Welcome to Trans Tuesday! It’s time to look at some of the absolute weirdest instances of trans rep, or lack thereof, in TRANS REPRESENTATION IN 2025 MEDIA part 3: TV part 2!
Be sure you’ve read PART 1: MOVIES and PART 2: TV PART 1 first, because these are all part of a whole, and we’re trying to get an idea of the bigger picture of where things are at.
Onward!
Loot s3 – 1
MJ Rodriguez continues to have a lead supporting role as Sofia. But… but but but. See the 2022 and 2024 TRANS REP IN MEDIA REPORTS for the way this show just reallllllly wants to not say Sofia is trans, but alllllso doesn’t want to say she’s cis.
They keep her in this nebulous area where you just don’t know, meaning most viewers will assume she’s cis and never think twice about it. But it seems like since MJ is such a notable trans actress, they also don’t want to say she’s not trans and piss off all her fans. It’s a very baffling thing.
This isn’t a trans thing, but the season premiere is all about how funny it is that old people have bodies and might still like sex. Which, I feel, kind of illustrates where some of the humor in this show is coming from. We don’t need to make fun of people whose bodies are different in appearance or ability, actually!
Here’s some more weirdness:
In episode 2, Sofia asks a friend to pick up her sister Destiny, who didn’t connect with her real name… Nicole. It’s a joke about names, and how giving yourself your own name is goofy actually. And they gave it to the trans woman, who they won’t say is trans. What the heck?
In this episode, nonbinary actor Jesse Leigh (who stole every scene they were in on Rutherford Falls) has a small role. The character is not mentioned as being nonbinary.
In episode three they’re in England, and there’s food with goofy names, one of which is “soldier’s tit.” Sure.
In episode four, a guy is getting to train his trainers at the gym, and tells them to “suck their fupas in” and “get those tits out.” Two implicit jokes in the span of two sentences, c’mon.
In episode 6, Sofia is mad that Howard is dating her sister, and he says, “We’re being safe, I’m on the pill.” C’MON.
Here’s something really weird. In episode 7, Sofia says she moved across the country to get away from her family, and they’re “very different people,” with no reason given. And then she thanks a group of guys for inviting her to their guy’s game night…. which is a thing a trans woman might be incredibly conflicted about. I cannot comprehend what this show is doing with MJ and her character, it’s baffling.
In episode 8, Arthur is asked to wear an outfit without a shirt, and he says, “My boobs will be out”. We’re… still doing this, I guess.
That outfit is like an open-chested tux with a cape that says “pussy” on the lining, and Molly’s outfit is a giant bow that says “cock” on the lining. You see, because putting words for genitalia associated with one cisgender person on the other cisgender person’s clothes is… funny? In some alternate universe, maybe.
In episode 9, Molly is dating a younger man, and Sofia says, “You’re turning gender roles on their head.” Which is a nothingburger on its own, but again giving that line to the trans woman to say is some kinda weird.
In episode 10, Sofia goes to a congressional representative for legal help, and an aide there mentions she should run for office to take the rep’s place. Hold up. She is trans and someone’s gonna ask her to run for office? Who hasn’t seen the state of American politics, and trans people within that system? What are you doing?? Just acknowledge her transness please! Or at least confirm the character is cis. It’s all so bizarre.
Later in the episode, one cis lady asks another cis lady if she’s, “Yankin’ her rod.”
Man on the Inside s2 – 0
A cranky old man, known for being kind of a bigot, calls Charles (who works for a private investigator) “Nancy Drew.” I think the gag is meant to be “look how this old man is a clueless sexist,” but nobody really reacts to it or calls him on it, or makes him the actual butt of the joke. So sadly all it does is just perpetuate misgendering as funny, which it’s not.
There’s also a lot of teen kids in this who call everyone “bro,” including their mom
Murderbot s1 – 2*
Nonbinary actor Sabrina Wu plays nonbinary character Pin-Lee, they/them pronouns are used.
Murderbot itself is also nonbinary, its pronouns are it/its.
Here’s my issue with this. Murderbot is played by a cis white man, Alexander Skarsgård, and the showrunners are two cis white men. The thing is, not only is Murderbot nonbinary, it experiences all kinds of marginalization and discrimination for being what it is. And to give that role to a cis white man, and have the show run by cis white men, feels like appropriation of a trans role. It’s kind of allowing cis white men to play at being marginalized. And it’s a leading role that should have gone to a nonbinary actor, at the very least.
