologist Norman Haire, in 1933 (Foerster 2018, 42–43). In 1934, under the title “A Man Changes Sex: According to the Authentic and Scientific Documents Gathered by Niels Hoyer”,16 the French magazine Voilà (no. 185–189), published the story of Lili Elbe over several weeks (ibid., 43). In 1954, the story of Michel-Marie Poulain was published under the title J’ai choisi mon sexe; confidences du peintre Michel-Marie Poulain [I have chosen my sex; confidences by the painter Michel-Marie Poulain]. Foerster indicates that media coverage of the artist in the popular press was orchestrated to a certain extent, with headlines such as: “The Matisse of Èze-village has changed sex”, “This elegant brunette is none other than Michel-Marie Poulain, former dragon, painter and family man” (ibid., 61).17 The fifties and sixties marked a new stage, with film and newsreels. Two documentaries illustrate two new ways of talking about trans* women on both sides of the Atlantic: “Christine Comes Home”, broadcast in 1953 by Universal International News, and Reflets de Cannes in 1962 by the ORTF.18 The first clip, from international film newsreels, relates the ‘return home’ of Christine Jorgensen (1926–1989): —Voice-over: Christine Jorgensen, who used to answer to the name of George, caused a sensation in New York when she came back from Copenhagen. Christine made the headlines after a series of operations in Denmark that turned her from a man to a woman. —Journalists: There’s a picture there! A photo! —Christine Jorgensen: I am impressed that so many people have come.(Universal International News 1953, 00:01:48) This media coverage is that of a celebrity. There’s nothing in the image to suggest a malicious reception.19 She was long considered as ‘the first operated transsexual’, but lost this cinematic title to Lili Elbe with the 2015 film The Danish Girl by Tom Hooper (Universal Pictures 2015). This status of ‘first’ will perhaps be taken by Dora Richter if one day cinema decides to adapt the story of her life to the screen. In the sixties, Coccinelle (1931–2006) was greeted in a similar manner to Jorgensen when she travelled abroad. Such a scene is found in the archives of the French National Audiovisual Institute (INA) in which Coccinelle, world-famous as a cabaret star, is shown in Milan, Italy, getting off a plane in 1959; this news piece is classified as unused (ORTF 1959, 00:11:58). The second clip is about Coccinelle, in an excerpt from Reflets de Cannes, a prestigious French television program: Voice-over: Another glance at the beach. Who is this seemingly inspired crowd looking at? A woman naturally. What question do they have? Naturally of the best of sorts. There is only one problem. Indeed, this woman is a man. It seems that she even got married in church. Then who would think anything bad...
