CROSSDRESSING CINEMA: AN ANALYSIS OF TRANSGENDER REPRESENTATION IN FILM A Dissertation by JEREMY RUSSELL MILLER Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY August 2012 Major Subject: Communication CROSSDRESSING CINEMA: AN ANALYSIS OF TRANSGENDER REPRESENTATION IN FILM A Dissertation by JEREMY RUSSELL MILLER Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved by: Co-Chairs of Committee, Josh Heuman Aisha Durham Committee Members, Kristan Poirot Terence Hoagwood Head of Department, James A. Aune August 2012 Major Subject: Communication iii ABSTRACT Crossdressing Cinema: An Analysis of Transgender Representation in Film. (August 2012) Jeremy Russell Miller, B.A., University of Arkansas; M.A., University of Arkansas Co-Chairs of Advisory Committee: Dr. Joshua Heuman Dr. Aisha Durham Transgender representations generally distance the transgender characters from the audience as objects of ridicule, fear, and sympathy. This distancing is accomplished through the use of specific narrative conventions and visual codes. In this dissertation, I analyze representations of transgender individuals in popular film comedies, thrillers, and independent dramas. Through a textual analysis of 24 films, I argue that the narrative conventions and visual codes of the films work to prevent identification or connection between the transgender characters and the audience. The purpose of this distancing is to privilege the heteronormative identities of the characters over their transgender identities. This dissertation is grounded in a cultural studies approach to representation as constitutive and constraining and a positional approach to gender that views gender identity as a position taken in a specific social context. Contributions are made to the fields of communication, film studies, and gender studies through the methodological approach to textual analysis of categories of films over individual case studies and the idea that individuals can be positioned in identities they do not actively claim for iv themselves. This dissertation also makes a significant contribution to conceptions of the gaze through the development of three transgender gazes that focus on the ways the characters are visually constructed rather than the viewpoints taken by audience members. In the end, transgender representations work to support heteronormativity by constructing the transgender characters in specific ways to prevent audience members from developing deeper connections with them. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I first want to thank Dr. Josh Heuman and Dr. Aisha Durham for their service as co-chairs of my committee. Your feedback was invaluable in making this project the best it could be. I also want to thank the other members of my committee, Dr. Terence Hoagwood, Dr. Kristan Poirot, and Dr. Jennifer Jones-Barbour, for all of their support. I want to especially thank my friends Sara Rowe, Brittany Collins, and Chris Silver. Thank you, Sara, for providing a space in your home and your life both for writing and for unwinding while watching Glee. Brittany, it has been an honor sharing an office with you for the past two years and also for putting up with my frequent need to vent. And Chris, I wish I could have spent more time with you in person these past few years, but our long phone conversations provided a nice break from my focus on this project. All three of you are invaluable friends who I feel privileged to have in my life. I also want to thank my other friends, Luke Lockhart, Brad Serber, Sammy Roberts Perez Stanford, Sammy Grimes, Joe Carr, Amanda Martinez, Andrea Schweikhard Robison, Cheryl Lozano-Whitten, Masha Sukovic, Vandy Ramadurai, Betsy McCann, Joëlle Cruz, Shelly Blair, Donathan Brown, Anirban Mukhopadhyay, Xi Cui, Trijya Singh, Marrisa Doshi, Lea Hernandez, Isaac Holyoak, Brynn Fitzpatrick, Dan De Leon, Zoe Hess Carney, Rachel Rashe Reed, Rachel Romero, Jeremy Rogerson, Kevin Cosgriff-Hernandez, and Rachael Hernandez, and faculty members, Srivi Ramasubramanian, Patrick Burkart, Antonio La Pastina, J. Kevin Barge, Jennifer Mease, Rebecca Gill, Tom Frentz, Frank Scheide, and Eric Rothenbuhler, who supported me throughout my graduate career. vi And finally, I want to thank my family for their support and inspiration throughout this project. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................ vii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1 The Problem: Conceptions of Transgender Communicated through Filmic Representations ........................................ 3 Research Questions .................................................................................... 5 Theoretical Foundations ............................................................................. 7 Literature Review ..................................................................................... 33 Methodology ............................................................................................ 36 Transgender Representations in Context .................................................. 40 Conclusion ................................................................................................ 44 II. TRANSGENDER AS FARCE ........................................................................ 47 Literature Review ..................................................................................... 50 Analysis .................................................................................................... 56 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 104 III. TRANSGENDER AS KILLER SURPRISE ................................................ 107 Literature Review ................................................................................... 111 Analysis .................................................................................................. 120 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 160 IV. TRANSGENDER AS LIVED EXPERIENCE ............................................ 162 Literature Review ................................................................................... 166 Analysis .................................................................................................. 173 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 227 viii V. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................. 230 Theoretical and Methodological Implications ........................................ 231 Suggestions for Improving Transgender Representations ..................... 245 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 257 NOTES ........................................................................................................................... 262 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 272 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In an iconic scene from the film Tootsie (1982), Dustin Hoffman as Michael Dorsey walks down a crowded New York City street dressed for the first time as his transgender alter ego Dorothy Michaels. The audience has not seen Michael as Dorothy until this very moment; the last shot before the cut to this scene is of Michael sitting in his agent’s office. How does the audience know how to react to this scene? How do we know to laugh rather than to cry, get angry, be afraid, feel sympathetic, or any of a number of other emotions? What can understanding how we respond to a scene like this tell us about the messages about transgender individuals sent through this and other transgender representations? These are just a few of the questions I seek to answer in Crossdressing Cinema. Cinematic representations of transgender people are built on specific narrative conventions and visual codes. Through a poststructuralist textual analysis combined with a cultural studies approach to representation, I analyze the narrative conventions and visual codes used to construct transgender representations across 24 popular films grouped into three separate categories. Taking a broad view of transgender representations reveals that a distance exists between the transgender characters and audience members rooted in the lack of legitimacy attributed to transgender identities by heteronormative society. I also extend theoretical discussions about gender ____________ This dissertation follows the style of Women’s Studies in Communication. 2 representations through an exploration of three different gazes directed at transgender characters. I adopt these theoretical and methodological approaches in order to place transgender representations within the larger scholarship on representations of marginalized groups. This project is significant because it seeks to contextualize representation