ABOUT LANCE O’BRIEN 



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His works tends towards publication design, enjoying the process of researching and relaying information in interesting and innovative manners. Largely working with typography and found imagery, with a smattering of motion throughout, he doesn’t want to restrict himself to any one style, constantly adapting his design to fit whatever he works on. Beyond the design aspect, he also enjoys essay and article writing - an extension of his passions in research. While he leans towards a serious, matter-of-fact style, he knows when to utilise humour to appeal to different target audiences.

Studying at Liverpool John Moores, he’s working towards a BA in Graphic Design and Illustration.






























































09-12/2024


An Exploration of Representation and Erasure of Trans Identity in Mainstream Media



“May comfort come and surprise you today.” 
(Robins, 2021)

When one thinks of transgender characters, it would be unsurprising if someone was to be unable to give an example – even if one is able to give an example, there’s an even slimmer chance of that representation being positive and not feeding into negative stereotypes. According to GLAAD (a non-profit organisation focused on LGBTQ advocacy and culture change since 1985), between 2002 and 2012, they catalogued 102 episodes across multiple airing shows containing trans characters and found that 54% of them contained negative representation. On top of this, 35% ranged from problematic to good. Depressingly, only 12% were considered ‘groundbreaking’ or ‘fair’ (GLAAD, 2012). It’s an inescapable fact that producers, directors and anyone else involved in funding the vast majority of ‘mainstream media’ do not care to portray positive representation of the trans population. That, however, has not stopped people from trying to make authentic trans characters and experiences come alive through every available medium.

In the last decade or so, there’s been an undeniable increase in more positive trans representation in media – however, how much of that being created by cisgender (that being people that identify with their assigned sex at birth) individuals versus actual transgender people is still a point of contention. Being trans is intrinsically connected to one’s perception of self and, therefore, how or what someone creates. Looking specifically at movies, it is easy to compare a movie made by cis individuals about a trans character – Ray in 3 Generations, directed by Gaby Bellal, 2015 – in contrast to a movie made by a trans individual about a trans character – Orlando, in Orlando, My Political Biography, directed by Paul B. Preciado, 2023. Within both, there is heart but 3 Generations lacks a certain amount of authenticity that Orlando, My Political Biography has.

3 Generations was directed by cisgender woman Gaby Bellal, written by her and another cisgender woman, Nikole Beckwith (Figure 1). While the acting and the actual shooting of the movie are solid and endearing, the actual content of the story and characters fall short. According to one critic, Mey Rude, a trans lesbian, says ‘It seems like [Gaby] Dellal, despite being a person who is making a movie about a transgender boy, doesn’t understand that transgender boys aren’t girls.’ (Rude, 2015). Even beyond that, the director consistently misgenders the character of Ray when she speaks of him and reiterates the damaging, reductive rhetoric that trans men that have not started medically transitioning are simply just girls masquerading as boys. Overall, in the words of Rude, ‘the director comes off as uninformed and disrespectful.’, which taints any potential positivity the move could possibly have had, even when looking past the casting of cisgender actress, Elle Fanning, as a trans boy. 


Figure 1
Figure 2


On the other hand, a movie called Orlando, My Political Biography, lies on the complete opposite end of the spectrum (Figure 2). Paul B. Preciado, a trans man, one of the most invisible demographics within the LGBTQ+ community, writing and directing a movie about a trans character performed by exclusively trans actors (26 trans male, trans female and non-binary/gender-nonconforming actors were used throughout the movie) is extremely rare. The movie is a modern retelling, and reclamation, of the 1928 Virginia Woolf Novel ‘Orlando: A Biography’, the story of a nobleman who, at thirty, woke up in a woman’s body and stayed that way for the rest of her century’s long life, focusing on its relevance to real trans people of the modern day. Best put in the UK based news outlet What The Trans!?, an outlet specialised in making media for trans people, by the critic Flint, someone who interviewed the director Paul B. Preciado, (2024) ‘It galvanised my soul.’ There is an earnest truth to it, honesty about the suffering of trans people while refusing to bend and break under the ‘normative regime’. The movie is a moving, heartfelt letter to Virginia Woolf, author of ‘Orlando’, the book the movie is based off, and to the ‘Orlandos’ on and off-screen. While the story of the original novel Orlando is very loosely followed, meaning one doesn’t need to know the original to enjoy the experience, its plot is still consistent throughout. It explores the entire life of someone’s transition, navigating it with ‘the view of transness as beautiful and natural, because we arenatural.’ (Flint, 2024). On the topic of the actors, their ages range from as young as 8 years old to as old as 70, all in different stages of their transition – it is important to show this range as it enlightens people to invisible section of the trans community. The old and those early in their transition are often forgotten, pushed to the wayside or seen as less-than. However, in this movie, they are as respected and represented as equal to those at the ‘end’ of their transition or the youth, as they should be. There is no strict definition of what a trans person looks like. In the end, while a cis person or a trans person can make a good or bad trans movie, series or character, there is something far more personal and emotional when trans people are, at the very least, involved within the production.

