Transphobia In Popular Media (Renegade Cut Video Analysis)

EdibleKnife · May 13, 2019

I've spoken about Renegade Cut a few times before. It's a channel of film analysis with an eye toward contemporary social concerns about politics, race, identity, bigotry, philosophy and religion. The newest video (~22 minutes) outlines the persistence of transphobic framing and presentation in various movies and TV shows, from using transgender peoples as dangerous killers, deranged individuals, comedic punching bags etc. It's a fantastic deep dive into the subject and relates the trend to the real world consequences.
A warning to anyone LGBTQ+ or allied who is sensitive to the topic of sexual assault, transphobic mental, emotional and physical abuse and violence:

Gundam · May 13, 2019

A very good, very frustrating and saddening video.

ParmeSean · May 13, 2019

Very interesting watch

Trans women are women and trans men are men

Phendrana · May 13, 2019

Excellent video.

The lack of replies in this thread says a lot. Edit: I have been made aware it was posted late in the US.

Imperial Bishop · May 13, 2019

Renegade Cut is one of my favorite new channels I've subscribed to. Will definitely give this a watch.

Kay · May 13, 2019

Renegade Cut is the kind of high quality analysis that most YouTubers miss out on in favor of screaching about plot holes.

TheMadTitan · May 13, 2019

Phendrana said:
Excellent video.

The lack of replies in this thread says a lot.

Some of it has to do with people going "I'm not transphobic, so I have nothing to add so it'll be a wasted post" and passing along. That's what I did. then I read your post and was like "fuck that, I'm not gonna stay silent and appear as if I don't care!"

Then i watched the video and was "oh shit, I got some transphobic tendencies even though I don't consider myself transphobic!"

That latter realization is what people are avoiding, not so much being confronted or critiqued over their obvious or blatant transphobia, but the fact that they might see themselves as doing everything right but still being wrong.

Transphobia in the black community is far too much of a thing, so I try to keep that top of mind so I can avoid being that type of person. Clearly, I got some work to do.

Sou Da · May 13, 2019

Phendrana said:
Excellent video.

The lack of replies in this thread says a lot.

I wanna agree with you but also it's like 4 am where I live.

Aexact · May 13, 2019

Damn that Ace Detective 2 segment had it all. I watched it really young and didn't understand what he was revealing about the villain that was making everyone freak out. That's grim.

I never thought about the aspect of straight people playing gay/trans people because in the end they're actors but I hadn't thought of how it furthers the notion that gay/trans people are just acting rather than being.

I'm not sure if the takeaway is that gay/trans people can only be played by gay/trans actors but in the current atmosphere that demonizes them that way, maybe until attitudes that recognize people properly are in place. Until the point an assumption isn't so commonplace.

PeakPointMatrix · May 13, 2019

Will watch later, thanks for this.

Masquerader · May 13, 2019

Phendrana said:
Excellent video.

The lack of replies in this thread says a lot.

In the end, nobody seems to care for our Trans brothers and sisters. It's heartbreaking, no wonder they're always first to get shit on. Very few consider them worth actively defending.

Mekanos · May 13, 2019

I haven't had the chance to watch the video yet, but I love Renegade Cut. Opened a tab for it.

Masquerader said:
In the end, nobody seems to care for our Trans brothers and sisters. It's heartbreaking, no wonder they're always first to get shit on. Very few consider them worth actively defending.

I don't agree when you consider the enormous thread this site had regarding transphobic content in Catherine: Full Body. It's late on a Sunday night and covers a broad topic that a lot of people aren't sure where to jump in on.

Booki · May 13, 2019

Sou Da said:
I wanna agree with you but also it's like 4 am where I live.

Right. I wouldn't even be up right now if it wasn't for work.

I can't speak for everyone, of course.

Sadire · May 13, 2019

This was a good video, I never really stopped to think about the depiction of Einhorn in Ace Ventura and how harmful it really is.
I suppose it's a good thing I watched this video then.

