Paige Macintosh

PhD Student in Film

Cultural Value, Aesthetics, and Authorship in Trans Media

Supervisors: Dr Missy Molloy and Dr Anita Brady (Media and Communication Programme)

ABSTRACT

The striking visibility of transgender characters in mainstream film and television has intensified debates about trans authorship. Arguments among scholars and trans community members about the need for “positive” representation—which have dominated broader conversations about LGBTQ media since the 1980s—have given way to debates about who has the right to produce, write, and claim legitimacy for trans narratives. In the past decade, audiences and critics have increasingly valued trans media according to its employment of trans consultants and creators. Tangerine (Baker 2015) arguably marks this cultural shift to emphasise trans authorship, as the film’s paratexts consistently deployed its trans stars as markers of the film’s legitimacy. Following Tangerine’s critical and commercial success, discussions about trans representation in trans communities and media scholarship moved from critique of cross-gendered performances in trans media (e.g. in Dallas Buyers Club [Vallée2013]) to the new modes of authorship apparent in film and television (e.g. in Pose [Murphy, Falchuk, and Canals 2018-present]).

While trans-authored texts and debates about representational politics within trans narratives have become mainstream, alternative forms of distribution have created unprecedented opportunities for trans and non-binary filmmakers to innovate trans storytelling practices. For instance, Netflix’s Sense8 (The Wachowskis and J. Michael Straczynski 2015— 2018) is the first mainstream film or television show written and directed by trans creators to feature a lead trans character played by a trans performer (Jamie Clayton). Moreover, the show illustrates a uniquely trans approach to concept and design to express a distinctly trans aesthetic. Building on formal and phenomenological theories currently developing in trans scholarship, this thesis examines the cultural, aesthetic, and industrial developments that shape twenty-first century trans screen media, with a particular focus on the cultural value trans workers offer film and television industries as representatives of political and cultural progressiveness. Ultimately, my research questions how trans people, both on- and off-screen, are deployed within mainstream cultural industries, and how their deployment influences ongoing debates regarding authorship and authenticity in trans screen media.

BIOGRAPHY

Paige Macintosh (they/them) is a PhD student at Te Herenga Waka, whose recent work examines the developing industrial and cultural discourses around authorship and authenticity in trans media. Their research interests include queer media, transgender theory, and contemporary film industries.

Contact Paige at paige.macintosh@vuw.ac.nz