{"id":40442,"date":"2022-02-22T20:59:39","date_gmt":"2022-02-22T20:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/?post_type=cu_story&#038;p=40442"},"modified":"2025-02-03T11:30:16","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T16:30:16","slug":"complicating-trans-representation","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/story\/complicating-trans-representation\/","title":{"rendered":"Complicating Trans Representation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-max  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n        \n                    \n                    \n            \n    <div class=\"cu-wideimage relative flex items-center justify-center mx-auto px-8 overflow-hidden md:px-16 rounded-xl not-prose  my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 bg-opacity-50 bg-cover bg-cu-black-50 py-24 md:py-28 lg:py-36 xl:py-48\" style=\"background-image: url(https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/Cael-Keegan.jpg); background-position: 50% 50%;\">\n\n                    <div class=\"absolute top-0 w-full h-screen\" style=\"background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0.600);\"><\/div>\n        \n        <div class=\"relative z-[2] max-w-4xl w-full flex flex-col items-center gap-2 cu-wideimage-image cu-zero-first-last\">\n            <header class=\"mx-auto mb-6 text-center text-white cu-pageheader cu-component-updated cu-pageheader--center md:mb-12\">\n\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold mb-2 text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] cu-pageheader--center text-center mx-auto after:left-px\">\n                        Complicating Trans Representation \n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                            <\/header>\n        <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    \n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"a-conversation-with-carleton-universitys-2021-22-fulbright-distinguished-research-chair-of-arts-and-social-sciences\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>A conversation with Carleton University\u2019s 2021-22 Fulbright Distinguished Research Chair of Arts and Social Sciences<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><em>By Nick Ward<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Header photo credit: <em>Bud Kibby, TINYuproar<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>A distinguished cultural theorist of transgender\/queer media and literature, <\/strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/transmedialab\/people\/cael-m-keegan\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/transmedialab\/people\/cael-m-keegan\/\" target=\"_blank\">Dr. C\u00e1el M. Keegan<\/a>\u2019s experience as a trans researcher had been something of an individual pursuit\u2014until he came to Carleton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An Associate Professor of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Grand Valley State University, Keegan is the new 2021-22 Fulbright Distinguished Research Chair of Arts and Social Sciences at Carleton University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/C2A9515-400x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-40493\" srcset=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/C2A9515-400x600.jpg 400w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/C2A9515-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/C2A9515-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/C2A9515.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption>Dr. C\u00e1el M. Keegan, <em>Carleton University\u2019s 2021-22 Fulbright Distinguished Research Chair of Arts and Social Sciences<\/em>. <em>Photo credit: <em>Bud Kibby, TINYuproar<\/em><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Keegan joined the <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/ssac\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/ssac\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">School for Studies in Art and Culture<\/a>, where he now works as an affiliated faculty member at the <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/transmedialab\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/transmedialab\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Transgender Media Lab (TML)<\/a>, offering students his expertise and a critical trans studies perspective to help enrich their modeling of trans-centered (vs. trans &#8220;inclusive&#8221;) digital platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;ve never actually gotten to collaborate with so many trans people on a single project before, so that is quite amazing and an experience I&#8217;d like to replicate in the future,\u201d Keegan says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m taking away a lot of new experiences working in a team-based research design setting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keegan was encouraged to apply for the role by his research collaborator, TML Director and Films Studies Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/filmstudies\/people\/laura-horak\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/filmstudies\/people\/laura-horak\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dr. Laura Horak<\/a>, and the partnership is already paying dividends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEngaging with the TML team and spending time thinking together about trans-centered collaborative principles and digital design philosophies has really expanded my sense of the sorts of projects I might want to support in the future,\u201d says Keegan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"identifying-good-and-bad-trans-objects-in-popular-media\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Identifying \u201cgood\u201d and \u201cbad\u201d trans objects in popular media<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Keegan\u2019s work focuses on the study of world-shaping aesthetic forms, media representation, and the cultural production of transgender and queer people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He is currently working on a new book titled <em>Bad Trans Objects<\/em>, a critical analysis of the conception, reception, and creative intentions behind some major examples of transgender representation in media\u2014ranging from the rare trans portrayal that embedded itself within the cultural zeitgeist of its time (think Dr. Frank-N-Furter from 1975\u2019s <em>The Rocky Horror Picture Show<\/em>, and Buffalo Bill in 1991\u2019s <em>The Silence of the Lambs<\/em>) to more contemporary examples from the last decade as trans characters became more ubiquitous on televisions, in theatres, and online.