Hixstory Repeating? Italian Trans Televisibility through Realism, Family, Catholicism and Violence (original) (raw)

2021, Trans* Time. Projecting Transness in European (TV) Series. Gallo Gonzalez, D. Campus Verlag.

Trans* subjects in Italy have historically been invisibilised, misrepresented and mistreated in society and the media. Despite global advancements and the important achievements of Italian trans* activists, the situation of many trans* individuals in Italy remains precarious and threatened by cis-heteronormative violence and traditional and religious family values, often mirrored in the media. To date, the representation of trans people and issues on Italian television remains a contentious, under-researched and often overlooked area. In this chapter, after presenting and discussing the history and achievements of Italian trans* activism, how trans* subjects and issues have been represented through language, film and television in Italy is analysed. Subsequently, the author scrutinises more recent TV productions available: a very small number of portrayals of Italian trans* people in scripted television dramas, comedies and soap operas which are anchored to problematic discourses of trans* invisibility, the family, Catholicism and brutal violence in southern Italy. On thematic and distribution levels, these portrayals retrace trajectories already seen in the past and they reflect, with realism, the transphobia and trans-misogyny perpetuated in the country. These instances reveal some timid advancements in, and room for criticism and significant improvement of, trans* media visibility in contemporary Italy.