Trans Media Arts! That’s Entertainment!
Kim Petras
Helloooooooooooooo and welcome to Trans Media Arts! Seems like just yesterday it was July. This summer is moving along very fast. Seems like the older I get, the faster it moves. I hope you all have been good this summer. And by good, I mean baaaad, tee hee. Drop me a message to tell me your favorite movie of the summer. So far, mine was Baby Driver. Too bad it didn’t have and trans actors in it. That would have been even cooler. The music soundtrack will surely be nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe.
Speaking of music, transgender icon Kim Petras is now a recognized pop star. She just released her first single into the mainstream charts. This is no little quirky YouTube song that is a novelty because it is a trans person singing it. This is the big time. Kim is entering the music scene at a crucial time when trans voices are on the rise and need to be heard. In these wacky times that we live in, sparkling and catchy pop is just what the doctor ordered. Her first single, I Don’t Want It All is all of that and more. Kim, of course is young and beautiful, but her voice is super-girly-femme and not only fits in to today’s pop scene, but commands attention as a legit pop music. The song has received over 1 million streams on Spotify. Petras has spent her life pursuing the dream of becoming a femme superstar. After she began HRT at age 12, she became the world’s youngest recorded person to receive gender affirmation surgery at age 16.
An anonymous illustrator, who goes by the Instagram handle Trans Disney, is re-drawing the studio’s most famous characters as if they were trans. The artist is an art director from New York City who spent their childhood watching Disney movies. The mysterious artist says that Disney characters have spoken to them because they talk about, love, freedom and transformation. In Disney’s animated feature Frozen, Elsa transforms from a pent-up person hiding her true self into a beautifully free queen who lets her special nature show in the form of magical powers. The artist says, “Growing up, I realized that [Disney doesn’t] include a very important category: transgender people. People who more than anyone else know the meaning of and seek for that love, freedom and transformation portrayed by Disney,” Using Photoshop and a design tablet, the artist re-illustrated a number of classic characters, such as Ariel, Peter Pan, Aurora and Pinocchio.
Nicole Mains
The increasing presence of racial and ethnic minority characters on television comedies and dramas has been linked to a gradual decline in racial prejudice. Newly published research suggests this welcome dynamic also applies to the transgender community. It reports viewers of a popular cable drama who caught an episode featuring a transgender teenager had more positive attitudes toward transgender people than those who missed it. The show Royal Pains presented an episode that featured Nicole Mains, a transgender teen. The majority—391—had seen the episode of June 23rd, 2015, in which a teenager, Mains, “is experiencing health complications as she transitions from male to female.” That episode went on to win a GLAAD award.
Sade, a popular singer from the 1980s, who’s transgender son, Izzak Theo, formerly Mickailia “Ila” Adu, has confirmed on Instagram that he will receive breast removal surgery. Izzak first came out as a trans man in October, revealing that he had been taking hormones since April, with the caption, “Today is the first day of the rest of my life.” It’s good to see trans people bravely coming out even in these no-so-friendly times. We wish him luck in his journey. Interestingly, stories that featured fictional characters like Orange is the New Black or Transparent, rather than news stories or pieces featuring real trans folk like Cait Jenner, made a bigger impact in changing minds.
Eddie Izzard has a new memoir out in the form of Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens that is co-written with Laura Zigman. Beginning with his mother’s death in Ireland when he was age 6, Eddie, who identifies as a straight transgender person, details his forays into zany performance, comic stories, and very “big, crazy ambitious things.” Eddie tells us “if you believe enough in yourself, you can make things happen.” Don’t try to “get somewhere as fast as possible. Get somewhere as good as possible.” — Wise words from a LGBT legend.
Also, it’s good to see celebrities standing up for transgender rights in light of the recent military ban for trans people. Actors in movies, TV, music and books can do wonders to change minds. Look what the movie Philadelphia did for the gay community. Tom Hanks’ brilliant and tragic portrayal is etched in the minds of many moviegoers to this day. Entertainment can educate and change minds as well as entertain us.
Have a safe and fun Labor Day and get ready for the Fall season! It’s time for football, new TV shows and soon the holiday movie season. I love Fall. See you soon friends!
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Category: Media, Music, Transgender Community News, Transgender Fun & Entertainment
About the Author (Author Profile)
I am a transwoman originally from Pittsburgh, PA. I have been living full time for 5 years. I work in retail but am an artist/Graphic Designer and aspiring writer. I tend to address the controversial in my writing. I would love to change the world one article at a time. I moved to The San Francisco Bay Area to start over, again. But recently moved back to the East Coast. The adventure continues...Subscribe
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“The increasing presence of racial and ethnic minority characters on television comedies and dramas has been linked to a gradual decline in racial prejudice. Newly published research suggests this welcome dynamic also applies to the transgender community.”
“It’s good to see trans people bravely coming out even in these no-so-friendly times.”
Hmmm….
Hmm? Is that good or bad? I tried not to get too political in TMA. Entertainment is making a difference with mainstream society. We may be fighting tough battles right now, but the war will be won and the haters will move on to something else.
I guess the operative word is “gradual”. Even a bull stock market has some dips on the way up. But the trend is still upward.