Proving authentic femininity: transnormative health narratives in television

Abstract

ABSTRACT Through a rhetorical analysis of Pose, Euphoria, and Supergirl, the author explores the transnormative health narrative that evolves from these popular series. She argues that the representations simultaneously bring awareness and positive visibility to the issues facing transgender communities while reinforcing a false and harmful gender binary. By constructing health narratives from media representation, this research uses public discourse and imagery to offer a comprehensive analysis of how media informs social realities that dictate medical access. She argues that trans representations of health invite both a resilience against and an assimilation toward hegemonic dictations of gender transition and transgender identity.