Still Trapped in the U.S. Media’s Closet: Representations of Gender-Variant, Pre-Adolescent Children

Abstract

Many studies have examined representations of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the U.S. media. Yet they have centered on portrayals of adults or teenagers. This investigation considered a potential LGBT population that has been neglected in media research, namely gender-variant, preadolescent children. Surveying the U.S. media at large but with an emphasis on television, the article reveals that gender-creative youth are nearly invisible. When depictions of gender-variant kids do appear, they often focus on either children who express extreme gender dysphoria or in some way signify the “tragic queer” motif (or both). The implications of these findings are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• gay media representations
• gender-creative children
• gender-nonconforming children
• gender-variant children
• LGBT media representations
• LGBT youth
• symbolic annihilation

Notes

1. For ethical reasons, the forthcoming fifth edition of this manual is considering eliminating the designation “gender identity disorder” and replacing it with another classification that does not harshly point to pathology (Pleak, 2011).

2. For a comprehensive account of parents who have chosen to completely welcome their gender-nonconforming children as they are and to help them healthily negotiate the resistance the kids might face, see Hill and Menvielle, 2009.