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With this book, Keegan hopes to interrogate what he refers to as an initially encouraging \u201ctipping point\u201d for transgender cultural visibility.&nbsp; The term \u201ctipping point\u201d was inspired by the now-infamous <em>TIME Magazine<\/em> cover featuring an elegant Laverne Cox, which declared \u201cThe Transgender Tipping Point \u2013 America\u2019s next civil rights frontier.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/Keegan_Figure-1-400x533.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-40456\" srcset=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/Keegan_Figure-1-400x533.jpeg 400w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/Keegan_Figure-1-200x267.jpeg 200w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/Keegan_Figure-1-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/Keegan_Figure-1.jpeg 840w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption>Time Magazine featuring Laverne Cox (June 9th, 2014)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhile it may not have been voluntary, it was, for a moment, hopeful,\u201d Keegan explains. \u201cDuring the tipping point, transgender people were suddenly snapped into public visuality, pulled into rack focus as a newly perceptible type of difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"not-prose cu-quote cu-component-spacing\">\n<blockquote class=\"is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cImages of trans people became vanguard examples of an emergent gender politics that popped into the foreground, replacing the earlier objects of attention.\u201d <\/p><cite>Dr. C\u00e1el M. Keegan<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Another watershed pop culture phenomenon that Keegan examines in his book is the FX original television show <em>Pose<\/em> (2018-2021), which presented viewers a fictionalized and highly glamorized depiction of New York City\u2019s 1980s ballroom scene through the lives and struggles of the Black and Latina transgender women who were foundational to this unique social context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Notably, the majority of <em>Pose<\/em>\u2019s characters were played by trans women.&nbsp; And while the show achieved many important milestones, Keegan suggests that with its highly chic and polished optics intended to disrupt hateful anti-trans attitudes, <em>Pose<\/em> offered audiences unrealistic standards which can further cultivate discrimination in a misogynistic and racist society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMy current thoughts about this borrow a lot from the work of my colleague Eliza Steinbock, who has developed a critique of what they call the \u2018wavering line\u2019 of trans visibility,\u201d says Keegan. \u201cGenerally, the media representations we see of trans identities tend to take the form of glossy, foregrounded, iconized images\u2014like images of trans celebrities like Laverne Cox or ads for <em>Pose<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keegan explains that these images are designed to pop out at us as \u2018good\u2019 trans objects because they display \u2018authentic\u2019 trans bodies that communicate legible gender performances, are traditionally beautiful, and are therefore highly marketable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBut these objects signify as \u2018trans\u2019 precisely because they are contrasted with a surrounding implicitly cissexist field or background that goes largely unchallenged,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"530\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/Keegan_Figure-8-400x530.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-40458\" srcset=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/Keegan_Figure-8-400x530.jpeg 400w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/Keegan_Figure-8-200x265.jpeg 200w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/Keegan_Figure-8-768x1017.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/Keegan_Figure-8.jpeg 773w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption><em>Fake, Edie. Center Part, 2018, gouache and ink on panel.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Steinbock makes this point about trans images specifically in the art world, but Keegan believes it holds especially true for mainstream film, television, and advertising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is why I am increasingly interested in \u2018bad\u2019 trans media objects that disrupt the cis background by problematizing the sex binary itself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThese \u2018bad\u2019 objects ask us to consider whether a discrete male\/female sex binary exists at all, undercutting the modes of power that produce cisness and transness as contrasting opposites.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Edie Fake\u2019s painting <em>Center Part<\/em> also serves as great inspiration for Keegan, principally because he interprets the piece as an abstract representation of the hollow spaces inside the human body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cGender and sex are merely the external decoration of what is, at its center, a dark part in all our flesh,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"not-prose cu-quote cu-component-spacing\">\n<blockquote class=\"is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cOur bodies are so culturally overdetermined by sex and gender as \u2018central\u2019 to the meaning of our lives, in ways that have made it very difficult to imagine humanness as a shared condition across those divides.