No description available.

Crime consumes much of the space in American newspapers and airtime on television news broadcasts. For many individuals, this is their primary exposure to crime and thus the source from which they form opinions and perceptions about these matters. Similarly, the news media also often serve as a source of information on different minority groups. Much research has been dedicated to how the news media portray crimes and victims in general, but no research exists on how, specifically transgender victims are represented. A content analysis was utilized to explore the technology used to talk about transgender victims, the names and pronouns by which they are identified, and the inclusion of extraneous information that may perpetuate stereotypes or victim blame. Since no research has previously addressed the depiction of transgender victims in the news, it is important that studies be conducted to assess how fairly and accurately news outlets are when portraying these victims. This thesis examines the ways in which transgender victims are portrayed in print media and discusses how these portrayals influence the reader's perception of the individual and provides suggestions for the media.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2009. / Title from title screen (site viewed January 5, 2010). PDF text: x, 249 p. ; 2 Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3360162. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Her Name Was is an examination of the oppression of transgender people in a society that is built on the nominalization of cisgender people, those who gender matchers their sex assigned at birth, and how this oppression lends itself to violence. In the summer of 2015, the body of Shade Schuler, an African American transgender woman, was found in a field outside of Dallas, Texas. Ms. Shade is part of an alarming epidemic of escalating levels of targeted violence against the transgender community. This documentary pulls back the curtain as it captures the feelings and struggles of the transgender community as they attempt to navigate and survive in a cis dominating society.

This dissertation examines the intersections among discourses of feminism, transgender studies, queer theory, film studies, and social activist practice. I address the question of how transphobia as a set of beliefs and behaviors is illustrated in four late-twentieth-century films, three produced in America and one originally released in Australia but later acquiring a significant following in this country. I define transphobia as the "fear of a transgendered person and the hatred, discrimination, intolerance, and prejudice that this fear brings" (Laframboise 2002) and transgender as a broad term that can apply to persons, behaviors, and filmic images, a "self-conscious politicization of identity that activates an investigation of gender relations within different s socio-spatial regimes" (Brooks 1) and "clearly disrupt[s] hegemonic notions of a stable trinity between sex, gender and sexuality" (Jennings and Lomine 146).I provide brief histories of feminist and queer theories to illustrate these fields' insufficiency in accounting for transgender experience and trace the establishment of transgender studies as an explicit field of study. Then, I examine works by transgender studies theorists and activists to explain the progression of thought that led to these writers' call for abolition of the binary gender system. In the following chapter, I trace the theoretical moves from a feminist theory of film to a queer theory approach to film, again pointing out the limited perspective that explicitly feminist analysis of film has frequently offered. Finally, I demonstrate the ways in which each film conforms to and/or defies heteronormative ideals of gender and sexuality and upholds the binary gender system. I suggest that ongoing efforts in transgender and other kinds of social activism might eventually bring about a postgenderist society wherein gender "roles" are no longer forced upon individuals, but may be adopted (or refused) by choice. To this end, I outline six criteria of what I term a positive film portrayal of transgender and explain how each film either meets or fails to meet these criteria, which generally focus on the degree to which the films allow their protagonists to maintain a gender identity that violates binary norms on a continual basis.

"Eh, You Māhū? An Analysis of American Cultural Imperialism in Hawai’i through the Lens of Gender and Sexuality" explores the impact of American settler colonialism on Native Hawaiian culture. This thesis magnifies the gender liminal identity of māhū to understand the intricacies of gender and sexuality as it relates to cultural formation. Broadly, this thesis is a historical analysis of the impact Western colonization has on indigenous cultures. Specifically, this analysis starts from the introduction of haole foreigners to Hawai’i in 1778 and extends to the present-day American occupation of the Hawaiian nation. By analyzing the ways American cultural imperialism is a systemic process rather than a single historical event, this work shows how Hawaiian culture has evolved to accommodate this process over time. This thesis understands why traditional Native Hawaiian culture provided a space for māhūs to be celebrated, while contemporary Hawaiian society has varying degrees of visibility for māhūs.

