This month Channel 4 has put out a number of documentaries for their 'Born in the Wrong Body' Season. These documentaries are about people who are transgender and their stories. If you haven't watched them, I suggest watching them because they are very informative. 'My Trans Story' episodes are only 4 minutes long. They're all on Channel 4 catch-up. But like all media, please don't take everything they say as gospel. As I'm sure many other trans people were, I was cringing and squirming in my seat watching parts of the season. Watch: My Trans Story My Transgender Kid Girls to Men My Transgender Summer Camp It's made up of 'My Trans Story', 'My Transgender Kid', 'Girls To Men' and 'My Transgender Summer Camp'. I'm going to try and cover as much as I can in this post without going on forever (honestly I could). A lot of the topics I'm going to touch on, I'll probably go into more detail later on. I'm trying to show how these documentaries are an example of how the media can both benefit and harm the Transgender community. [If you have comments, arguments, questions, opinions etc. about anything – I want to hear from you! I want to get people talking and create a conversation. Whether anonymous or not, let me hear your story.] My Trans Story Out of all the documentaries, I think this is the best. It is made up 8 episodes lasting only 4 minutes. They're each a snapshot into 8 transgender people's lives and experiences. The series is an eye-opener to the diversity of the transgender community showing people of all ages and identities. It's also one of the few documentaries to acknowledge non-binary people. It doesn't seem to have any angle from the producers, it simply portrays that person's story. It shows people in their everyday lives, and shows them in a normal light. Too often I feel that the media pushes trans people into a box, separated from society but this series of stories shows these people as what they are: human beings. Born in the Wrong Body The other 3 documentaries are all under the title 'Born in the Wrong Body'. For starters this gets on my nerves. I know a lot of trans people aren't comfortable in the body they are born with (myself included) but it only too often encourages the notion that your gentitalia must 'match' your gender. Sex ≠ gender. I think for people to really understand gender, this idea needs to be broken down. My Transgender Kid This documentary follows the stories of two families. It shows two children who have identified as a gender other than their assigned gender at birth, from a young age. It shows how their families have adjusted to this and how they're supporting their children. Again it's shown in a genuine light, it shows how the parents have struggled with adjusting their behaviour towards their child. I think this is very important in helping other families with transgender kids. Ultimately anything that raises awareness for the transgender community is great. BUT as a trans person myself, it's very difficult at times to praise something that is giving out incorrect information which can a massively negative effect on the community. I feel I should mention that 'Asexual' is not a gender identity as one of the mothers suggests: "There's all sorts of different genders as such. There's male, there's female, there's trans male, there's trans female, there's asexual, genderfluid". And this is where the negatives of this documentary come in. The narration has some statistics like "Over the last 5 years 4 times more children have come out as transgender" and "Most children realise they are transgender by the age of 6". This last quote I think could be quite a dangerous statement. It's kind of thing to be used to 'determine' whether your child is transgender. I can just see it now; 'If your child hasn't shown any signs of being transgender by the age of 6...'. Statistics like these are just unhelpful and unnecessary. And I think the association between 'gendered' colours or toys adds to this. For example, if your child likes blue and boys' toys then they must be male... There's also the idea of children born as one gender and 'wanting' to change gender. Although one of the children, Paddy, puts it perfectly when the interviewer asks her a question: "So Paddy, is it a secret that you want to be a girl?" "Actually I don't want to be a girl, I am a girl." She also says things like "I was never a boy!" and "You're just the gender you are. You're that gender". I think if a child can see gender that simply, why can't the rest of us? Girls to Men This one upset me from the get-go. Even watching the trailer; it advertises the programme as "Britain's girls are becoming men […] they'll become the men they've always wanted to be" as if this is some new trend. Which I hated. It has so many negative connotations like 'it's a choice' or 'something cool that all the kids are doing'. When in fact the intrinsic and/or physical transition that a trans person goes through is far from 'a passing fancy'. But having said that, 'Girls to Men' is not all bad. The documentary follows 3 men and their transition over a year. Each of them are at different stages of their physical transition, Alfie is getting testosterone, Ethan is getting top surgery and Billy is getting the first part of bottom surgery. In terms of the facts, it does cover them really well. There isn't really extensive medical information about treatments and surgeries widely available at the moment. So in terms of that, it's very informative; there were even facts in this that I was learning for the first time. They even go to the extent of filming Billy's surgery; where they form a penis from his lower abdomen. But it was very anatomy based and didn't really focus on the emotional or mental side of transitioning. This is probably more to do with how it was cut rather than what the individuals talked about. The information conveyed suggests that all trans men want all the surgeries and treatments available which is incorrect. The narration in this documentary includes the phrase; "to become men they've always wanted to be" in reference to the treatments and surgeries. When talking about packers, the narration also states; "the packer means Ethan can have sex as a man". Throughout this programme it's suggested that it is impossible to be a man without male anatomy. Whilst many trans men want to have male anatomy because that's what makes them more comfortable with themselves, it's their physical body that changes, not their gender. People who identify as men, are men regardless of anatomy. Sex ≠ gender. My Transgender Summer Camp The last one is looking at a summer camp in the USA for transgender girls and their families. It follows 3 of the families before, during and after the camp. Like a lot of stories documenting transgender people it solely focuses on the transition from one binary gender to another. But apart from the odd off comment or pronoun slip, I don't really have anything bad to say for this. Every story told realistically isn't going to be representative of the whole transgender population. Which is why we need to keep telling stories. And I think it's beautifically summed up at the end by Maxy after starting to come out as trans at school: "I'm not changing who I am, I'm becoming who I am". So honestly I think that these documentaries will do a lot of good (even if I need to be reminded of this sometimes). I think for me and for a lot of people in the transgender community, we feel that we get the kick-back from stories in the media that aren't representative. And it's really hard. But for the number of people who will watch these and will come out because of it, or understand what their transgender friend is going through, or will start changing their ideas of transgender people. Maybe it's worth it.
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