Earlier in June, Netflix released "Disclosure," a documentary detailing the way trans people have been depicted in film and TV throughout the past 100 years. "Disclosure" was directed by Sam Feder, with heavy involvement from "Orange is the New Black" star Laverne Cox.
Speaking Monday on Boston Public Radio, TV expert Bob Thompson called the documentary "really, really good."
"[It's] not a really long movie, less than two hours long, but filled with information," he said, adding that there was a lot he hadn't realized before watching the film himself.
"I did not realize how many images... making fun of people dressed as women, and making fun of trans people, go back– way down to the silent era... [and] 'Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,' a Jim Carrey movie I thought was hilarious when I watched it... it's got some really, really, really problematic stuff in it."
"[For] many people, the only trans people they know are those they saw on TV," he said.
The Syracuse professor also said he was surprised to see how certain portrayls of transgender identity were interpreted by the trans people interviewed for the documentary.
"One guy almost broke into tears when he saw an episode of Jerry Springer dealing with trans characters. And he said he found it so empowering. Yes, it was Jerry Springer and it was all [the] crazy circus that they do, but the very fact that he saw representations there, he found very empowering."
Thompson is the founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture and a Trustee Professor of Television and Popular Culture at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
