TV Interview- Barker-Plummer

Media type: Televised Interview

Concept Source: Barker-Plummer

Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres is seen here interviewing Nicole Maines, the new actress on the TV show “Supergirl.” The superhero show is an action/drama originating from the DC Comics franchise. Maines was cast as the character Nia Nal, based on the character Dream Girl, who is set to receive training and guidance from the shows title character. This makes Nicole Maines the first ever televised transgender superhero.

I would consider this a great stride since Barker-Plummer’s article in 2012. In her article, she discusses discursive “fixing” and Wrong Body Discourse in context of transbodies. Five years later, transbodies are being made more prominent in media and our society. The “Supergirl” show is proof of that. Maines is continually addressed as ‘she,’ unlike how Gwen was in her monumental case. Executive Producer Jessica Queller said, “Our show is all about inclusion and representation… It seems the perfect moment in our culture to introduce a trans female superhero.”

Historically, media representation of transgender identities has been pathologizing and marginalizing (Barker-Plummer). The introduction of the character Nia Nal, played by a transgender actress, makes the identity of transgender more accessible and available in everyday commentary. I hope that this casting will also help disrupt gender norms in the way that female superheros have always been overly serialized. Their bodies are drawn in accentuated ways where thin waists and double D’s are on display. And of course, their outfits are designed to showcase these features. The casting of a transgender superhero will help to not only, further the progress in making trasbodies visible and accepted, but also could help derail the ‘hero gender norm’ of body types for both cis men and cis women, hopefully making the idea of a ‘hero’ more applicable to everyone.

"'Supergirl’s' New Star Nicole Maines Talks Growing Up Transgender." YouTube, uploaded by

  TheEllenShow, YouTube, LLC, 11 Oct. 20118, www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVrAO60hGdM. Accessed 16

  Nov. 2018.

Barker-Plummer, Bernadette. "Fixing Gwen." Feminist Media Studies,, vol. 13, no. 4, 25 Apr. 2012,

  pp. 711-23.