Nightwing123 · May 13, 2019

I will watch this tomorrow thanks for informing us about the video.

Masquerader · May 13, 2019

Mekanos said:
I haven't had the chance to watch the video yet, but I love Renegade Cut. Opened a tab for it.

I don't agree when you consider the enormous thread this site had regarding transphobic content in Catherine: New Body. It's late on a Sunday night and covers a broad topic that a lot of people aren't sure where to jump in on.

I don't necessarily mean this forum. I just mean that, say, for example, if the Trans military ban was applied to black people instead, it would have been long overturned already, and rightly so, but in the end, even less people in the world care about Trans rights than Black rights, which is an astonishingly low bar to clear in the first place. In every facet of our lives, from media and beyond, they're considered a non-factor or a joke at best and abominable at worst, which is especially terrible seeing as it's already hard enough to be Trans in the first place before everyone hates you.

Mekanos · May 13, 2019

Masquerader said:
I don't necessarily mean this forum. I just mean that, say, for example, if the Trans military ban was applied to black people instead, it would have been long overturned already, and rightly so, but in the end, even less people in the world care about Trans rights than Black rights, which is an astonishingly low bar to clear in the first place. In every facet of our lives, from media and beyond, they're considered a non-factor or a joke at best and abominable at worst, which is especially terrible seeing as it's already hard enough to be Trans in the first place before everyone hates you.

I think it's a bad idea to compare the struggles of black people with trans people. Completely apples and oranges (and ignores the overlap between both).

EarthPainting · May 13, 2019

Phendrana said:
Excellent video.

The lack of replies in this thread says a lot.

I think the timing of the thread was less than ideal, since it hinges on watching a 20 minute video on a monday morning in Europe or sunday night in North America. I won't have an opportunity to watch the video for another 8 hours for instance.

Phendrana · May 13, 2019

EarthPainting said:
I think the timing of the thread was less than ideal, since it hinges on watching a 20 minute video on a monday morning in Europe or sunday night in North America. I won't have an opportunity to watch the video for another 8 hours for instance.

Sou Da said:
I wanna agree with you but also it's like 4 am where I live.

True, true. I forget how much of the userbase of the site is American.

Radeo · May 13, 2019

Phendrana said:
Excellent video.

The lack of replies in this thread says a lot.

It's a 22 minute video posted late night/early morning for a lot of people, what exactly does it say?

I'll watch it when I'm out of work and can actually listen to it

Thequietone · May 13, 2019

Great video. I knew most of the portrayals in media mentioned. I really hate the way people demonize other people. Just let them be themselves and don't mistreat them. It shouldn't be this hard.

Fallout-NL · May 13, 2019

Ace Ventura is awful. I was young when I saw it and didn't have the capacity to see that yet, but to think functioning adults wrote that, signed off on it and put it up on screen is very hard to forgive. It's barbaric is what it is.

Deleted member 15848 · May 13, 2019

Yeah, the way that trans people are depicted in media is pretty terrible. I can't think of any positive representation off the top of my head.

The only thing I took issue with is when it was stated that a trans person does not have to tell a potential sexual partner that they are in fact trans. I feel like the person has a right to know that information beforehand.

Platy · May 13, 2019

Aexact said:
I'm not sure if the takeaway is that gay/trans people can only be played by gay/trans actors but in the current atmosphere that demonizes them that way, maybe until attitudes that recognize people properly are in place. Until the point an assumption isn't so commonplace.

It would be much better if they just called a woman to play a woman or a man to play a man most of the time. It does not address the insanely small amount of trans actors hired but at least helps with the "trans men are real men" part.

Dibs said:
The only thing I took issue with is when it was stated that a trans person does not have to tell a potential sexual partner that they are in fact trans. I feel like the person has a right to know that information beforehand.

In your opinion, which other facts about the person should be stated before hand?

Also, if it matters that much, would not be easy for a person potentially bothered by this to just ...ask?

Tezz · May 13, 2019

Thanks OP. I shared it with some folks.

