Representing Trans Road Narratives in Mainstream Cinema (1970-2016)
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Wish You Were Here: Representing Trans Road Narratives in Mainstream Cinema (1970-2016) by Evelyn Deshane A thesis presented to the University of Waterloo in fulfilment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2019 © Evelyn Deshane 2019 Examining Committee Membership The following served on the Examining Committee for this thesis. The decision of the Examining Committee is by majority vote. External Examiner Dr. Dan Irving Associate Professor Supervisor Dr. Andrew McMurry Associate Professor Internal-external Member Dr. Kim Nguyen Assistant Professor Internal Members Dr. Gordon Slethaug Adjunct Professor Dr. Victoria Lamont Associate Professor ii Author’s Declaration I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. iii Abstract When Christine Jorgensen stepped off a plane in New York City from Denmark in 1952, she became one of the first instances of trans celebrity, and her intensely popular story was adapted from an article to a memoir and then a film in 1970. Though not the first trans person recorded in history, Jorgensen's story is crucial in the history of trans representation because her journey embodies the archetypal trans narrative which moves through stages of confusion, discovery, cohesion, and homecoming. This structure was solidified in memoirs of the 1950- 1970s, and grew in popularity alongside the booming film industry in the wake of the Hays Production Code, which finally allowed directors, producers, and writers to depict trans and gender nonconforming characters and their stories on-screen. From Jorgensen‘s adaptation came the often medically focused films of the 1970s, which turned more exploitative and violent as the trans character became a criminal, killer, or monster in films of the 1980s and the early 1990s, and made especially popular through the creation of Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs. For the rest of the 1990s and into the early 2000s, the rise of academic gender theory along with the activism by trans writers and scholars led to more progress in academic sphere, some of which was only minimally represented on-screen in popular films. In this era of film-making, the trans character often became a misunderstood and misrepresented comedy figure and a temporary joke who would soon fade by the end of the film. In the current age of the transgender tipping point, trans characters are more visible than ever before, in both popular media and independently produced films, but as I document in this dissertation, there is still a large gap from the real-life event which may have sparked the story, iv and what is represented on the mainstream film screen itself, especially when created by cisgender writers, directors, and producers. In this dissertation, I argue that the array of trans experiences represented on the popular Hollywood screen derive much of their cultural signification from historical events occurring around the same time period of the film, such as Jorgensen's flight and return, the rise of drag culture in the 1990s, or the trans YouTube community in our current era. I use film adaptation theory and trans history to examine how those producing and consuming the film have read—or misread—its original source. I then trace the meanings that these films have created within the popular culture, and how their circulation has helped—or hindered—trans understanding in a broader social and political world. I also argue that each one of these popular films uses the archetypal trans narrative structure of confusion, discovery, cohesion and homecoming, which then fundamentally links these stories to the American cultural ethos of freedom, transformation, and independence, especially when these narratives involve travel in some way, such as Jorgensen's first flight. This dissertation explores the intersection between the American road narrative and the trans travel narrative as expressed by trans authors and does so as a way to integrate more gender diverse representation into the American cultural canon, as well as document the important role trans, non-binary, and gender nonconforming people have had on American history and popular culture. v Acknowledgements Acknowledgements would seem empty without first thanking my committee members: Dr. Andrew McMurry, Dr. Gordon Slethaug, and Dr. Victoria Lamont. Their insights on the project were incredibly helpful, especially in the later stages. Dan Irving and Kim Nguyen both provided valuable insight. I also need to thank the wonderful and supportive admin staff of the University of Waterloo who made the transition between stages in all parts of this process much smoother: Maha Eid, Margaret Ulbrick, and Tina Davidson. The Graduate Director, Marcel O‘Gorman, was also an incredibly supportive person during this process. I also need to thank the University of Waterloo and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship for the financial assistance in my research. I must also thank my supportive and utterly wonderful network of family and friends. This last year has been especially difficult, but you were there for me when I really and truly needed it: Lauren, Nicole, Russell, Travis and his supportive family as well. I‘d like to conclude these acknowledgements with a final thank you to my father who died this year. Thank you all so very much. vi Table of Contents Examining Committee Membership ............................................................................................................. ii Author‘s Declaration .................................................................................................................................... iii Abstract ........................................................................................................................................................ iv Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ............................................................................................................................................ viii Introduction: .................................................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter One: ............................................................................................................................................... 27 Chapter Two................................................................................................................................................ 71 Chapter Three............................................................................................................................................ 118 Chapter Four ............................................................................................................................................. 165 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................ 205 References ................................................................................................................................................. 212 vii List of Figures Figure 1: Young Christine puts on make-up (from The Christine Jorgensen Story). ................................... 41 Figure 2: Movie Poster for The Christine Jorgensen Story. ......................................................................... 45 Figure 3: The "big reveal" scene from Neil Jordan's The Crying Game. ...................................................... 62 Figure 4: Lili Elbe's internalized "reveal" moment in Tom Hooper's The Danish Girl. ................................ 62 Figure 5: Lili Elbe is treated for her gender dysphoria by Dr. Hexler .......................................................... 63 Figure 6: Last shot of The Danish Girl explaining its 'true source' before credits....................................... 69 Figure 7: Jame Gumb/Buffalo Bill from the famous mirror scene in The Silence of the Lambs. ................ 85 Figure 8: The opening sequence of The Brandon Teena Story with personal photo of Brandon as a gangster ...................................................................................................................................................... 95 Figure 9: Police image used to announce the murder of Brandon Teena .................................................. 95 Figure 10: Brandon Teena's reveal scene in Boys Don't Cry ....................................................................... 99 Figure 11: Judy in the bathroom in Better Than Chocolate. ..................................................................... 184 Figure 12: Ricky’s hormones in Boy Meets Girl. This is one of several scenes. ........................................ 201 viii Introduction: The New American Everyman: Trans Representation and The American Road Introduction In 2016, Clyde Peterson released the film Torrey Pines. The film uses stop-motion animation in order to tell a story about a cross-country road trip the protagonist takes with his mother the summer he is twelve years old. By the end of the film, this surreal trip turns out to be a kidnapping by his mother during a psychotic break. What was once an imaginative