Striking the Right Pose Successful Representations of Transgender Women of Color

Striking the Right Pose: Successful Representations of Transgender Women of Color Media portrayals, and research into the portrayals, of transgender people tend to be rare. This study focuses on the highly appraised and critically acclaimed TV series Pose. We compare two main characters using a recently introduced quantitative coding framework. The f indings show that Blanca and Elektra are similar in the portrayal of their psychological depth and resilience in the face of challenges, but contrast in personality traits and experiences. Blanca’s main trait is her kindness, and she is shown experiencing transphobic discrimination and struggling to be treated better by society. In contrast, Elektra’s main traits are her success and her hostility towards others. Her experiences are tied to her medical transition process and thus provide a more intimate tone. As our f indings exemplify, by choosing to feature multiple minority characters side by side, show writers can avoid putting the burden of representation on one character as well as an oversimplif ication of minorities’ experiences.