1 Introduction
Examining White supremacy and heteropatriarchy is key to the understanding of the system of oppression running through Western societies at large. Manifestations of consolidated White supremacy and patriarchal systems have been extended to homonormativity as a system that is friendly towards cisgender White gay men in popular culture and media but rejects and silences the rest of the members of the LGBTIQ+ community, which includes Black and Latinx trans women, among many other racial, ethnic, and gender identities. The lack of adequate representation of Black and Latinx trans communities erases their identities and their experiences, at the same time contributing to persistent prejudice. Considering that the most prominent trans identity in American popular media has traditionally been the White trans feminine character (Abbott 2022, 11), FXâs series Pose (2018â2021) shifts the narrative towards Black and Latinx trans women.
The series features the largest cast of transgender actors in main roles in the history of mainstream television shows and the largest recurring cast of LGBTIQ+ actors ever for a scripted series (Andreeva 2017; Goldberg 2017). Created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Steven Canals, Pose rapidly became a globally acclaimed drama series thanks to its presence in streaming services such as HBO and Netflix (Hidalgo-Ciudad 2022, 188) and is considered a landmark example of trans representation in film and television (Koch-Rein, Haschemi and Verlinden 2020, 1). Michaela Jae RodrÃguez, as Blanca Evangelista, made history as the first out trans woman to be nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (Gonzalez 2021; Zornosa 2021). MJ RodrÃguez won the 2022 Golden Globe Award for Best ActressâTelevision Series Drama. Her predecessor was Laverne Cox playing Sophia Burset on Netflixâs Orange Is the New Black (2013â2019), a role for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 2014. Since then, the number
This chapter aims at examining how the experiences of transgender women of color are portrayed in Pose. Although it has received criticism related to colorism (Henderson 2019), the show enhances how Latinx and Black communities powerfully participate in popular culture and reconfigure it to be more inclusive and diverse. Resistance, agency, and the creation of cultural safe spaces are at the core of Poseâs narrative revolving around Black and Latinx characters. Far from leaning into tokenism, the creators, producers, and writers of the show have addressed these experiences as intersectional in terms of gender identity, race, ethnicity, and class. By having Black, Afro-Latinx, and Latinx people as part of the cast and the production team, the show aims at telling the story of their culture and their day-to-day experiences celebrating their lives. The show focuses on these minorities during the 1980s and 1990s in New York City carefully avoiding stereotypical tropes.
My analysis will delve into the diverse resistance strategies deployed by different characters when facing reality outside the ballroom, when they focus on their jobs and social interaction with people outside their community while evidencing the Latinx and transcultural stereotypes on display in the show. Blanca Evangelista (MJ RodrÃguez), Elektra Wintour (Dominique Jackson), Angel Evangelista (Indya Moore), Lulu Ferocity (Hailie Sahar), and Candy Ferocity (Angelica Ross) are the main five Black and Latinx trans women characters in Pose. In particular, the chapter will focus on how the characters develop agency as trans women of colorâand also as Afro-American or Latino cisgender gay and bisexual men such as Damon (Ryan Jamaal Swain) and Lil Papi (Angel Bismark Curiel) respectively; Blancaâs struggle in building the House of Evangelista and the different strategies deployed for survival against racism and LGBTIQ+phobia; Blancaâs role as a mother and her relationship with her biological Dominican family, and how racism and transphobia are depicted as part of the LGBTIQ+ community in the 1980s. Racism and transphobia are reflected in the portrayal of these charactersâ identities, exposing the stigmatization they suffer both within and outside the LGBTIQ+ community.
Media scholars have argued that representations of minority groups can influence how audiences perceive and receive images of members of these groups (Grossberg et al. 2013). Thus, the establishment of a relation between the exposure to media portrayals of Latinx queer and trans people and mainstream public perceptions in general is inevitable. Media portrayals of
2 Contextualizing Representation and Stereotypes
Stereotypes, normally defined as âinborn and unalterable psychological characteristicsâ (Berg 1997, 105) can help people categorize the diversity and complexity of society. However, this becomes problematic as these generalizations are often negative and target the members of minority groups that are already subjected to discrimination (ibid). Such stereotypes contribute to the further marginalization of their members (Cortés 1992, 91); in fact, âthe in-group transforms the out-group into simplistic symbols by selecting a few traits of the Others that pointedly accentuate differencesâ (106). Stereotypical traits are important in the construction of characters, influencing their development, decisions, and how they relate to other characters (Bernhardt 2021, 246).