\u201d<\/p><cite>Dr. C\u00e1el M. Keegan<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Clearly, Keegan is deeply interested in thinking about the potential for a politics rooted in the realization that people are all mostly hollow space, capable of becoming full of just about anything we can imagine. For him, Fake\u2019s painting is about how politics should be more about shared capacities for transition, and less about the particular material forms we happen to exist in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"red-pills-blue-pills-and-the-trans-experience\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Red pills, blue pills and the trans experience<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Given his focus on identity, transition, experience, and representation, it may come as no surprise that Keegan has written extensively on the massively popular science fiction films (and the creators of the films) which confront many of these issues\u2014<em>The Matrix<\/em> franchise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft size-medium is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/KeeganF18-1-400x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-40492\" width=\"300\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/KeeganF18-1-400x600.jpg 400w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/KeeganF18-1-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/KeeganF18-1-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/KeeganF18-1-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/KeeganF18-1-1365x2048.jpg 1365w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption>Keegan, C\u00e1el M. Lana and Lilly Wachowski: Sensing Transgender. University of Illinois Press, 2018.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>In fact, Keegan\u2019s 2018 book <em>Lana and Lilly Wachowski: Sensing Transgender<\/em> is the first academic analysis of the world\u2019s most influential transgender media producers, the Wachowski Sisters, whose celebrated visual works include <em>Sense8<\/em>, <em>Bound,<\/em> and of course <em>The Matrix<\/em> films, which have undeniably altered popular perceptions of science fiction, internet culture, postmodernity, and cinematic representations of time, space and identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the 2021 release of a much-anticipated sequel, <em>The Matrix Resurrections<\/em>, Keegan\u2019s work on the Wachowski Sisters is receiving as much attention as ever, as critics and fans once again try to track the much wrangled with and ever-evolving legacy of the franchise throughout the last twenty years.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For Keegan, what is certain about the films is that they are a text bound in transgender experience and politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt is at least partly about transness,\u201d he says. \u201c<em>The Matrix<\/em> follows common themes such as dysphoria, identity realization, name change, hormonal therapy, social reintegration\u2014the medically-mandated pathway for gender transition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"C\u00e1el Keegan on THE MATRIX\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ogNgzDg54uw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps the richest example of this deeply interwoven narrative is the iconic scene in which Neo must determine his fate: Should he choose the blue pill and return to his familiar but restrictive grey life, or should he choose the red pill and emerge in a new world where reality is less prescriptive, potentially more real, but certainly more dangerous?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe scene for me really stands out as a moment when the film seems to comment quite directly on the experience of dysphoria\u2014Neo knows something is wrong with the world\u2014as well as the realization that the gender binary and sex assignment have been imposed upon us as a sort of artificial reality,\u201d explains Keegan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/Cael-Keegan-3-400x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-40472\" srcset=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/Cael-Keegan-3-400x600.jpg 400w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/Cael-Keegan-3-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/Cael-Keegan-3-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/46\/Cael-Keegan-3.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption> <em>Photo credit: <em>Bud Kibby, TINYuproar<\/em><\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTaking the red pill could be metaphorized as the taking of hormones, but I think it actually speaks to the deeper experience of realizing that your body has these unanticipated potentials for sensing and moving across falsely imposed boundaries. Instead of being framed as a disorder, dysphoria is represented as a kind of implicit intelligence for sensing that the world is larger than what is immediately apparent,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe red pill unlocks that intelligence and allows it to take a material form.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Neo, of course, chooses the red pill, and with this decision he avows a new system manifesto\u2014welcome to the edge of the real, in a world where anything possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Correspondingly, Keegan hopes that during his time at Carleton and with the Transgender Media Lab, he can continue to help push the boundaries of what transgender and queer scholarship looks like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Dr. Keegan has a piece related to his new book project in the March 2022 issue of Film Quarterly, titled <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/online.ucpress.edu\/fq\/article-abstract\/75\/3\/26\/120197\/On-the-Necessity-of-Bad-Trans-Objects?redirectedFrom=fulltext\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/online.ucpress.edu\/fq\/article-abstract\/75\/3\/26\/120197\/On-the-Necessity-of-Bad-Trans-Objects?redirectedFrom=fulltext\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;On the Necessity of Bad Trans Objects.&#8221;<\/a><\/em> <em>To contact Dr. Keegan, send an email to <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"mailto:keeganc@gvsu.edu\" target=\"_blank\">keeganc@gvsu.edu<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A conversation with Carleton University\u2019s 2021-22 Fulbright Distinguished Research Chair of Arts and Social Sciences By Nick Ward Header photo credit: Bud Kibby, TINYuproar A distinguished cultural theorist of transgender\/queer media and literature, Dr. C\u00e1el M. Keegan\u2019s experience as a trans researcher had been something of an individual pursuit\u2014until he came to Carleton. An Associate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[816],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-40442","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","hentry","cu_story_type-general"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/40442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/40442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44869,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/40442\/revisions\/44869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=40442"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=40442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}