To talk about LGTBIQ imaginaries and representations in the media and other aspects of image, we have invited Pol Galofre, activist and sonidist specialized in documentary film, actively linked to the trans and feminist struggle of Barcelona. Your project Cultura
Trans seeks to promote new references and discourses that transform the collective imaginary on trans, has co-edited the book Trans Politics – Una Antología de Textos desde los Estudios Trans
and regularly collaborates with La Bonne
, Centre de Cultura de Dones Francesca Bonnemaison.
EP.- IN AN INTERVIEW WITH “WE LIVE IN A VERY VISUAL WORLD”, UNDERSTANDING THAT NOT ONLY BECAUSE OF THE IMAGES THAT TELL US ABOUT THE WORLD, BUT ALSO BECAUSE OF THOSE WHO SEEK TO STANDARDIZE OUR ROLES. WHAT ARE THESE STEREOTYPES AROUND THE MAN-WOMAN CONSTRUCT THAT PREVENT US FROM UNDERSTANDING THAT GENDER IS A MORE COMPLEX ISSUE, THAT IT GOES BEYOND BIOLOGICAL SEX?
PG.- I don’t know if it is so much that the images that are produced seek to standardize our roles, but maybe we are part of a system that feeds off itself. It’s like glue dying: the products we consume are aimed at men or women, not because the world itself is divided into two and we have tastes or needs that are opposite (I think having a little global vision obviously shows that tastes are totally cultural and temporary) but because we have been taught to have them that way.
We see this from the different toys For children, going through pink or blue razors instead of yellows, oranges and greens, even different models of cars. There are cars designed “for women” and cars designed “for men”, usually the former tend to be smaller and more manageable and the latter large, fast and with much power that it is no longer another way of telling us and reaffirming that women occupy less space in society than men.
Somethings are changing, because discourses on the social construction of gender They are generating interest in an increasing percentage of the population, which is making that, for example, many clothing brands have begun to launch “unisex” collections. But I do not know to what extent these collections are none other trap of this well-assembled system that we have that perfectly self-regulates, because many of them respond to a notion of androgyne that refers to the masculine: with chandal style clothes, with matte colors that adorn the shapes of the body, for example. I am missing collections unisex with skirts, dresses, cleavages or hybrid garments.
It may seem superfluous all this, deep down we are only talking about consumer products, but if it is something that we have so absolutely marked, understanding that for many people it can be difficult to think that there is something else. And I am not only referring to gender expressions or identities that escape the man-woman binomial, but directly to think that there may be other ways of being a woman or a man.
EP.- THIS IS THE PANORAMA, AND TO CONTINUE TALKING ABOUT IMAGES, WHAT ARE THE STEREOTYPES THAT EXIST IN THE MEDIA ABOUT THE DIFFERENT IDENTITIES THAT MAKE UP THE LGTBIQ COLLECTIVE?
Fascinating encounter of recent history of LGTBIQ experiences and how its representation has changed in the media of Europe and the United States. It is fascinating because first we experienced a paradigm shift in which gay went from absolute marginality in the ’70s, to being something, apparently accepted, with prime-time series like Modern Family, in which one part of the family is a couple of homosexual men with an adopted daughter. The same is happening to the trans, which now seems to have captured the interest of many chains and producers. It is not something that is happening in isolation, I think that together the interest in gender issues and related to the Feminism is expanding, and the trans experience is very appetizing within that context.
But the interesting thing about these two processes of centralization of previously marginal experiences is to think about what experiences within homosexuality have been left out of the new and what experiences within the trans They’re staying out right now. To demonstrate this, it is interesting to ask a few questions: How is it that the image of homosexuality is still that of two men and not two women today? Why, curiously, are men overrepresented here again? What kind of gay man is represented? How much feather does it have? How is their masculinity? How is your gender expression? What kind of stories do trans people we see represented in the media? Are they all similar? What kind of men and women are they? Are there any of those depictions of people who do not identify as male or female? What kind of processes do they do?
It is clear that in this process of assimilation many people have remained on the road (…) Sailmars, marimachos, the bowling alley who decides to have criticism with her rich friend and raise them together, locazas, crips, blacks, non-binary people, visible trans people who do not want or cannot fit into the idea of “woman” or “man” of society, whores, Sudakas, those of queer Islam… In short: The ones that bother are still outside.
EP.- YOU SAY THAT “WHAT WE HAVE TO DO IS TO GENERATE LITTLE BY LITTLE (…) THESE IMAGINARIES, SO THAT OUR CULTURE WILL GRADUALLY MUTATE UNTIL THERE IS ROOM FOR THEM.” HABLEMOS DE CASOS EN ESPAÑA Y CATALUÑA, COMO MERLÍ, ORGIINAL OF TV3, DUBBED INTO SPANISH FOR LA SEXTA AND NOW ALSO BROADCAST ON NETFLIX. IT WAS SAID AT THE TIME THAT BRUNO (PROTAGONIST) TOOK ON THE “HETERONORMATIVITY” OF THE SERIES. HOW DO YOU SEE IT? IT IS THE MOST REPRESENTATIVE CASE IN THE SPANISH PANORAMA, DO YOU KNOW ANY OTHER?
