Last week, makers of the teen drama/thriller/mystery series Pretty Little Liars revealed the identity of the show’s vicious villain, “A.”
“He, she, it, bitch,” as one of the liars so problematically foreshadowed, is ring-leader Alison’s long-lost brother, Charles, who transitioned to a woman, Charlotte, while living in a psychiatric ward and now goes by the name CeCe Drake.
In short, “A,” the villain who has threatened, stalked, kidnapped and murdered girls on the show, been labeled “crazy” by characters, fans and makers of the show alike, is a transgender woman.
What may seem like a progressive decision—including a trans character on a teen drama—is in fact one more instance of transphobia on television. As many dismayed fans and bloggers have pointed out, the trans villain trope has been used over and over in film and television (think Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs, Lt. Lois Einhorn in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, or the various portrayals of transgender killers on crime shows such as CSI and Law and Order).
GLAAD reported that between 2002 and 2013, the representations of “54 percent of all trans characters on episodic television were outright defamatory…while 19 percent of tracked episodes included trans characters in the role of murderers or villains.”
Considering that negative representations of trans people in film and on television are so frequent they merit annual reports, you would think that a showrunner in 2015—especially one with ties to the LGBT community, like Pretty Little Liars creator Marlene King—would have thought twice before casting a trans villain.
Well apparently King did—for three-and-a-half years. When asked directly about the history of trans people being cast in “devious,” manipulative roles, King responded adamantly that her show was not playing into that trope, while simultaneously exposing just how out of touch she is with trans issues:
We tried to be very clear that Charles comes from a very crazy family. Crazy runs in the family, I say, and it just so happens that this person, I think, suffered some tragic consequences of a crazy family, but having nothing to do with [being] transgender.
Let’s start with King’s decision to misgender CeCe Drake. Her response wasn’t a slip, but a conscious choice if she’s been writing this character for years. Before the big “A” reveal, the show repeatedly called back to Charles: CeCe signs off letters to her family with “Charles,” she dresses in a tux and a mask and she leaves clues for the girls to discover her former identity, but not her present one.
One fan wrote in an impassioned open letter to King, “I certainly wouldn’t cling on to my ‘male identity/past.’ I would not dress up in a tux. I would not leave blocks out with my old name on them. There is NOTHING realistic about what you have done. In fact, you’ve upset me. You have not helped progress the cause.”
Many fans feel similarly, particularly about the blurred lines between CeCe’s identity, her mental state and her villainous actions.
The villain in Pretty Little Liars was revealed to be a trans woman amounting to what’s essentially a caricature of what people think of us.
— femme natale (@Grizzlei) August 12, 2015
King tries to make it very clear in her statements that CeCe’s “crazy” tendencies have “nothing to do with [being] transgender.” But the show isn’t so clear on this. CeCe went to a psychiatric ward for one of two reasons: 1) her father was aware of her evolving identity and wanted to put her away, or 2) she maliciously put her baby sister Alison into a scalding bathtub. The former reason has everything to do with her being transgender, the latter, everything to do with her being deranged.
Putting aside the obvious—that something has to be wrong with your mental state to threaten, stalk and murder people—the show does nothing to make a distinction between CeCe’s identity and her villainous track record.
“If the writers and producers wanted a trans character, why make her the villain?” asked a writer for Planet Transgender. “In a world where the number of trans women killed is increasing each year, do you really want to promote the idea that trans women are not to be trusted, that we’re out to hurt people for our own psychotic ends?”
As cable television’s number one show among viewers ages 12-34, PLL has a responsibility to portray its characters, particularly minorities, in a conscientious manner. Parodying trans people as devious, deceptive villains has long been part of our media’s culture. In an age when positive and realistic portrayals of trans people, along with trans rights and activism, are finally making their way into mainstream entertainment, it’s unfortunate to see a show like PLL use its popularity to hinder the movement.
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