As Jessica Jobe argues, the vast majority of cisgender people have never known a trans person and they might not understand what being trans means (2013, 8). Thus, representations of trans people on-screen become the only source of âinformationâ and âeducationâ for mainstream audiences on the trans community and their experiences. The report Where Are We on TV (2020) highlighted how only 9.1 percent of the TV characters analyzed belong to the LGBTIQ+ community (GLAAD 2020, 4). The trans community is even less represented and, historically, on-screen trans characters have been heavily stereotyped (McLaren 2018, IV; McLaren, Bryant & Brown 2021, 172). GLAAD found that in the few TV series that included trans characters broadcasted between 2002 and 2012, 54 percent were negative and stereotyped representations as either victims or villains/killers (Victims or Villains 2012). Following Jeremy Russell Miller, âtrans characters have also been represented for mockery [which] is the most popular type of representation for trans characters in cinemaâ (2012, 47).
From the 1970s onwards, the representation of trans people on the screen has increased and, most specifically, it started gaining critical attention during
Additionally, the trans-killer stereotype on-screen is characterized by the hiding of their trans identity until the moment of revelation in the end (Miller 2012, 109). This peculiarity suggests a direct relationship between being trans and being a murderer since the audience becomes aware of both aspects at the same time. A good example of this mechanism is deployed in the TV series Pretty Little Liars (2010â2017), in which the antagonist identifies as trans, tries to kill someone, and then tries to commit suicide. This type of development is crucial to understand the impact of such stereotyped representations because the target audience of the show was composed of teenagers, presented with a narrative âlinking transsexuality with personality disorders and violenceâ (Abbott 2022, 17). A product like Pretty Little Liars contributes to create emotional distance between the trans character and the audience, making it harder for the viewers to empathize with the trans villain and, therefore, producing detachment and misrepresentation (Miller 2012, 233).
Comedy has always been another realm of on-screen representation of trans people by presenting the heteronormative identities as the correct ones to identify with, in opposition to identities âout of the norm.â Outcast characters are presented as subjects to be laughed at or instrumentalized as comic relief. This employment of trans characters not only fosters a distancing mechanism between the audience and the trans character but also assumes that the audience will interpret this representation as acceptable (Miller 2012, 48). A good example of this type of stereotype is articulated in the popular TV show Friends (1994â2004) when Chandler Bingâs (Matthew Perry) father is revealed as a trans woman, Helena Handbasket (Kathleen Turner) (season 7, episode 22), and her gender identity is presented as the cause of Chandlerâs unhappiness throughout his childhood and adolescence (Jobe 2013, 21). Thus, the stigmatization of identities external to the heteronormative status quo reinforces the use of trans characters as buffoons, to whom the audiences laugh
In crime TV series, trans characters are commonly introduced as victims. The most common narrative is that of the sex worker trans woman who suffers sexual abuse and is eventually murdered (Reitz 2017, 3). Even though the type of violence suffered by trans characters varies, their stereotyped representation as victims enacts the message that living openly as a trans person is inadvisable because their identity puts them in a constantly endangered situation (Abbott 2013, 33). Furthermore, trans characters often become the victim after publicly revealing their trans identity. When analyzing the impact of such representation, the fact that trans people are also part of the audience cannot be ignored (Miller 2012, 35). The assumptions induced by these stereotyped representations will influence trans experience both within and outside the community regarding how their identity is seen through a cisgender lens.
Despite the percentage of Latinx population in the United States amounts to about 18.5 percent, observing the racial-ethnic breakdown of broadcast scripted leads for the 2017â2018 television season it can be seen how Latinx leads are at 5 percent, even though it increased to 6.6 percent for the 2018â2019 season in broadcast scripted shows (Hunt & Ramón 2020, 22); 3.4 percent and 5.5 percent in cable scripted shows (23); and 4 percent and 5.9 percent in digital scripted shows (24). Diversity, however, is a growing concern for broadcasters and streaming companies. In fact, content providers are trying to separate themselves from the hegemonic discourses long associated with broadcast networks by promoting greater sexual and gender diversity in their programs (Boisvert 2020, 184).
When it comes to Latinx stereotypes, Charles Ramirez Berg (2002) defines the bandido, the harlot, the male buffoon, the female clown, the Latin lover, and the dark lady (66) as the defining and demeaning images of Latinxs in US mainstream film production and popular culture. In fact, Ramirez Berg argues that ârepresentation needs to be understood within a social and historical context. The images of Latinos in American film exist not in a vacuum but as part of a larger discourse on Otherness in the United Statesâ (4).