Raina · May 13, 2019

I'm gonna watch this now. Feel kind of obligated to as a trans woman. I'll update this post with my views afterwards. But yeah, the lack of replies speaks volumes.

Deleted member 203 · May 13, 2019

I'm not gonna watch this, because I'm trans and I don't need a reminder of how much hateful and ignorant stuff is out there (I'm well aware), but thanks for making the thread and highlighting it OP.

Eidan · May 13, 2019

I really wish Renegade Cut got more attention. All of his content is consistently great, especially his stuff discussing religion. He and ContraPoints are making Maryland proud.

y2kyle89 · May 13, 2019

I always thought Hannibal's "[Buffalo Bill] isn't transgender but thinks he is" line to be really weird. Like it was the bare minimum for not getting sued.

SweetVermouth · May 13, 2019

One example of internal transphobia is whether you think that a trans woman should be played by a man (or a trans guy by a woman). People justify this by saying "well it would be more accurate because they were a man/woman before transitioning" or "biologically they still are even after transitioning" and I have talked and argued against this with people but I had to give up because I was alone trying to make people understand this but because they were a group of 5 people I could never convince them otherwise.

I have watched a podcast about Trans people in horror movies just last week and I'd like to link it here because it also makes some good points and I'm surprised that the horror genre doesn't even have that many transphobic depictions of Trans people.

Now please don't let the shitty thumbnail stop you from watching this.

Raina · May 13, 2019

Just watched the video. It was really well done. Let's hope we see more positive representation in the future.

Eidan said:
I really wish Renegade Cut got more attention. All of his content is consistently great, especially his stuff discussing religion. He and ContraPoints are making Maryland proud.

ContraPoints is truscum (aka doesn't think you can say you are trans unless you've had surgery or hormone therapy), has been known to discriminate against non-binary identities, and flirts with the right for views. 😬 It's like she's trying to cater to cis people instead of trans people.

Ashlette · May 13, 2019

This is a great video that brought up some horrible childhood memories. I hid the following because it presents some really putrid comments that I heard as a kid.

I completely forgot about the "omg the she is a he!" bullshit in Ace Ventura until now. My parents loved the vomit scene so much that they sometimes skipped the earlier parts just to rewatch it. My dad would yell horrible things like "haha ace kissed a man! Now he's a <f slur>!" with my mom and they would both laugh. As an oblivious 10 year old kid, I had no idea why they thought it was so funny. But I still laughed with them, not knowing how that would hurt my way of thinking later in my life.

In 2017, I spent few days' worth of free time to learn about trans people. To summarize super briefly, I talked to a trans woman and grew sympathetic towards her over time, so I wanted to learn about her identity in general. Before that point, I knew that harmful stereotypes were common in media but I had no idea how hateful they were in the case of transgender individuals (after all, 90's sitcoms told me that crossdressing was "hilarious"!!1). It took me less than 5 minutes of research to learn that it was a far worse issue than I thought.

Right now I am better fit at defending trans people: I can tell when someone is presenting a transphobic argument and I can share some ContraPoints knowledge without referring to her videos. But I'm currently scrubbing some leftover pop culture words from my vocabulary, so I still have quite a few YouTube videos and GLAAD articles to correct me. For example, I had no idea that "sex change surgery" was a pejorative term until I watched this video.

Raina said:
ContraPoints is truscum (aka doesn't think you can say you are trans unless you've had surgery or hormone therapy), has been known to discriminate against non-binary identities, and flirts with the right for views. 😬 It's like she's trying to cater to cis people instead of trans people.

~~UGH. I had no idea about this. Very disappointing. It's also weird considering her Tiffany Tumbles video explains how catering to cis people can spread harmful expectations on transgender individuals.~~

EDIT: Acted too quickly. I'll wait until you prove your claims.

Rinse Bassfunk · May 13, 2019

Thanks for posting, will watch after I finish work.

Just this weekend I was having a tough conversation with friends over internalised transphobia and homophobia, language, causes, why I nip at them about their language.

