Anna DeShawn had the honor of interviewing Tre’vell Anderson, an award-winning journalist, social curator, & world changer who always comes to slay! Tre’vell has written a book called We See Each Other: A Black, Trans Journey Through TV and Film which debuts on Tuesday, May 9, 2023. This book is a groundbreaking look at the history of transgender representation in TV and film, by an of-the-moment and in-demand culture reporter. Learn more about Tre’vell and the book in this E3 Radio exclusive.
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Queer News podcast host Anna DeShawn recently conducted an exclusive interview with award-winning journalist and author Tre’vell Anderson about their new book, “We See Each Other: A Black Trans Journey Through TV and Film.” Tre’vell, who has written for major publications like Out magazine and the LA Times, spoke to Anna about their personal journey of gender identity and the representation of trans people in media.
Tre’vell emphasized the importance of recognizing the contributions of trans individuals in media and asserted their own personal history of gender identity through film and TV shows. They hoped that their book would serve as a reference point for black, trans, and non-binary individuals and help them recognize their own journeys. Tre’vell’s book provides historical context around trans life in media and film, along with recommendations and a viewing guide for readers.
Tre’vell noted that trans representation in media has often been poor and stereotypical. They pointed out that our history as trans individuals did not begin with the likes of Laverne Cox or Chaz Bono but has a long history of existence in culture and communities across the globe. Tre’vell hopes that their book will help challenge conventions and inspire future representation of trans people in media.
Anna praised Tre’vell’s book and the historical context it provides, noting that it helps to fill in gaps in her own knowledge of trans representation in media. She also commended Tre’vell’s efforts to recognize the contributions of trans individuals, despite many of them not being regarded as canonical due to poor depictions or being steeped in tropes.
In conclusion, Anna’s interview with Tre’vell Anderson shed light on the importance of recognizing the contributions of trans individuals in media and the need for better representation in film and TV shows. Tre’vell’s new book, “We See Each Other,” provides a valuable resource for anyone seeking to understand the history of trans representation in media and the struggles and journeys of black, trans, and non-binary individuals.
Transcript
Family, it’s your favorite queer radio personality Anna DeShawn with our queer news for today. Now I wanna make you a promise. We will continue to bring you the latest in queer news, culture and politics every Monday by 7:00 AM Chicago time. So if you are digging our intersectional take on the Weekly, consider joining the QCrew.
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Family, we are doing something special. This week we’re kicking off feed, swap Fridays, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. So what is Feed Swap Fridays? I am happy to tell you feed Swap Fridays are an opportunity for us [00:03:00] at Queer News to introduce you. To a podcast we think you really enjoy. What I promise is that they will always be very queer.
And so this week we are doing a feed swap with the Queer Family Podcast. I had a chance to talk with their host, Jamie, about the pod and this episode, take a listen. So the Queer Family Podcast is the show all about family. But with gay, that’s our twist. That’s the catch. And we, our mission is to uplift, highlight, normalize queer families, letting the whole world know that despite the fact that we work really, really, really freaking hard to make our very intentional families, we are also just like every other parent out there trying not to yell at our kids when they haven’t put the shoes on.
And we are 25 minutes late for school already. And that’s it. That’s, that’s how it goes. That part. I love it. And this episode that we’re gonna play on Friday, what’s it about? All right, so this episode is from season 11. Yeah, we are [00:04:00] 11 seasons in. Okay. She ave y’all. Okay. It’s been a while. It’s been a minute.
Um, it’s the two Mom Browns, you might know them from Instagram. They’re a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful couple who have documented their entire, um, journey to getting pregnant. On Instagram and they’re an interracial lesbian couple. They’re raising donor conceived boys. They got, they used an at-home insemination kit to create them.
It’s a beautiful story and these two are actually just gorgeous humans inside and out. I freaking love them. I love this. There you go. Good story. Yes. There you go. So family. You gotta tune in to Feed Swap Friday, this Friday to hear this dope episode from the Queer Family Podcast. Yes, please enjoy. Enjoy.
Now for the news today, we’re changing it up instead of our normal politics, culture, and entertainment stories. I’m giving y’all an exclusive interview. I had the opportunity to interview Tre’vell Anderson, an [00:05:00] award-winning journalist, social curator and world changer. Who always comes to slay? Honey, you better know it.
They were named to the roots. 2020 lists of 100 most influential African Americans. Okay? They have dedicated their career to centering those in the margins, great spaces, and at the intersections of life through a pop culture lens. Currently Tre’vell co-hosts two podcasts because Tre’vell stays busy. Okay.
Crook Media’s what a day and maximum funds fan time. I actually met Tre’vell at the National Gay and Lesbian Journalism Association Conference. That’s a whole mouthful and another mouthful. But it’s the conference where we met, and you’ll hear more about it in the actual interview. Okay. But we began following each other on social media and.
I became an even bigger fan of their work in the world. Tre’vell is dropping their first book tomorrow, tomorrow, May 9th, so you can go and pre-order [00:06:00] today. Let’s show Tre’vell the Power of the Queer News Podcast. Okay, go and do those pre-orders today. And if you listen to this pod after Tuesday, just go buy the book.