Latinos have been pictured as âdirty, violent, hypersexual, treacherous, and thievingâ (Limón 1992, 3) and obsessed with machismo while seeking immediate gratification (ibid.) or as heavily alcoholic (8) and buffoons (Ramirez Berg 1997, 108). The focus on Latinas is usually on their sexuality as promiscuous (Bender 2003, 11; Ramirez Berg 2002, 71; Cortés 1997, 134) or as sexually
While some recent films and television series have featured positive Latinx representations (Larson 2006, 57), overall portrayals have remained relatively unchanged, as television continues to use stereotypes as character development shortcuts (Satchel 2017, 32), with Latinx actors primarily playing criminals, law enforcement officers, and unskilled laborers (Molina-Guzman 2018, 16). According to Larson, these images of Latinx people have a common purpose: âBy omitting racial minorities or portraying them in stereotypical and limiting ways, the dominant culture subordinates and justifies the subordination of racial minoritiesâ (2006, 15). Compared to White Americans, racial minorities are labeled as âotherâ as a result of stereotyping and subsequent subjection (Ramirez Berg 2002, 68; Satchel 2017, 30). The fact that racial minorities rarely get to tell their tales or develop their images, given that the norm is White, patriarchal, and heteronormative, to break free from such media stereotyping is difficult and the ensuing pictures continue to impact societyâs views on race (Molina-Guzman 2018, 11; Satchel 2017, 21). In fact, Latinx actors are usually bound to interpret a reduced number of role types, often limited to comic-relief devices, criminals, ambivalent law enforcers, or over-sexualized and objectified characters (Mastro, Behm-Morawitz and Kopacz 2008, 2). In that sense, Latinx and trans-stereotypical representations on screen do not largely differ from one another since comical, criminal, and sexual tropes are common to both.
Equally, as it occurs with trans representation on screen and transphobia, stereotyped Latinx roles constitute a form of racism that might directly lead to misjudgements in the audience who might believe that those portrayals actually correspond to reality. As an oppressed and marginalized community, a consistent pattern of underrepresentation over the past decades is evident (Tukachinsky, Mastro, and Yarchi 2017, 540). In addition to this, Latinx characters are often portrayed as not articulate and having heavy accents, dressed poorly, and living lives connected to crime and violence (Rivadeneyra 2006, 394). Considering both trans and Latinx stereotyping patterns, it can be argued that there is a degree of intersectionality in their mis/underrepresentation on screen. The women in Pose are simultaneously subjected to three different social stigmas that affect both their private and public life: they are oppressed based on their sexual, racial, and gender identity.
Canonical works such as Michel Foucaultâs The History of Sexuality (1978), Judith Butlerâs Gender Trouble (1990) and Bodies That Matter (1993) have been considered ground-breaking in terms of developing and addressing queer studies since the 1980s. Furthermore, prominent trans and cis scholars have emphasized not only the importance and influence that trans studies have on womenâs studies, gender, and sexuality studies but also the different rifts that might exist between them (Stryker and Whittle 2006; Stryker and Aizura 2013; Elliot 2010). Stryker argues that trans studies is an interdisciplinary academic field concerned with âtranssexuality and cross-dressing, some aspects of intersexuality and homosexuality, cross-cultural and historical investigations of human gender diversity [and] theories of sexed embodiment and subjective gender identity developmentâ (2006, 3).
The ongoing debates on how queer, feminist, and trans theories intersect or diverge from one another can be observed in works such as Viviane Namasteâs, stating that âqueer theorists find themselves similarly aligned both for and against trans in ways that promise alliance on one hand and erasure on the otherâ (in Elliot 2010, 3). These concerns go back to Sandy Stoneâs The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto (1987), in which she remarked how feminists like Janice Raymond (1979) suggested that transsexuality was a form of internalized masculine or feminine stereotyping. Additionally, transgender people were considered as individuals who intentionally harmed their own bodies in the process of transitioning or, in Strykerâs words, âtranssexuals were the visible symptoms of a disturbed gender systemâ (2006, 4). On the same note, Raymondâs conceptualization of trans people attends to problematizing âthe assumed correlation of a particular biological sex with a particular social gender [and] are often considered to make false representations of an underlying material truth, through the willful distortion of surface appearanceâ (in Stryker 2006, 9). Thus, as Elliot argues, much transphobia originated and can still be found within feminist and queer communities alike, as well as in mainstream ideologies and social practices of the medical and psychiatric communities (2010, 11). Despite this conflictive relationship between the two fields, trans studies and queer studies emerged with parallel trajectories along with the 1980s HIV/AIDS socio-political and cultural crisis.
Drawing on Stryker, it can be observed how the appearance of queer studies in the late 1980s and early 1990s is connected to the fact that the relationship among concepts such as sexuality, identity, and the public sphere went through a profound rethinking because of the AIDS crisis (2006, 7). The virus carried a strong stigma and was depicted as a âgay diseaseâ and a âdivine punishmentâ
Jay Prosser argues that much about trans studies is irreconcilable in relation to queer studies given the specificity of the trans experience, the importance of the âflesh to self,â the differentiation between gender identity and sex, and the need or desire to pass as a cisgender individual in the gendered world without being outed (2013, 56). This way, as Stryker also states, trans studies should enable a powerful critical reading of âcontemporary (post)modernity in all its complexityâ when attuned to the differences in race, location, and class, as well as to differences within gender identity (2006, 15). For the purpose of this chapter, it is also fundamental to look at how race, as an additional vector of power, also plays a role in characterizing trans experiences. Attending to ElÃas Krell, âthe implicit radicality of terms like queer and trans produces the very elision of race, class, ability, and other vectors of power that those terms presumable meant to includeâ (2018, 63).