Feels very difficult to get them over an initial hurdle, but hopefully that will lead to opening their mind about it moving forward

Deleted member 47700 · May 13, 2019

Bookmarking this to watch later, Renegade Cut is a real diamond in the rough when it comes to film analysis on YouTube.

Deleted member 15848 · May 13, 2019

Ace Ventura is definitely one of the worst offenses. I remember watching it and thinking to myself "how the fuck did this movie get made". I know it was a different time back then but still.

Platy said:
In your opinion, which other facts about the person should be stated before hand?

Also, if it matters that much, would not be easy for a person potentially bothered by this to just ...ask?

I think letting a potential partner know about your sexual health is important as well.

Platy · May 13, 2019

Raina said:
ContraPoints is truscum (aka doesn't think you can say you are trans unless you've had surgery or hormone therapy), has been known to discriminate against non-binary identities, and flirts with the right for views. 😬 It's like she's trying to cater to cis people instead of trans people.

Source?
Because I saw that before and people seem to source a video where she does not say any of this.

Also the whole point of her trans related videos is explaining those stuff to cis people.

Abstrusity · May 13, 2019

Raina said:
Just watched the video. It was really well done. Let's hope we see more positive representation in the future.

ContraPoints is truscum (aka doesn't think you can say you are trans unless you've had surgery or hormone therapy), has been known to discriminate against non-binary identities, and flirts with the right for views. 😬 It's like she's trying to cater to cis people instead of trans people.

What? I don't get that from her at ALL. Do you have sourcing on this stuff? The 'flirts with the right for views' is because she's explaining stuff to cis people and especially people who are anti-trans. She uses self-deprecating humor, everything I've been able to find is that she doesn't think transitioning is enough for HER.

Like, this is ridiculous levels of eating our own, here.

OrangeNova · May 13, 2019

Raina said:
Just watched the video. It was really well done. Let's hope we see more positive representation in the future.

ContraPoints is truscum (aka doesn't think you can say you are trans unless you've had surgery or hormone therapy), has been known to discriminate against non-binary identities, and flirts with the right for views. 😬 It's like she's trying to cater to cis people instead of trans people.

Just because that's the route they chose, doesn't mean that's what they believe? And I'm gonna need receipts on NB discrimination.

Also they aren't trying to cater to anyone, they have their own views and use their views and platform to educate and hopefully de-radicalize people who have fallen down an alt-right rabbit hole by being what a left leaning centrist should be. (Before I get called out on saying the dreaded centrist word, Boogie is very right leaning, no matter how "Lets stay in the middle and be centrist", I'm using the real world definition of centrist not the internet definition.)

take_marsh · May 13, 2019

Honestly, my eyes have only been opened to the transgender world in the past few worlds and I'm under 30 years old. Sadly, popular media will still probably have many years before the harmful tropes of trans women and men are more of a history lesson than part of the zeitgeist. This video is good and enlightening.

Raina said:
ContraPoints is truscum (aka doesn't think you can say you are trans unless you've had surgery or hormone therapy), has been known to discriminate against non-binary identities, and flirts with the right for views. 😬 It's like she's trying to cater to cis people instead of trans people.

Yeah, gonna need receipts on that. And the idea that Contrapoints is "flirting with the right" is laughable. I'm not even sure where that idea comes from but would love to be shown those receipts too.

Raina · May 13, 2019

I would show you the receipts but she deleted them.

RE: The Aesthetic video

Deleted tweets (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-YUAcx0BL0dc61LxOm0My7CJUZx_MAWe/view?usp=drivesdk)

Threads that sum up how I feel about her with receipts: Here and Here (re the aesthetic)

Heart of Poumn · May 13, 2019

I'm on real spotty WiFi at the moment. Put this page on watch and I'll hopefully get to it later today.

Deleted member 8561 · May 13, 2019

Phendrana said:
Excellent video.

The lack of replies in this thread says a lot.

Dude OP posted it at 3AM EST and Midnight west coast, the morning after Game of Thrones aired.

