“Feeling-Seeing” in Transparent

Abstract

This article explores how Jill Soloway uses mirror imagery in the series Transparent to facilitate their version of the female gaze, particularly the tenet of feeling-seeing. By doing so, this article aims to assist ongoing efforts in both transgender studies and media studies research to stretch beyond the in/visibility debate surrounding transgender representation in popular media. It proposes that Soloway’s creative process designates open, imaginative space for audiences (both cisgender and transgender alike) to witness how gender comes to matter for Maura, both in the sense of materializing in bodily form and in a manner of meaning, and how gender also comes to re-matter for her, but perhaps also for audiences watching her transformation.