The recent shifts in mass media consumption and the rapid development in digital technologies have accelerated the production of transgender representation across media, film, and television (Billard 2016; Capuzza and Spencer 2017; McLaren, Bryant and Brown 2021). While feminist approaches to the study of trans representation follow the model of addressing how male dominance and the patriarchy are perpetuated through media narratives, queer theory is concerned with deconstructing the binary gender system and unraveling heteronormativity (Keegan 2020, 287). In these cases, trans media representation has been evaluated as good when opposing the patriarchal hierarchy of domination and disrupting the binary gender system, or bad when they are misogynist and endorsing the validity of such binarism. However, Thomas J. Billard and Erique Zang (2022) differentiate between trans media representation that is produced by the cisgender majority for cis audiences in contrast with trans media representation which is trans-produced (194). How transgender people represent themselves, their identities, and their experiences becomes fundamental when critically approaching transgender media representation.
Therefore, Billard and Zang draw from the sociology of culture to argue for a model of evaluation of transgender representation attending to âthe specificities of trans identity and experience rather than evaluating representation
Transgender representation in media, therefore, is necessarily addressed focusing on the interaction and structure of the collective meaning and making of such cultural products. Additionally, the sociology of culture allows for further investigation related to the dynamics of race, and other social inequality factors (Lamont 2000, 602). This methodology allows for a critical look at the intersectional issue of under/misrepresentation of not only transgender people but also trans people of color, as is the case in Pose. Billard and Zhang argue that âthis new orientation is particularly important given the digital media environment ⦠in which trans media representations are increasingly produced by trans people for both cis and trans audiencesâ (198). As previously mentioned, what differentiates Pose from other previously acclaimed cultural objects for their inclusion of trans people of colorâs identities and experiences, such as Transamerica (2005), is the vast amount of transgender people of color involved in the production of the show on screen and behind the scenes.
4 Ballroom Community: Resistance, Family, and Survivability
In the work of Marlon M. Bailey, we can read how the gender and sexual performativity of the ballroom subculture emerges and functions amid the gaps
Understood as a âflamboyant, semi-public ritual performanceâ (Bailey 2013, 630), ballroom is depicted as an example of a performative response to the spread of HIV/AIDS infection among minorities, and the silence of Ronald Reganâs government (1981â1989). As seen in Pose, most members of the ballroom community are Black and Latinx and, therefore, their performance can be seen as a form of activism to raise awareness and build a safe space that allows them to support one another in a context of intersectional marginalization. In line with this argument, practices such as so-called prevention ballsâduring which safe sex practices are promoted to educate the community against spreading HIV/AIDSâdemonstrate how vulnerability is addressed and ballroom community members are encouraged to gain agency against threats such as racism, sexism, classism, and transphobia.
Blanca Evangelista, the lead character in the show, defines ballroom houses as âhomes to all the little boys and girls who never had one ⦠the family you get to chooseâ (episode 1, season 1). Participants organize balls, which Blanca defines as âa gathering of people who are not welcome to gather anywhere else, a celebration of a life that the rest of the world does not deem worthy of celebrationâ (ibid.). Balls involve vogueing, modeling, the use of homemade outfits, and performances based on categories that vary according to criteria induced by stereotypes, gender roles, and social classes. Blanca describes realness as âwhat itâs all about, to be able to fit into the straight White world, to embody the American Dreamâ (ibid.). Since these individuals do not have access to that dream/world due to their race, gender identity, and sexuality, she states that the purpose of the balls and their categories is to âdance your way into the world of acceptabilityâ (ibid.). Ballroom subculture intertwines with reality through the establishment of different Houses that expand the limits of the cultural safe space that the ballroom offers, providing real-life support to their members and a kinship structure for education on queer matters.
4.1 House of Evangelista
Families are often analyzed and conceived through the scope of the biological relationship that exists between the members of the families in question. Society and scholars âpaid significant attention to homo-parental families during the latter part of the twentieth century, the twenty-first century has seen an increased focus on parents who are genderqueer [who] challenge and are challenged by the discourse of âmotherhoodââ (Park 2020, 66). The traditional structure is known to have given rise to the definition of a family that follows the biological imperative and the binary distinctions of society on parenting and motherhood. However, when approaching the notion of family, two different concepts emerge: the nuclear vs the alternative family.