It’s possible that Alexander Skarsgård, or even one of the showrunners, Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz, is nonbinary and not out, or is nonbinary and doesn’t know it yet, and that is why any (or all!) of them may have been particularly drawn to Murderbot.
But even if that’s the case, you have to be conscious that as far as the entire world knows, you are three cisgender white men who have taken a nonbinary lead character and co-opted them for cisgender white men, and that’s not good. There are so many fabulous nonbinary actors who never get a shot at a lead role, who would have been fabulous.
Not to mention the way you could have undermined the “strong cis white man action hero” type by casting anyone other than a strong cis white man. Murderbot is a robot, it doesn’t need to look muscular! It shoots lasers and has future armor, literally any body type would have worked (and allowed someone who doesn’t look tall, muscular, and imposing to be an action star).
So this one is very complicated for multiple reasons.
Only Murders in the Building s5 – 0
There’s a scene where Oliver is sweating because he’s nervous and someone asks him why he’s sweating, and he says, “Menopause is difficult for everyone.” Le sigh.
Later in the same episode there’s a joke about how his gender-bent version of The Ten Commandments flopped, and that’s not a thing I’d even note for most shows, but given how transphobic this show got last season, I’m not sure if even something as small as that is just a weird joke or some more stealth transphobia sneaking in, because god doesn’t approve of trans people or something.
This is what happens when you fall into the transphobic joke trap, sometimes you can’t escape and we stop giving you the benefit of the doubt.
In episode five, okay… some really weird stuff goes down in a way that seems like it’s intentionally trying to stealthily reference transness? This episode features:
Charles (a cis man) goes on testosterone to make him more virile. Everyone’s fine with it, which you might think is a case of CIS PEOPLE GET GENDER AFFIRMING HEALTHCARE TOO, but then he says, “I’ve never been more connected to my body.” Which, like, is what HRT does for trans people?
He then says now he can open jars of… pickles. Specifically pickles. Which are a certified thing with tranfems.
It goes further, because this episode also features milky white suppositories… which is how many trans women take progesterone, which usually comes in milky white pills.
And then a robot is called a “short king,” which is apparently derogatory among cis men (because of course it is), but I hear routinely used as a compliment for trans men.
Like… what is happening here? Is this trying to make up for the massive amounts of implicitly transphobic jokes in season four? Is it also meant to be derogatory digs at trans people? So much in one episode feels like it cannot be coincidence, but I also cannot parse what they were trying to say with it. Not counting it as jokes at our expense, but it was definitely worth mentioning, even though it’s baffling.
In another episode, Oliver gets made fun of for wearing turquoise cowboy boots. Someone asks, “Are those women’s?” His reply, “They’re unisex.” And there’s a joke about Warren Buffet shaving his bikini line (because he’s a dude and dudes don’t wear bikinis! haw haw haw).
In a later episode there’s a joke about Oliver going to a manicurist, after he was just sexist about women going to them. And a woman walks into a room of two men and two women and says, “What’s up ladies?” Then later says, “Let’s go, ladies.” It feels it’s intended to be derogatory, and not like someone saying “guys” is just an example of societal sexism. And Mabel says, annoyed, that the defining characteristic of a “ladies night” is everyone having a uterus.
But not all women have a uterus, thank you.
The finale reveals that Charles was on a placebo, and not actually on testosterone, further muddling whatever was going on in episode five’s multiple stealth trans references.
The Pitt s1 – 2
Supriya Ganesh uses she/they pronouns, and plays Samira Mohan, who is cis.
In episode 4 there’s a trans woman sommelier, played by trans woman Ava Everett Irving, who’s a patient in the ER. We find out she’s trans because when they call her back she’s deadnamed, because that’s what’s on her insurance. That’s a big oof, but it’s also a real thing a lot of trans people have to deal with (I have personally been there). Before she leaves, one of the doctors notices her gender and name were wrong in the system, and changed them without even being asked. That’s great, and a fine example of PROACTIVE ALLYSHIP.
On the one hand, this is really great representation that presents a trans woman as a human worthy of dignity and respect just like every cis person is, and even provides a great example to cis people of how to be an accomplice.