This study shows how political activists during the period from 2008 to 2013 worked toabolish the legal paragraph that demanded transgendered citizens to get a sterilization inSweden. By accounting for the themes of the medial debate, which for the most part aimedit’s criticism against society and it’s rulers for keeping the law intact, the study shows howsympathies for the transgendered group were framed. Most arguments that was put forth inthe news flow centered around the law being outdated, a discrimination againsttransgendered citizens and not correlating with Sweden self image of being a modern andcivilized country. This correlates with the activists view of what is problematic with the law,they considered it being a betrayal towards transgendered citizens, a dismissal of applyinghuman rights and their right to equal citizenship – through rejecting their reproductiverights. Their strategies involved appearing in media themselves, doing strategic processmanagement and meeting with government officials. This study shows that the law isconsidered by the activists to reinforce norms of heterosexuality and the societal belief thattransgendered people were not fit to uphold the role of a parent. The abolishing of the lawsymbolizes an inclusion of transgendered citizens in society and making them culturallyintelligible. The activists saw the abolishment of the law as a victory but also as aanticlimax, since it was decided by the court and not by politics in addition to experiencingthat the decision was formed too late, that the damaged was already done and the activistsfelt that more needs to be done to make transgendered citizens equal to others.

Research investigating etiology, or beliefs and values related to prejudice toward transgender individuals, is in the early stages. This study examined correlates and predictors of anti-transgender prejudice from a sample of 298 undergraduates at a large, urban university in the Southeastern United States. Measures of traditional values and beliefs, such as right-wing authoritarianism, and social dominance orientation, as well as social identity factors, such as intergroup contact, intergroup anxiety, in-group identity, and contact apprehension toward transgender individuals were examined. Bivariate correlations revealed that right-wing authoritarianism, contact apprehension, and intergroup anxiety were strongly correlated with anti-transgender prejudice, using the Genderism Transphobia Scale Revised version (GTS-R; Tebbe & Moradi, 2014). Contact with gay men and lesbians yielded a moderate negative correlation with GTS-R. Contact with transgender individuals yielded a small, but significant negative correlation with GTS-R. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that contact apprehension, right-wing authoritarianism, and contact with gay men and lesbians were significant predictors of GTS-R. A post hoc mediation analysis revealed that contact apprehension significantly mediated the relationship between gender and anti-transgender prejudice.

In June 2015, Caitlyn Jenner created waves of excitement with her coming out announcement on the cover of Vanity Fair: “Call me Caitlyn.” From the perspective of critical trans politics, however, the heightened visibility of trans people in mainstream media does not call for unequivocal celebration. Though trans women of color, such as Laverne Cox and Janet Mock, are more visible in mainstream media than ever before, mainstream media still largely depicts trans people through white constructs of what it means to be trans, namely medicalized binary transitions. Many trans people who deviate from mainstream media’s depiction of trans people are creating their own media on YouTube to voice their lived experiences. I argue that while YouTube is a particularly accessible platform for trans people to challenge transnormativity, the reach of trans YouTubers’ messages are highly limited by the medium’s design and genre conventions.

The aim of this study was to investigate how transgender people may experience the services that are offered by the Social Services. To fulfill the aim, the researchers decided to focus on the transgender peoples’ perspectives, and therefore chose to interview them and put them in an expert position. In this study a qualitative approach was used, and the data was gathered through two semi-structured face-to-face interviews. The main result was that the participants experienced that the Social Services sometimes might not have the right knowledge to give them proper information, sufficient support and the help they needed. Therefore, the participants often searched for information on their own, and the trust for the Social Services was unsatisfactory. One conclusion that could be drawn from this study was that the Social Services need to increase and improve their level of knowledge within this subject.