In the context of the ballroom subculture, relationships are constructed socially from the very beginning, rather than biologically or legally. According to KlitgÃ¥rd, âmirroring the traditional family institution, [ballroom] houses not only become a source of protection, care, trust, and knowledge; their very structure, [he argues], induces a queer repro-generational timeâ (2019, 108). In Jennie Livingstonâs Paris Is Burning (1990), Dorian Corey, an experienced
4.2 Mother Blanca: Savior of Lost Souls
When Blanca receives her diagnosis as HIV-positive, she decides to leave the House of Abundance, led by Elektra, to become a House Mother herself: âWhen I got kicked out, I was a 17-year-old kid who didnât understand who I was, if I was gonna die in the cold or from starvation. You found me, took care of me. You helped me understand. Itâs time I pass that kindness onâ (season 1, episode 1). However, this is not well received by Elektra, who argues that Blanca should be paying that kindness back to her: âYouâre not ready ⦠Look at me. Look at you. I can pass. I can strut down Fifth Avenue when the sun is sitting high as my cheekbones and be waited on at Bergdorfâs same as any White woman, while you hide away in the shadowsâ (ibid.). From this scene, we can observe how passing becomes not only a survival strategy but a competition among the members of the community, fostered by the voting system of the balls. The main goals in ballroom competition are indeed based on realness and passing, setting high standards for the community and inducing its members to take extreme measures, such as Candyâs repeated plastic surgery interventions to modify her body to compete and win a category based on âcurves.â Ballroom members experience violence and oppression in their daily lives and must therefore search for survival strategies (Bailey 2011, 366). The dialogue cited above clearly presents to the audience two types of House Mothers: on the one hand, Blanca is willing to help âany lost soulsâ (ibid.) out of the misery of living in the streets and engaging in prostitution; on the other hand, Elektra sees the routine of the balls as her only purpose and cannot see past the real struggle of her community because of her ego as a femme fatal. This vulnerability is the reason why passing becomes an important part of the community and queer peopleâs lives given the systemic obstacles found when trying to gain certain economic or social stability coming from precarious living conditions (Hidalgo-Ciudad 2022, 189).
Though Elektra will remain as a motherly figure for Blanca throughout the series, the first son that Blanca has at Evangelista is the aforementioned Damon Richards, who at first is reluctant to join the ballroom community given his professional dancer aspirations in life. Once Damon goes to a ball with Blanca, he realizes that he misjudged Blancaâs intentions and the nature of ballroom; when he apologizes, Blanca replies: âYou are a gay Black boy, who else you gonna find to make you feel superior?â (season 1, episode 1). This is the first time in the series that intersectional oppression and marginalization are explicitly addressed for the audience. As will be observed later in the analysis of Blancaâs fight for trans rights, Black and Latinx trans women seem to have been relegated to the bottom of the social hierarchy.
In the first episode, Blanca will obtain for him an audition at the New School of Dance in New York City even though the deadline has passed. She will argue with the Head of Admissions, Helena St. Rogers (Charlayne Woodard), about how Damon has been discarded and, as a result, he believes that it has something to do with who he is, which eventually would eat at him from the inside until he would start resenting the best parts of himself (ibid.). After his emotional performance of I Wanna Dance with Somebody (1987) he is admitted into the school. When reunited with Blanca, he states: âIâd be dead if it werenât for you. Another day in the park, and I would have went with anybody for some food, done anythingâ (ibid.). Thus, Blanca, as a House Mother, takes up the parental work that, for example, Damonâs parents were unwilling, or unable, to provide him with. This scene is one of many in which we can observe how âthe kin labor undertaken in houses and among the larger memberships in the ballroom community sustains the community and adds value to the membersâ livesâ (Bailey 2011, 368) as illustrated by Blancaâs efforts towards Damonâs education and future. It is important to acknowledge how Pose recognizes Blancaâs
The last Evangelista I will consider in this section is Angel (Indya Moore), an Afro-Puerto Rican trans woman aspiring to be a model who initially engages in sex work to make a living. Blanca will motivate her to pursue her dreams while urging her to leave the streets. Eventually, she succeeds as a model but not without facing the blackmail of a photographer who forces her to pose naked for him when he realizes that Angel is not a cis woman. Before this, while working on the piers as a sex worker, Angel meets Stan Bowes (Evan Peters), a married cis man aspiring to become a businessman who just got a job at Trump Organization. It is through the relationship between Angel and Stan that the audience gets a glimpse of the life of a traditional White heteronormative middle-class family in the late 1980s. During their first encounter, despite not having sex, Stan kisses Angel on the mouth and we see how he thoroughly brushes his teeth and tongue back at home. Through this scene, the prejudice towards trans women is portrayed in Stanâs feeling of abjection after kissing Angel perhaps as a result of the fear of being infected with HIV, or as a way to symbolically wash away his guilt. Their relationship goes on for the first season of the show, through which they will fight and reunite again multiple times. When Stan is not willing to provide Angel with the attention and care that she expects from him, she goes back to work at Show World, where she feels âsafe behind the glassâ (episode 2, season 1) despite Stan despising the idea of other men touching her. Again, the trans woman of color is being sexualized, fetishized, and objectified by a White cis man who asserts his superiority and control over Black and Afro-Latinx women.