PG.- Yes, what we need to do is retake that space to expand the framework of possibilities of existence. Specifically: Merlin I don’t think he’s doing that work. The series has been widely criticized by Catalan feminism, to which the writers and producers have turned a deaf ear. The female characters are practically short of a plot arc rather than to accompany the leading boys. In two seasons of the series, they hadn’t talked about any female philosophers or thinkers in class. No one, nii Beauvoir, no Haraway, no Anzaldua, no Davis… Until they decided to make a chapter on transsexuality (following the thread of Transparent) and talked about Judith Butler.
The machismo in
Merlin
It is subtle because for those who do not have an eye because it goes unnoticed, it is subtle because they talk about sexuality and homosexuality openly, but it is flabbergasted in the treatment they give to women. Perhaps the most worrying thing about Merlin It’s just that so many people see it and they haven’t taken their hands off their heads. Just like we don’t take our hands off our heads because in the cartel 500 artists of Viñarock only 3 sean mujeres. Because machismo is present everywhere, and without dismantling machismo no one can be dismantled heteronormous because it is part of it.
I’m not saying that only trans people can write or tell trans stories, but at the moment we’re in (with the great ignorance that exists) only surrounded by diverse trans people can we surpass the clichés and the archetypes that are repeated one after another every time a trans person appears on screen.
EP.- WELL, SERIES ARE LOOMING TO APPROACH THE SENSIBILITIES OF AN INCREASINGLY DEMANDING AUDIENCE. PERHAPS IN PAY TV AND ALTERNATE MEDIA A BROADER SPECTRUM OF LGTBIQ REPRESENTATIONS HAS BEEN CREATED WITH SERIES SUCH AS TRANSPARENT, BUT ALSO ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK OR SENSE8 HOW ARE THE STORIES AND CHARACTERS THAT MAKE UP THESE NEW REPRESENTATIONS? HOW HAVE THESE FICTIONS IMPROVED?
The three series you mention have represented a radical change in the representation of trans in the audiovisual world. Until now normally the Trans people appear in series and movies to trick men, to be serial killers, or to show over and over again that in reality this female exterior they put on is nothing more than a mask that always falls at some point.
What differentiates
Sense8, Orange
and
Transparent
It’s that real trans people appear on screen and behind it. Transparent is based on the true story of its creator, the series is about the whole family and Maura’s transition is the trigger, but not the center. Among the actors and actresses there are many trans actors and actresses, the team of scriptwriters includes trans people, trans advisors, there are trans chapter directors, etc. Sense8
is directed by the Wachowski sisters, and the trans character (represented by a trans actress) goes far beyond being trans, that’s not their center. In Orange
Sofia’s character was a change, although her story was completely around the trance, was the discovery of the wonderful Laverne Cox, who actually appears in Doubt
, a new series, playing a character who was not written thinking about what she would be trans.
These characters have managed to break with the archetypes that always fell on trans people. Having trans people permeating all layers of production has filled their trans characters with maths, contradictions, reality.
EP.- ON OCCASION YOU SAY THAT “TRANS SHOULD NOT BE A VERY VISIBLE FORM OF BODY MODIFICATIONS” ANYTHING DIFFERENT FROM WHAT MEN AND WOMEN DO WITH AESTHETIC SURGERY, OR ATHLETES WHO TAKE GROWTH HORMONES AND SO MANY OTHER TRANSFORMATIONS TO WHICH PEOPLE SUBMIT TO CHANGE THEIR APPEARANCE. HOW DOES THE MEDIA DISCOURSE ADDRESS THESE ISSUES REGARDING THE REMA OF MEDICAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL DEVICES IN ADDRESSING TRANS PEOPLE?
The way we understand trans processes today is an invention of modern medicine and its ability to modify bodies. Modify them completely, because in this new way of understanding trans processes the concept of ‘Wrong body’ It is central and responsive to gender pressures that absolutely the whole world, not just trans people, receive. The system tells us that men have to be one way, and women another, trans people who seek to conform to these models are more visible because they have a longer journey, but in that struggle we are all.
Today, in many cases when a person passes, they do not do so only to change their gender, but incidentally take advantage to become the best version of themselves. A very striking example of this is Caitlyn Jenner who not only transitioned as a woman, but managed her whole body to transition 20 years ago. Another example of this are the “Packs of operations” that offer many surgeons. We do a mastectomy, and by the way we add some pectorales to make it look like you are going to the gym, or we add liposuction, or a sculpted of abs. Así, como el número desproportional de operación que se ofertan para las Trans women, as opposed to trans men. Because being a man and woman is no longer just that, it is answering all the pressures that are exerted on the concepts of “man and woman”: Caitlyn Jenner sacked herself 20 years on top, because all the women of her age who appear on TV have been sacked 20 years on top. It happened that they did it gradually and Jenner did it all in 6 months.
The unconscious collective goal of all this is to, in the long run go unnoticed, never be recognized as trans, to have the best medical treatments so that no one ever realizes and to be simply men and women, nothing more. To which I asked again: What is this doing for the people who inhabit the margenes? And all those people who do not identify as men or women? Are we opening paths or are we limiting bodily possibilities? Why do we continue to feed the wrong body narrative instead of seeking to expand the possibilities of Habitable bodies? Why don’t we feed the pride of being trans and having trans bodies so that, over time, being recognized as a trans person on the street is a source of pride, not fear?
Pol Galofre @Polgos
Interview: Ana Cecilia Cervantes