Continuing, it is impossible to not circle back to the director of Orlando – Paul B. Preciado. Before that movie was released, he had an illustrious career as a writer and philosopher, before and after his transition beginning in 2010. He released several books about transness and how it sits in the heteronormative, patriarchal, rigid political state of society, though one essay, entitled ‘Letter from A Trans Man to the Sexual Ancien Régime’, stood out distinctly. It is a dissection of the heteronormative, patriarchal society that most of the world lives within from the eyes of someone that has lived on both sides of the fence; Preciado identified as a lesbian woman before realising his trans identity. He talks about how he does not talk as a woman, ‘given the fact that I have voluntarily and intentionally abandoned this form of political and social embodiment’ (Preciado, 2018) nor does he talk as a man ‘who belongs to the dominant class, to whom the masculine gender was assigned at birth’ (Preciado, 2018). He explores the victimhood women struggle to escape from and the ‘masculine sovereignty’ that is built on violence and subjugation from both an outside and inside perspective. He coins the term ‘necro-politically’ (men’s right to put to death) and ‘bio-politically’ (by women’s obligation to give life). The point of the letter is to say that these rigid structures are reductive and primitive. Queer culture has long revolted against the rigidity of heteronormativity and the ideas of anatomy dictating sexuality – sexuality is controlled by desire and should not be limited to the strict ideas of what a man or a woman is. However, some of his work has been dissected by other academics, namely one Sophie Lewis, who released an essay through the Edinburgh University Press called ‘Paul Preciado’s Uterine Politics: Abolish the Family or Reclaim Confiscated Queer Genetic Patrimony?’ (2023). Lewis is a scholar who is well known for her anti-state communism, transfeminism, literary criticism and cultural analysis – Preciado himself has said of her “Sophie Lewis is at the top of a new generation of scholars and activists thinking the transformation of gestational labour within contemporary pharmacopornographic capitalism." (2022) She talks about how some of his works contradict one another, are limited in their perspective or make sweeping generalisations. On the whole, however, his work focuses on the importance of queer and trans liberation, which as undeniably important topic that his voice helps bring to light and explain.


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Figure 4



As this is an exploration of trans characters across media, it is important to stray from movies or series and talk about a slightly less mainstream but incredibly broad medium – traditional comic books and webcomics. When looked at through a general lens, trans and trans-adjacent characters have existed in comic books since the 1940s – the earliest ‘not-quite-trans’ character is from the Action Comics #20 from 1940. ‘The Superman villain, Ultra-Humanite(a super genius similar to Lex Luther), has seemingly been killed. However, we learn that he had kidnapped a famous actress, Dolores Winters, and placed “his mighty brain in her young vital body.” (Figure 3) As soon as Action Comics #22 this version of the Ultra-Humanite was gone and later instead of putting his mind in the body of a woman, the character would transfer his consciousness into the body of an albino ape.’ (Rude, 2015). While the character is never not a ‘man’ in the sense of his actual mind and identity, the fact he dwelled within the body of a woman for a while can be very easily seen as a trans-like representation. This trend of trans-adjacent, but never definitively trans, characters continued for a long while, all the way up until the 90s, when actual, confirmed transgender women began to take form in comic books. However, the trend of not-quite-trans characters very much continues alongside the actual representation – even during the decade or so from the late 90s to late 2000s of no real trans characters of any form. Even when they are written to be representation, though, their authenticity and impact varies wildly from character to character, from comic to comic and form company to company. One of the biggest moments in comic book history took place on April 10th, 2013, when, in Batgirl’s best friend, Alysia Yeoh, came out as transgender (Figure 4) – it ‘marked the first time we saw a non-fantasy, non-science fiction, human trans character in a non-mature, mainstream comic book. At the time, Batgirl was DC’s 17th highest-selling title, this was a big moment. It was the big moment trans readers had been waiting for.’ (Rude, 2015). In an interview with the author of Batgirl, Gail Simone, she stated, on the topic of why she decided to make Alysia transgender, ‘When I was a little girl, there was literally no one who supported the fact that I read comics. I mean, there was no support system and my few interactions with other comics readers were actually a bit hostile. That stuck with me. I always dreamed of a time when comics opened up and said, simply, “You are welcome here.” So when I ended up writing comics, I made a concentrated effort to create fun new female characters, it was really important to me, because I knew there were a lot of little girls out there who would love this medium if given half a chance. But then I started going to conventions, and I realized the shallowness of my philosophy. Here we had this readership that was incredibly, remarkably divers…people of every age, gender, body type, sexuality, ethnicity and more, and it was very clear that comics hadn’t changed much in decades. Where were the characters that represented them?’ (Rude, 2015). Past that time, during that time and even before that time, there were more and more trans characters being written and shown as normal, natural and loved by the characters in their respective comics and the readers alike. Despite all these successes in this time, though, it is inescapable to see the fact that only a small fraction of trans people is being represented in comic books at all. There seems to be a one-track-minded agreement to mostly represent trans women, specifically trans women of colour – which is a good thing, considering they are one of the most targeted by hate groups of people – and non-binary/gender-non-conforming characters. There have been few notable or confirmed trans male characters at all. ‘We also need to see even more diversity. While it’s terrific that so many of the trans characters so far have been TWOC, there need to be more Black and Latina trans characters (these two groups of trans women are the most targeted group of trans people when it comes to anti-trans violence), more non-binary trans characters, more trans kids, more elderly trans characters, more trans men, some disabled trans characters, some fat trans characters.’ (Rude, 2015)


