This is me: Hidden pedagogy in the television series, Transparent

Abstract

This paper performs a case study of the hit television series, Transparent, and considers the public pedagogy (Burdick & Sandlin, 2013) the show produces. In order to do this, it conducts a discourse analysis (Gee, 2015, 2017) of two scenes that take place during the show’s first season. We conducted interviews with six members of the show’s creative team who identified these two scenes as germane to the pedagogical aspirations of the show, and they comprise the focus of the paper. Accordingly, the authors analyze both the scenes and excerpts from the interview transcripts to critically examine the ways in which the television show may teach its audience about gender, sexual fluidity and trans* subjectivities. The piece concludes with implications for how the show furthers the public Discourse regarding nonbinary, trans*, and gender creative individuals.

Keywords:

• public pedagogy
• discourse analysis
• trans*gender
• transparent

Notes

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the reviewers whose insightful comments inarguably strengthened this paper. The authors also thank James Paul Gee who read an early draft of the piece and provided important critical feedback that helped shape the analysis.

Notes

1 The authors recognize that two of the show’s employees – actress (Trace Lysette), and one female personal assistant – recently accused Jeffrey Tambor of multiple incidents of sexual harassment. While we certainly condemn Tambor’s conduct, the show carries tremendous potential to help in the lives of non-binary people, and Lysette herself appeals for the show to continue. With this in mind, we believe that exploring the pedagogical implications of the show remains a worthy pursuit for helping to create discourses of equity and justice.

2 “Cis” has recently become a widely used word that is short for “cisgender.” It is used to indicate a person whose gender identity aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joseph D. Sweet

Joseph D. Sweet is a PhD candidate at Arizona State University whose research interests include pedagogies of gender equity in secondary English language arts, qualitative inquiry, critical theory, and masculinities.

David Lee Carlson

David Lee Carlson is an associate professor in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. He conducts research in the area of Qualitative Inquiry.