Saturday 12Th September
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Programme Trans Community Conference 2011 Trans in the Media: Broadcast, journalism, screen & social media Convened by Gendered Intelligence, in association with Trans Media Watch Friday, 22nd July 2011 9.30am – 5.30pm Central School of Speech and Drama, Eton Avenue, London, NW3 plus: A SPECIAL EVENING FUNDRAISER EVENT 6.30-8.30pm Gendered Intelligence Film Night Programmed by members of the GI Youth Group Trans Community Conference 2011 Trans in the Media: The Trans Community Conference 2011 is a one-day gathering featuring a series of workshops for members of the trans community from across the UK, as well as professionals who work with the trans community. The trans community includes family members, partners and lovers and friends and allies. The conference will celebrate our diversity of identities and knowledge, as well as the different groups, organisations and projects that our community offers. At this year's conference we will be hearing about various concerns in the arenas of broadcast, journalist, screen and social media. These will be explored in relation to cultural and social theory, equality and diversity, politics and activism, the arts and the voluntary community sector. In addition there will be a "Doing it for ourselves" stream where participants can sign up to practical workshops where they will produce insight and skills into how they might form their own trans representations through various media. Programme timetable 9:30 – 10.00 Registration and refreshments 10.00 – 11.30 Welcome - Jay Stewart and Catherine McNamara With keynotes – Jennie Kermode, Chair of Trans Media Watch, Finn Greig, Gendered Intelligence Youth Group Kevin Mantle, Policy Manager at LGB&T Equality Team, Government Equalities Office & Director of social enterprise On Road Media Nathalie McDermott 11.30 – 11.45 Coffee break Papers & presentations Doing it for ourselves! Practical workshops 11.45 – 1.15 Trans and the Trans in Film Photography and New Media Workshop ‟Citizen Journalist‟ Mainstream poster campaign Scriptwriting Workshop short papers and short paper Introduction to Practical Taking on the role of Q &A session presentations photography and demonstration on „citizen journalist‟ in photoshop blogging, podcasting order to respond to Victoria Atkin talks Representing the and streaming video how trans people are Jason in Hollyoaks Other of the Other: content represented in the GenderQueer and the media 4 thoughts – is it mass media right to change Louise Chambers All are welcome, All are welcome, but All are welcome, but gender? numbers are limited but numbers are numbers are limited Paris Lees Transgender bodies limited The unbearable and sexuality in lightness of being Hollywood and You are asked to You are asked to You are asked to trans – trans in European Cinema. commit to the commit to the morning commit to the morning and afternoon mainstream Isaac Gustaffson morning and and afternoon workshops documentaries Wood afternoon workshops Jay Stewart workshops 1.15- 2:15 Lunch 2:15 – 3.45 New Social Media “Trans in the Cont.d Cont.d Cont.d Media” short paper Panel discussion presentations with time Chaired by Paris for follow up discussion Lees Do it yourself! Exploring trans video blogs on YouTube as online activism and online therapy Tobias Raun A transgender journey Juliet Jacques 3.45 – 4.15 Break 4:15 – 5:30 Feedback and plenary discussion 6.30 - 8:30 EVENING EVENT Film night Programme details Trans and the Mainstream Talking about Jason in Hollyoaks Victoria Atkin BA MA Victoria will take part in a question and answer session with a member of the young trans community to discuss her role as Jason Costello in Hollyoaks, how she came to the part, what kind of research she carried out to find out about the lives of young trans men and how her life has been transformed through taking on the role. Biography Having always been a keen actress from a young age Victoria pursued her dreams throughout her studies finally gaining a place at Drama School in 2008. Victoria embarked on the MA Music Theatre course at The Central School of Speech and Drama and worked hard to complete her Masters degree. It was in June the following year after auditioning for different projects and playing Cinderella in Pantomine, over the festive period, that Victoria got her big break landing a part in the soap, Hollyoaks. Since then Victoria has been on This Morning, BBC Breakfast and Radio 1 to name a few. Victoria's character Jason Costello, the first transgendered teen in Soap has immersed Victoria in the trans community and she is delighted to be returning to Central to be part of this years conference. 