Not exactly a stellar time slot

OrangeNova · May 13, 2019

Raina said:
I would show you the receipts but she deleted them.

RE: The Aesthetic video

Deleted tweets

Threads that sum up how I feel about her with receipts: Here and Here (re the aesthetic)

Ah, the 'ol aesthetic video, because the rest of her stuff doesn't deal with controversial subjects in subcultures, so why would this one? The back and forth debate videos while I agree are the weakest of their videos... But she is portraying someone who says that they need to pass and visually represent the idea of being a woman, and the other is saying they shouldn't have to they should be able to look how they want to look. Neither person is wrong, but neither person is right. Both are just discussing their opinions on what their definition of what being trans means. Also both people in the video are "Characters".

She addressed both before and after the video came out that she was going to get a lot of hate for it, but she's also held to unrealistic standards because she's a (semi)famous trans youtuber whose transition was very public... Every trans person is going to hold different ideas of what it means to be trans.

Deleted member 203 · May 13, 2019

I don't really want to derail this more about contrapoints, but: she literally said in one of her videos that a cis man dating a trans woman isn't gay "if she's been on hormones for a couple of years." That isn't out of context, it's a literal thing she said. It's in the follow-up to The Aesthetic iirc, if you care to watch it. I stopped watching her after that.

Contra is making explainers for cis folks. And she's good when she's not talking about gender ideology. But when she is, she peddles a very narrow view of gender. I'm not gonna sit here and completely condemn her and everything she's ever done but please know she's not a representative of all trans/non-cis folks, and that her gender ideology is very very normative, and that she has said a lot of bad things that she later ended up walking back. She's willing to learn and that's good I guess (see also her being nice to Jesse Singal until quite recently), but yeah. Not thrilled that a lot of cis folks consider her the be-all end-all of Trans Mouthpieces.

OrangeNova · May 13, 2019

Nora said:
I don't really want to derail this more about contrapoints, but: she literally said in one of her videos that a cis man dating a trans woman isn't gay "if she's been on hormones for a couple of years." That isn't out of context, it's a literal thing she said. It's in the follow-up to The Aesthetic iirc, if you care to watch it. I stopped watching her after that.

Contra is making explainers for cis folks. And she's good when she's not talking about gender ideology. But when she is, she peddles a very narrow view of gender. I'm not gonna sit here and completely condemn her and everything she's ever done but please know she's not a representative of all trans/non-cis folks, and that her gender ideology is very very normative, and that she has said a lot of bad things that she later ended up walking back. She's willing to learn and that's good I guess (see also her being nice to Jesse Singal until quite recently), but yeah. Not thrilled that a lot of cis folks consider her the be-all end-all of Trans Mouthpieces.

I've literally said "Every trans person is going to hold different ideas of what it means to be trans." I don't consider her the end-all be-all of what trans is.

Deleted member 203 · May 13, 2019

OrangeNova said:
I've literally said "Every trans person is going to hold different ideas of what it means to be trans." I don't consider her the end-all be-all of what trans is.

I said "a lot", not "every", and wasn't addressing you in particular, and I'm not sure what made you think otherwise.

Also maybe don't talk over trans people on trans subjects.

DJGolfClap · May 13, 2019

Seeing yourself constantly represented as a murder victim in police procedural really sucks, friends.

Pankratous · May 13, 2019

Phendrana said:
Excellent video.

The lack of replies in this thread says a lot.

The only thing it says is that people are not willing to watch a 20 minute video. I certainly am not. If the point could be condensed into a few minutes the thread would be bouncing I think.

Deleted member 47700 · May 13, 2019

Almost finished it now, really great video that I hope a lot of people see.

Pankratous said:
The only thing it says is that people are not willing to watch a 20 minute video. I certainly am not. If the point could be condensed into a few minutes the thread would be bouncing I think.

The video isn't a second too long.

jack_package_200 · May 13, 2019

Great video

Good that he called out Deadpool

Transphobia In Popular Media (Renegade Cut Video Analysis)

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