AGAINST NIHILISM: REPRESENTATIONS OF TRANS*NESS IN DUTCH MEDIA

Abstract

After the national controversy regarding gender inclusivity in the Netherlands in 2017, there seem to have emerged a whole new group of individuals that actively reject the gender binary, opting instead for other modes of gender identification. This is in no way a new phenomenon since there have been individuals claiming to stand in between or outside of the binary and actively seeking medical treatment since the beginnings of gender transitions in the 1960s. There has, however, been a shift in discourse apparent in Dutch media inspired by the LGBT movement. This shift has changed trans*ness to a diagnosis to an active mode of self-identification, allowing trans* individuals the complete control over their own gender identity. This thesis will utilise the concepts of traps , doors and trapdoors (Gossett et al. xiii) as a framework for the analysis that will aim to trace the shift from a medical discourse of trans*ness to a one that deems being trans* a social identity. The starting points are two media texts; namely, Mounir Samuel's coming out interview on Jinek in 2015 and the documentary Genderbende , which follows five individuals that all challenge the Western gender binary. The two media texts additionally prove the way certain media genres and conventions shape a narrative, allowing a certain narrative to thrive over others. Another focus is the way in which inhabiting labels, in this case, gender identities, can be restrictive, negotiated but also possibly liberating, if we let go of clear cut definition and instead focus on a sense of community through a common struggle. Inhabiting new, broad and freeing labels such as Halberstam's trans* help to imagine new possibilities of a trans* future that does not focus on dividing people into ever smaller growing niche identities, but instead on uniting them. In current times, we cannot allow ourselves to fall into utopian yet unproductive modes of nihilism.