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Related to comic books, but slightly different in format, the compendium of one-page comics from trans people about their lives called When I Was Me: Moments of Gender Euphoria (Greenwood and Assan, 2021), paints a much more intimate portrayal of trans life than any action comic book character written for a majorly cis, straight audience could hope for. Involving 70 short form comics, they cover a variety of life experiences, the book being separated into certain categories – ‘memory’, ‘discovery’, ‘exploration’, ‘presentation’, ‘acceptance’, ‘community’, ‘family’, ‘intimacy’ and ‘freedom’. Each of section explores different facets of life that the different artists went through, their own voices and art styles highlighting the emotional turmoil and joy that they have felt throughout their transitions. The closing comic, encompassed in the category of ‘freedom’ is a sober but euphoric one, using a limited colour palette that is distinctly pleasing to the eyes. ‘I found myself especially moved by the closing comic contributed by C. A. P. Ward, who also created the anthology’s cover. Ward invites the reader to follow them on a solo journey along a forested hiking trail, which is painted in soft shades of purple against a golden yellow sky. Ward speaks with elegance and self-assurance about the comfort of not needing to expend effort in order to pass as one gender or another in nature. “I pass undisturbed in the wild,” they write. “I pass under sunlight and shade.”’ (Hemmann, 2022). Despite all the varying comics, the varying topics, categories, gender identities and ages, the book covers how gender euphoria manifests in a range of ways. It can be as small as putting on lipstick or shaving and can be as big as finally getting on hormones or getting a surgery they’ve desired for years to make themself comfortable in their body. ‘If you know a little bit about the trans experience, you’ve probably heard of gender dysphoria, the often overwhelming and debilitating feeling of wrongness about one’s body and presentation that is at the centre of many trans stories. But the transformingly positive experiences of gender euphoria explored in this comic, focus on the flip side of that coin. How good it feels to be you, when you get a glimpse of who that is, or take that glimpse and make it a life.’ (Robins, 2021).

Despite all the progress made in the last hundred years towards trans acceptance, liberation and joy, there is still a long, long way to go for a society where transgender individuals are seen as natural, not less-than or ‘other’. Transgender media is still incredibly niche and limited – the general population having no interest in learning or broadening their opinions, and, as that is where the money is made, most people pumping out mainstream content couldn’t care less about catering to a suffering, invisible minority. There needs to continue to be people fighting this status quo, making media showing the truth of trans people and not backing down in the face of wanton bigotry and unfounded hatred. Even when trans media is made, there is little to care to involve trans people at all, as I have mentioned previously in discussion of 3 Generations (2015), but that is not even close to the whole of the issue. Circling back to the introduction about trans representation in shows from 2002 to 2012, there are more up-to-date statistics that bring this issue into a more modern light. From 2015 to 2024, roughly 59 fiction movies were made including trans main- or side-characters (Wikipedia, 2024) – this is not considering whether that is good or bad representation, made in good or bad faith. Of those 59 characters, 31 were played by cisgender men and women, leaving only 28 to be played by 28 transgender people. Even within that small number, we can see the bias of what ‘type’ of trans person is even wanted or allowed to be shown on screen, in a sense – 18 were trans women, 7 were non-binary or under that umbrella and only 3 were trans men. The trend of trans men being forgotten is something that was noted in the discussion of comic books as well, meaning that this is not a bias limited to one medium, though it’s not something well documented enough for there to be a definitive reason as to why that is. 

