Trans Blending, Trans Erasure: Representing Trans Realities in Euphoria

Abstract

[eng] Representation of trans women is very scarce in audiovisual cultural productions, and trans female characters frequently follow certain stereotypes. However, there has been a progressive inclusion of diverse trans realities which help have a broader insight into this collective. Euphoria (Levinson 2019) is an American series that narrates the lives of high school teenagers and their conflicts with identity, sexuality, the use of drugs and relationships. Jules, one of the protagonists, is a trans woman who represents the difficulties and life experiences of this collective. Through her story, the series denounces transphobia by showing the institutional violence to which she is subject, and how her transness affects her relationships with other people. However, since the series is addressed to a young audience, its format blurs and even erases some of the conflicts that the cisnormative society poses for trans people. Following an intersectio nal approach, the aim of this dissertation is to critically analy z e the character of Jules to prove that Euphoria erases many of the problems that trans women live for the sake of blending in its different teenage characters into a hegemonic discourse. Thi s analysis concludes that the depiction of Jules serves to occasionally denounce transphobia and to give v isib ility to sexual orientations that deviate from the heteronorm while it reproduces transphobic stereotypes. The attempt at omitting some stereotyped narratives about trans women also provokes the erasure of a great part of her life experience as a member of an oppressed group.