Stan eventually provides Angel with a paid-up condo as proof of his love for her. However, Stan cannot even tell if Angel is Black or Puerto Rican (or both) on two different occasions: first, when asking his bossâMatt Bromley (James Van Der Beek)âfor a raise and being confronted about having an affair with someone (episode 2, season 1); second, when he buys a Christmas present for Angel and tells the shop assistant asks about the womanâs skin tone to properly choose the correct jewelry color (episode 6, season 1). When his wife Patty (Kate Mara) finds out about Stanâs affair, she visits Angel and they have a long conversation in a nearby diner about Angelâs relationship with Stan. While at first assuming that Stan was interested in Angel as an âexoticâ woman, she is shocked to learn that she is transâhighlighting how her transness is perceived by this cis woman as worse than the idea of adultery per se.
The only episode where we can observe an overtly Afro-Latinx theme is âMotherâs Dayâ (episode 5, season 1) when Blancaâs biological mother dies. Her immediate reaction is to visit her biological sister, Carmen RodrÃguez (Flor De Liz Perez), only to find her constantly misgendering her and further disrespecting her: âWhatever youâre calling yourself, this ainât the time for your confusion. Mami suffered enough. ⦠I donât know what you are. Tell me how to explain to a ten-year-old that her uncle is gay and runs around in womenâs clothesâ (episode 5, season 1). To which Blanca fiercely retorts: âYou tell her the truth. You tell her that I am a womanâ (ibid.). This is the first glimpse we get of Blancaâs nuclear family. Using Blancaâs deadname, and the reference to children not understanding the complexity of gender identity, shows the audience how trans people were conceived as psychologically damaged or confused. Additionally, Carmen mentions their motherâs suffering as a consequence of Blancaâs gender identity as if it was her choice.
Iâm a mother now. I got a house of kids. ⦠So I hope, finally, youâre proud of me, wherever you are. I said some messed-up things the last time we spoke. And I hope you know that Iâll always love you. I know you didnât know how to raise a child like me. You tried your best, and I want you to know that I forgive you and I love you. (episode 5, season 1).
From this stream of thought in the form of a voice-over with a detailed shot of Blancaâs face, clearly emotional, closure is achieved, and Blanca can partially heal and relieve her wounds along with the pain remanent from her rejection,
At the family gathering, when Blanca is seen by her siblings in the kitchenâwith their motherâs recipe book in her hands stating that she is going to take it with herâManuel says, ânah, put it backâ (episode 5, season 1) with a threatening tone. Despite this, Blanca tries to leave the kitchen, but Manuel violently pushes her against the wall and says, ânobody wants you here, child molester. I know all about how you fags corrupt kidsâ (ibid.). Carmen remains passive throughout this scene, and Blanca bursts out of her childhood home not looking back. Manuelâs lines represent transphobic and machismo attitudes that directly relate trans people with distorted homosexuals that âcorrupt kids.â It is important to mention that Blanca, after being insulted, fiercely faces up to Manuel verbally when mentioning that he has gone through rehab twice. In other words, the first Latino man that we see in Pose, from outside the ballroom subculture, is a patriarchal and LGBTIQ+phobic figure that has been involved, in some way at least, with drug abuse. The passive position of Carmen also says a lot about Latina womenâs expected place in such a traditional household. Nevertheless, towards the end of the episode, Carmen visits Blancaâthough turning down her invitation to go inâto give her their motherâs recipe book and to uncover the truth regarding what Blancaâs mother thought about her: âMami talked about you right up until the end ⦠she regretted she didnât get it right ⦠she loved you ⦠you are the best parts of herâ (ibid.). Carmenâs statements can arguably reason that the impossible nature of Blancaâs reconciliation with her biological mother was due to Manuelâs machismo and transphobia. Even though there are no specific references to this and, given that we will not see anything related to Blancaâs biological family again during the rest of the series, the analysis is based upon these brief scenes and dialogues while reading in between the lines and observing how internalized homophobia and traditional gender expectations are shown in Blancaâs biological Latinx family.
Latinos talk a lot about how important family is but only if you color in the lines ⦠I never had men that would stand for me, stand by me. Until I met you all ⦠Yâall gay, and the whole world thinks you less of a man but yâall taught me what it means to be a man. Yâall are real men. Cause you gotta be tough to love who you want when the whole world tells you somethingâs wrong with you. (episode 7, season 3)
To synthesize this, there is not one monolithic way to be a man or to be a Latinx. Showing Latinx characters centered on television is critically important to encourage discourse and create empathy while also questioning certain mainstream narratives that have never been questioned before. Pose might seem to use the stereotype of the trans woman of color as a sex worker, but the show is subversive in its storytelling as it does not weaponize this trope as a way to disenfranchise trans women of color. The reason why Blackness or Latinidad are not in constant explicit conversation throughout the show is that it is already part of the charactersâ everyday lives. The creators, writers, and producers of Pose portray characters who are not just trans or queer, or Black or Latinx, they are all of those. The show showcases a multitude of experiences faced by LGBTIQ+ people of color regarding family, gender identity, sexuality, and health among other topics. This way Pose allows the audience to decolonize themselves from LGBTIQ+phobic and racist ideologies that continue to stigmatize this community and provides certain exposure to topics that have normally been deemed taboo.