But also her entire appearance revolves around getting deadnamed, and while that is a real thing a lot of us deal with all too often, it’s also hard when the only context we show up in, in the entire season of a show, is about discrimination and barriers we face. This is part of the problem with there being so fucking little actual trans representation, too often it all revolves around our pain and suffering.
If we had tons of trans rep with a wide variety of depictions, one or two that only touch on difficult things we experience wouldn’t be an issue at all. So this isn’t The Pitt’s fault, they did a good job, though adding another trans character somewhere who didn’t have to deal with transphobia would’ve helped. It’s just sad this is the state of trans representation in media.
In the finale, a cis woman says she thought the reason a cis man coworker went home early was because he’s a pussy. C’mon, we don’t need to do that.
Plur1bus s1 – 0
I love this show and the way it comments on the evils of colonialism, racism, xenophobia, assimilation, and the way fascism wants to flatten everything beautiful and unique about humanity into a dull beige paste.
I am continually haunted by the way the hive erases culture and art, and how queer and trans people no longer exist within the hive. The show has sparked more amazing philosophical discussions than any other presently running, and I love that. It really makes you think.
Carol’s wife dies in the premiere, and while that’s absolutely a case of the “bury your gays” trope, it serves an important story point and is needed to set up Carol’s relationship with the hive. But this is another instance of there just not being enough good queer representation in shows, just like I talked about with The Pitt.
If we had a lot of great queer rep, one queer spouse dying wouldn’t be a big deal. It wouldn’t even be a trope, it’d be like one member of a cishet couple dying… just another story point (provided that didn’t also fall into the Women in Refrigerators trope). But when there’s so very little good queer rep, seeing an instance of a happy queer relationship broken by a death, again, is difficult.
In episode 8, Carol writes a new chapter in her book series, and the male love interest she’d always wished she could have made a woman, but felt she couldn’t due to homophobia in the publishing world, is going to change to a woman via magical means. There’s no mention of trans people or what transness means in the fictional world she created, though, or even acknowledgement of the character in her book being trans.
When talking to Zosia, who represents the hive, Carol keeps pushing her to use singular pronouns, to say “I” instead of “we.” Zosia struggles, and Carol says, “All the brains in the world and you can’t navigate a fucking pronoun.” Which feels very much like a trans-supportive joke, and I am here for it.
Poker Face s2 – 2*
In one episode a guy calls a cis woman, “Dude,” and she later says “I’m a grown-ass man.” Not counting the “dude” as an intentional misgendering (it’s just societal sexism in language), but her misgendering herself for humor is certainly a joke at our expense.
Nonbinary actor Nicole Orabona plays a bartender in an episode, but the character’s gender isn’t mentioned.
Trans woman Patti Harrison plays Alex, a recurring role that is… somewhat problematic. Her character is not mentioned as trans.
In one episode she joins a gym with a cis lady, and calls the two of them “gym bros.” Weird thing to make a trans lady say, effectively misgendering herself, even if the character isn’t trans.
In the finale it’s revealed that her character Alex is a killer, but that’s not all. She goes by “Iguana” and is so good at disguises that she can look like anyone. Everyone also thinks Iguana is a guy, but surprise! It’s the trans woman. In this episode she says she “choked off all her humanity,” and “I don’t really do physical pleasure.”
Despite the character never being mentioned as trans, they hit multiple harmful trans tropes: the “Surprise, my gender is different than you thought” trope, the “trans people aren’t human” trope, the “trans people as tricksters” trope, and the “trans people can’t experience physical pleasure after transition” trope. All of them are bullshit, dehumanizing propaganda about us.
So while the character of Alex wasn’t mentioned as trans, it sure as hell feels like the show itself treats her like she was… and punished her, and all the rest of us, for it. Supremely uncool.
And I’m not saying trans people can’t be assassins or serial killers in stories, we can and should play evil and bad characters too. But if that’s all we are, and along the way you reconfirm and perpetuate a ton of false bullshit about us… we’d be better off if you never added us to your show at all.
First do no harm, damn.
We’ll leave it there for this week, but come back next week as we discuss trans rep in the rest of the complete television seasons I saw, and then look at the overall numbers… and compare them to past years.
The results may, or may not, surprise you.
Tilly Bridges, end transmission.
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