While any progress towards equal visibility is positive, there is still a long way to go until all areas of trans existence are seen as equally deserving of being fairly and respectfully represented in media. 



    Preciado, P.B. and Wynne, F. (2021, 2018) ‘Letter From A Trans Man To The Sexual Ancien Régime’, in Queer: A Collection Of LGBTQ Writings From Ancient Times To Yesterday. Head Of Zeus Ltd, pp. 475–479. 
  • Lewis, S. (2023) Paul Preciado’s uterine politics, Paul Preciado’s Uterine Politics: Abolish the Family or Reclaim Confiscated Queer Genetic Patrimony? Available at: https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/pdf/10.3366/para.2023.0419 (Accessed: October 2024). 
    Rude, M. (2015) ‘about Ray’s director doesn’t seem to understand that trans boys aren’t girls, Autostraddle. Available at: https://www.autostraddle.com/about-rays-director-doesnt-seem-to-understand-that-trans-boys-arent-girls-303716/ (Accessed: November 2024). 
  • Flint (2024) Orlando: My political biography honours Transness as planetary revolution, What The Trans!? Available at: https://whatthetrans.com/orlando-my-political-biography-honours-transness-as-planetary-revolution/ (Accessed: November 2024). 
  • Victims or villains: Examining ten years of transgender images on television (2012) GLAAD. Available at: https://glaad.org/publications/victims-or-villains-examining-ten-years-transgender-images-television (Accessed: November 2024). 
  • Orlando, my political biography (no date) The Party Film Sales. Available at: https://www.thepartysales.com/movie/orlando-my-political-biography/ (Accessed: October 2024). 
    Orlando, Ma Biographie Politique (no date) Berlinale. Available at: https://www.berlinale.de/en/2023/programme/202314130.html (Accessed: October 2024). 
    Katz, D. (no date) Paul B Preciado • director of Orlando, my political biography, Cineuropa. Available at: https://cineuropa.org/en/interview/439040/ (Accessed: October 2024). 
  • Rude, M. (2015) The complete history of transgender characters in American comic books, Autostraddle. Available at: https://www.autostraddle.com/the-complete-history-of-transgender-characters-in-american-comic-books-316126/ (Accessed: October 2024). 
    Greenwood, E. and Assan, A. (eds.) (2021) When I was me: Moments of gender euphoria. Edinburgh, Scotland: Quindrie Press. 
  • Hemmann, K. (2022) Review: When I was me captures colorful snapshots of queer joy - WWAC %, WWAC. Available at: https://womenwriteaboutcomics.com/2022/02/review-when-i-was-me-captures-colorful-snapshots-of-queer-joy/ (Accessed: October 2024).
  • Robins, J. (2021) When I was me: Moments of gender euphoria - a richly peopled and heartfelt compilation of positive stories of Trans Identity, Broken Frontier. Available at: https://www.brokenfrontier.com/when-i-was-me-moments-of-gender-euphoria-quindrie-press/ (Accessed: 13 October 2024). 
  • Keegan, C. (2022) On the necessity of bad trans objects | film quarterly | University of California Press, On the Necessity of Bad Trans Objects. Available at: https://online.ucpress.edu/fq/article/75/3/26/120197/On-the-Necessity-of-Bad-Trans-Objects (Accessed: October 2024). 
  • Steinmetz, K. (2014) The Transgender Tipping Point. Available at: https://time.com/135480/transgender-tipping-point/ (Accessed: October 2024). 
  • Feder, S. and Juhasz, A. (2016) Does visibility equal progress? A conversation on trans activist media, Does visibility equal progress? A conversation on trans activist media by Sam Feder and Alexandra Juhasz, p. 1. Available at: https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc57.2016/-Feder-JuhaszTransActivism/index.html (Accessed: October 2024).
  • Lewis, S. (2022) Abolish the family: Sophie Lewis, London Review Bookshop. Available at: https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/stock/abolish-the-family-a-manifesto-for-care-and-liberation-sophie-lewis (Accessed: 02 December 2024).
  • List of fictional trans characters (2024) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_trans_characters (Accessed: December 2024).