Branding Teena: (Mis)Representations in the Media

Abstract

On the night of 31 December 1993, three people were murdered in Nebraska. One of the victims became the subject of an award winning film directed by Kimberly Pierce in 1999. The representation of the main character is based upon interviews with those who knew the person in question, but for obvious reasons this representation can never be validated. In view of this difficulty, critics attempt to describe the complexity of the main character, yet most fail. In this article I will interrogate media representations of Brandon Teena, showing the implicit assumptions inherent in the rhetoric of such articles. Furthermore, I will show how the reportage of Brandon’s murder and the film, Boys Don’t Cry, combine to reinforce the assumption of a male/female gender binary, even though the film director claims to trouble these assumptions. It is my contention that the media undermines any notion of transgender subjectivity through the rhetoric, reportage and representation of the issues made manifest by and through Brandon’s body. I will show that Brandon’s body is branded by such rhetoric and representation, and is assumed to be a site of ‘truth’ that closes the question that transgender poses for subjectivity, gender and sexuality.

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