Transsexuals in popular culture

Transsexuality has been on the American radar just over half a century. On December 1, 1952, the New York Daily News splashed the headline, ​“Ex-GI Becomes Blond Beauty.” Christine (née George) Jorgenson returned from Europe after serving in the U.S. Armed Forces and taking a detour to Denmark. Although the operation was heralded as the first sex-reassignment surgery, such operations had taken place since the ​’20s. Jorgenson became an immediate sensation and was interviewed on radio and television, becoming a willing spokesperson for transsexual awareness. Before she died in 1989, Jorgenson said she had given the sexual revolution ​“a good swift kick in the pants.” 

Hollywood’s recent portrayals of ​“transgender” characters have focused on the rejection and violence that is all-too-common in transexuals’ daily lives. In 1992, The Crying Game used artful camera work to elicit a shocking cinematic effect revolving around misperception and ​“passing” as the opposite sex. Boys Don’t Cry (1999), Soldier’s Girl (2003), and A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story depict real-life murders of transgender people.

Fictional dramatizations have boosted the national visibility and humanity of transsexuals. Tom Wilkinson plays a man who ​“comes out” as a male-to-female transsexual in Normal (2005) and Felicity Huffman portrays a transitioning male-to-female transsexual in Transamerica (2006). The cable television documentary series TransGeneration (2005) follows four college students in various stages of transitioning. Broadcast television’s ABC daytime drama All My Children introduced a transgender character, as well, in 2006. Moving from cinema to television movie, cable to broadcast television, transgender issues are permeating the American popular culture, bringing a message of tolerance and acceptance.