4.4 Fighting for Trans Rights
Blancaâs responsibilities as a mother include educating her children and pushing them to engage actively in the fight for equal rights and the denunciation of trans women of colorâs marginalization in and out of the LGBTIQ+ community in the 1980s. Critics argue that research in trans studies has not examined the experiences of trans people of color in the United States (Bailey 2011, 374). On the contrary, the White, middle-class, queer experiences have been usually taken as a universal representation of the LGBTIQ+ community. Additionally, âthe few studies that include transgender and queer gender communities of
In the first season of the show, Blanca finds herself fighting for her rights in multiple scenes that involve a popular gay bar in New York City, from which she is constantly being thrown out with derogatory comments alluding to her being a âtransvestite,â such as suggesting that she is in costume or that the barâs patrons asked if âitâs drag nightâ (episode 2, season 1). When Blanca replies that her friend, Luluâa former sister of the House of Abundance, also a trans Latinaâand herself are not in drag and they are women, the bartender insists further, stating that they are at a gay bar where women are not accepted.
The situation at the gay bar escalates, and Lulu says, âgirl, why you always got to pick fights you canât win?â (ibid.), to which Blanca replies that those are âthe ones worth fighting forâ (ibid.). Outside the bar, Blanca fiercely asks the manager, âhow could you discriminate against me in my community?â (ibid.), and the manager answers that they have a specific clientele: gay White men younger than 35âand that âthe New York City nightlife is segregatedâ (ibid.). Through this scene, the audience is exposed to marginalization based on race and gender identity at the same time. They are not welcome, not only because they are Latinas but also because they are not seen as part of the LGBTIQ+ community. Hidalgo-Ciudad highlights the important physical and psychological consequences of the precarious living conditions of the members of this community facing this triple stigmatization (2022, 189). Transphobia among LGBTIQ+ people remains an issue nowadays, and it is introduced as a problem that dates back to the 1980s and before. Lulu leaves the scene after stating that âeverybody needs someone to make them feel superior [and] that line ends with us. This shit runs downhill past the women, the Blacks, Latins, gays until it reaches the bottom and lands on our kindâ (ibid.). An episode earlier, Blanca said the same thing to Damon when he first declined her invitation to join her as a member of the House of Evangelista. This sequence confirms the normalization of the hierarchical relationships and the structure within the LGBTIQ+ community. In fact, Elektra pays for Blancaâs bail to get her out of jail after being arrested for disturbing public peace at the gay bar and states the following: âYou are not Rosa Parks sitting up front of the busâ (episode 2, season 1). This reference to the historical fight for equal rights in terms of race implies how Blancaâs fight for trans rights symbolizes an intersectional struggle.
This type of issue is often revisited throughout the show, but more so in the last season. For example, when watching O. J. Simpson on the run, Ricky
Iâm in here because they want to make an example. To put me in my place. To put all women in their place. We are not allowed to have
empires or emotions. We are expected to sit at home patiently waiting for our husbands, cook their meals, supply unpaid emotional and physical labor to aid in the fulfillment of their dreams. We are not supposed to have dreams of our own ⦠The only thing I feel bad about is that I ended another womanâs dreams ⦠I refuse to be shamed for my ambition. (episode 10, season 2)
Through this statement, Pose is relating Blancaâs ambition to Fredericaâs, the struggles faced by the two women are different given their social status not only in terms of class but also of race and gender identity. Despite their antithetical backgrounds, Frederica, feeling guilty for ending Blancaâs dreams, is humbled and able to see Blanca as a woman. Additionally, the domestic passive trope of the housewife is addressed by Fredericaâs statement on how women should be in the eye of the heteropatriarchal status quo. In a way, this stereotype is represented by Patty Bowes during the first season, whose most desired thing is a dishwasher to make house chores easier for her and be able to spend more time with the kidsâuntil she divorces Stan for his affair with Angel and goes back to college to become financially independent before the kids had full grown-up (episode 6, season 1).