4 thoughts – is it right to change gender? Paris Lees During the conference, Paris will give a short presentation on her experience of being on Channel 4‟s 4Thought TV earlier this year. Paris will explain the process of being chosen for the programme, the sort of questions she was asked – some of which she refused to answer – and the ways in which the producers edited down her answers and the effect this produced. She will also describe the reaction she had to the show‟s broadcast, and how this differed from her expectations – from the congratulations of perfect strangers and friends of friends, to the negative reactions from jealous acquaintances… Biography Born in Nottingham, Paris Lees is a young journalist and trans activist, notable for her charitable work at the Gender Trust, Trans Media Watch and Brighton & Hove LGBT Switchboard. After graduating from the University of Brighton in 2009, she moved to London to pursue a career in the media. She currently writes for DIVA magazine and frequently appears in Pink News - and hopes to expand her public profile in the coming years. She is passionate about the way trans people are represented in the media and campaigns for greater levels of dignity, accuracy and respect. Trans on Telly: Popular Documentary and the Performativity of Trash Viewing Jay Stewart The performed „seriousness‟ of the documentary genre no doubt mirrors a performed „seriousness‟ of transsexuality itself. Trans narratives are often situated within mainstream broadcast documentaries in ways that produce and legitimise gender normativity through „proper‟ medical scientific epistemological frameworks. A recent growth in the number of TV documentaries that feature trans subjects relates to a more general growing trend in the hybrid info-taining documentary genre. Whilst no doubt this has placed trans subjectivities firmly onto the horizon of the general British public, assertions of what it means to be trans have been appropriated for such palatable popular viewing. Consequently, although we see these TV documentaries position trans people as sober characters, there is equally something „light‟ or „trashy‟ about these televisual products. In this paper, I explore the pseudo-sobriety of the trans subject found in a variety of TV documentaries that have been broadcast in the UK. I ask: What is the productive potential of bringing the trans subject into the arena of the „stupid‟, the „weak‟ (Corner 2002) and the trashy through these TV products? Biography Having completed his MA in the department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths College, Jay is now carrying out his PhD, which explores understandings of trans identities through mainstream televisual documentaries. Jay is also co-founder of Gendered Intelligence, an arts-based organisation that holds events and delivers projects for young trans and queer communities, as well as doing school workshops to young people in order to create debate and explore gender in creative ways. As part of some of the projects run at Gendered Intelligence he has made several documentaries such as The Sci:dentity Project (2007) and Gender Variance in Primary School (2008). He also convenes the annual Trans Community Conference. Trans in film Representing the Other of the Other: GenderQueer and the mass media Louise Chambers Mass media images of gender-variant people tend to focus on the medicalised, pathologised, mind/body incongruence of transgender or transsexed individuals. Some claim that „transsexuals‟ have „always been with us‟. However, a significant number of gender-variant people disagree with this claim and argue that the transsexual appellation is temporary and its representation in the mass media may reinforce, rather than challenge the tyranny of gender duality. This paper explores the extent to which other forms of gender-variance are represented in the mass media and wonders where the space may be to explore other forms of gendered or even „non-gendered‟ modes of being. Biography Dr Louise Chambers is an associate tutor at Goldsmiths‟ College, London, a part-time consultant and also works with the Ministry of Justice as an equalities officer. Louise studied psychology at Warwick and Lancaster, before shifting her perspective to culture and the mass media, and completed her PhD in the Department of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths‟ in 2004. Louise is a founder member of the civil service network, a:gender, and acts as editor of a:gender‟s quarterly magazine. She is currently writing a genealogy of transsexuality. Transgender bodies and sexuality in Hollywood and European Cinema. Isaac Gustaffson Wood I will be presenting on a research paper I have done for my 2nd year at university. I will be discussing how transgender people's (especially trans womens) bodies are medicalized by society. Critiquing on the medical model of a transperson. I will be talking about the difference in representation of how the sexual body is used in European and Hollywood films. If the body is over/under sexualized and tried to fit into a conservative mold. I will be specifically looking at Transamerica (2004) and All About My Mother (1999) to do this. Biography Hi, I'm Isaac, I'm 21 years old and I am a 2nd year film student at Southampton Solent University.