"The Trans Tipping Point": Assessing Contemporary Transgender Visibility in Alternative and Mainstream Media

Abstract

This thesis seeks to develop a rubric for the assessment of recent transgender visibility across disparate media spaces. The rubric is based upon the critiques of transgender studies scholars and transgender activists on transgender representation in media. The rubric aims to address the most salient issues found in contemporary transgender representation and guide its user toward identifying more inclusive forms of transgender visibility that resist stereotypes. The rubric is both a resource for the analysis of transgender visibility as well as the production of media that focuses upon or includes transgender subjects.