Furthermore, Elektra, Lulu, Angel, and Blanca themselves discuss representation on TV shows when mentioning Sex and the City (1998) as a show that they cannot relate to: âThey need to call it Being White and the City âcause ainât none of them girls got a Black or Latina friend. Not one. Not even a sidekick ⦠I refuse to let some TV show about white girls define how we eat, drink, and gather as girlfriends. Weâve always made our rules, and we ainât stopping nowâ (episode 8, season 3). Here we observe how the usual and expected role for Black and Latinx characters in a TV show is the sidekick. Moreover, they argue that the show does not portray their reality or their experiences as trans women of color. Elektra refers to ballroom and their community of support when mentioning that they have learned to live on the margins of mainstream society while striving in ballroom as their own world with their own rules. The compelling story in Pose shows the audience how Angel has become a model, Lulu has graduated and is working as an accountant, Elektra has built a business empire focused on sex phone calls, and Blanca has become a nurse.
To further illustrate the intersection of race, class, and gender-related conflict, Bailey emphasizes that the members of the ballroom community use performance to stress how the rest of the world sees them and how they present those embodiments in a society âwhere the Black body, specifically, is read as a text. And if such a personâs body is read as queer in terms of gender or sexuality,
5 Conclusions
Although there are plenty of scenes, dialogues, and character arcs worth mentioning in a critical approach to Pose, addressing the intersectional issue of mis/underrepresentation of Black and Latinx trans women, this chapter has mainly focused on some of Blancaâs struggles as the lead role in the series. The third season of the show delves into the HIV/AIDS crisis and how Black and Latinx people were left out of the clinical trials for new meds. Pray Tell seems to be losing his good health to the virus, and Blanca, who has become a nurse aide, will pressure her boyfriendâa Black doctorâand the administration to get a spot for Pray on the trials, bettering his health status.
Though this tendency is changing in shows such as Pose, LGBTIQ+ people of color have represented a minority in fiction works and mainstream audiovisual narratives. It is vital to mention here that these minorities have not only been underrepresented but the little representation they have been given is, historically, one full of stereotyped images and negative portrayals that do not reflect their life experiences or their realities. Mainstream society has subjected these minorities to cis-heteronormative and racist values and expectations. However, the rise of shows like Pose, which put the reality of several minorities in front of a wider audience, proves that US mainstream popular culture narratives must address these issues and experiences to acknowledge and foster awareness of stereotypes and misrepresentation. Furthermore, the rise in this type of new media is closely linked to the growth of mainstream streaming platforms such
Pose is arguably the main present-day show centered on representing trans women of color in mainstream serial audiovisual narratives. The showâs position is one of high relevance in exploring the experiences of trans women of color and their impact in terms of representation on screen and audience reception. Additionally, Pose is also a pivotal example when considering trans women behind the scenes: the production of the show was ably supported by racialized trans employees such as producer and writer Our Lady J and executive producer, writer, and director Janet Mock. These women represent the change that Pose makes tangible in the audiovisual narrative centered on trans experience. The show is not just about ballroom and its community, but rather a show about the people who belonged to this community in the 1980s and the process they started to create safe spaces for queer education, support, and kinship.
Despite the possibility of Pose being considered a family drama (Mock in Borge 2019), it also reflects how LGBTQ+ members were stigmatized and othered, especially at the time the show is set, and how they were forced to build their communities to survive as a strategy of resistance. Nuclear family rejections based on gender identity and/or sexual orientation account for a vast number of LGBTQ+ individuals repudiated on the streets. Blanca referred to as âMother Theresa, savior of lost soulsâ (episode 8, season 1) throughout the series, is taking up the parental work that, for example, was not provided to Damon, Lil Papi, or Angel. In fact, in recognition of her work as a House mother, she wins the Mother of the Year award several times during the three seasons as a role model. Indeed, her role is considered the backbone of the story in terms of LGBTQ+ survivability and kinship within the ballroom environment and the outside world. I agree with Hidalgo-Ciudad when he argues that Pose not only forces its viewers to question the complexity implicit in concepts such as ethnicity, gender, class, and sexuality but also elevates racialized trans women to the front showing their vulnerability and the systematic stigmatization and marginalization they have historically faced (2022, 199â200).
To conclude, it is of great importance to stress that Pose depicts the 1980s ballroom subculture and uses it to talk about current topics (Otero 2019, 74). Dominique Jackson states that she never had a show like Pose, no one to look up to when she was growing up. Jackson believes that the stories of the Black and Latinx trans women in Pose help others navigate their own trans experiences (in Real 2018). The experiences and traumas that Pose delves into are still issues today for the LGBTQ+ Black and Latinx communities: family rejection, social exclusion, institutionalized discrimination, transphobia, and racism
Acknowledgements
This research has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities as part of the authorâs predoctoral contract (FPU21/01232) in the Department of Philology at the University of AlmerÃa. I am deeply grateful to the editor of this volume, A. M. Marini, for her guidance and support in the course of the writing, to the Research Group Women, Literature and Society (HUM874) and the I+D Research Centre Communication and Society (CySOC). Nicholas James Stevenson has copy-edited this chapter, the remaining mistakes are my own.
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