It’s called, we See Each Other, A Black Trans Journey through TV and Film. Yes. During this interview we talk about their time growing up in church. Okay. We talk about their interviews with the Andre Leon Talley. Yes, and why writing this book about Black trans life and movie and film is so important to them and so important to the world family.
I know this is gonna be a little bit longer of an episode than normal, but I know it is worth it. Tre’vell is a star and I hope that you all go out and support this book. And don’t forget Fee Swap Friday. It’s an exciting week family. Catch me on social media for all the stories we didn’t cover in this week’s episode.
Peace[00:07:00]
Family. This is your favorite queer radio personality. Anna DeShawn here, and I’m excited to bring you another exclusive interview. And this one is actually really, really special because Tre’vell. It’s special. Okay. And if you don’t know Tre’vell, that’s okay cuz you gonna get to know them today. All right.
They are an award. Hello? Period. With a T. They are an award-winning journalist. Okay. And critic podcaster. Work for Out magazine. Let me just go on for a little ages. Okay. Out magazine, the LA Times. Okay. You’ve seen Tre’vells work on the covers, okay. Of such places like. Essence. Okay. They’ve written for Team Vogue, Washington Post, the Esquire Time Magazine.
Tre’vell is the business and truly a treasure. We got to meet at the National Gays Lesbian Journalism Association. Just get all of [00:08:00] the words, all of them in there, uh, when it was here in Chicago, and I’m so glad we got to meet Tre’vell. Welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. So glad to be here. Um, those IRL connections do matter.
Shout out to us. Um, and I guess shout out to N L G J A. I don’t know, you know, I’d be wanting to fight them from time to time anyway. Um, that’s a whole nother show. Listen. Okay. And, and I’m glad you got the acronym cuz Chow I do not. Okay. I be like the, the gays is the gays with the journalism association.
Y’all know what she mean? And y’all know what it is. You know, you already know what it is. And also Tre’vell is gonna get me into the National Associate of Pack Journalist too. I’m gonna work on getting on n a, bj. Uh huh. Uh, but today I’m excited to are Tre’vell on because Tre’vell on top of all the things I just said and child, I didn’t even mention the people that they’ve interviewed over the years, some of your favorite stars on the planet, period, [00:09:00] they are now an author as well.
And so today we are here to talk about. Your very first book. We see each other. Come on. Come on, author. See each other. Yeah, we see each other. A Black Trans Journey through TV and film out May 9th available for pre-order wherever you get sleigh worthy books. Okay. And where you get bad books too. That’s fine.
You know you can find it everywhere. Everywhere and you need to get it. I believe what I really love because I did get like my own copy, which is really dope as being a media person. I mean, if you’ve ever thought me about being in the media, these are some of the perks. You can kind of get something before everybody else gets to see it.
What I think is really beautiful about the book, it’s that you’re giving this historical context around trans life and media and film and television specifically. Also giving people recommendations and this viewing guide that kind of goes through the experience I got a lot to catch up on. Even though I feel like I’ve seen a lot of gay queer stuff [00:10:00] in my life, there’s still so much I have not seen or heard about.
So tell me why did you wanna add this piece of work into the cannon of L G B T Q? Queer? Yeah. Why was this one important for you? That’s a great question, and I think the answer really lies in the fact that, you know, there are so many contributions of trans wonder myth that aren’t regarded as canonical at all for a variety of reasons, right.
Um, some of those are legitimate trans characters, right, that we have seen on screen largely, you know, poor depictions, stereotypical depictions, depictions, seeping in tropes, but even in some of those tropes, Right. Some of us found representation, some of us felt held and reflected back on screen, and it was important [00:11:00] for me to basically assert kind of first and foremost my own personal history of.
My gender journey and identity formation, um, as filtered through a number of these, you know, films and TV shows that we will talk about, um, and that I explore in the book, but also hoping that that can be in service of some other black person or trans person or non-binary person having some sort of reference point for themselves and their own journeys.
Before pose, before Laverne Cox, before you know Chaz Bono, if that’s your generation. Right. Oftentimes it seems as if our history as trans people, not only in this country but on this planet, began with Laverne Cox on Oranges, the New Black or Chaz Bono. But there’s a very long history of. Existence that we would term and define as trans today, [00:12:00] right?
That happened, uh, in life and in culture and in communities across the globe, but also on screen in ways that challenged various conventions at the time in which they, you know, came about. So I wanted to do a book that would have all of that, but you get a whole lot of my own personal story in it and you know, it’s got a little Raza daza on top.
Um, because I wanted folks to be able to, you know, have this in this, this history, this context for this particular moment. Of trans visibility that we are, are living through, um, and backlash to transex existence that we are living through while also hopefully starting some own conversations within your own individual minds about how you have seen and grappled with and wrestled with or not images of trans folks in, in broader culture.
I ultimately was watching a whole lot of like. Transphobic, [00:13:00] anti-trans, very problematic narratives. And I was like, why am I forcing myself to like, you know, re-traumatize myself and unsettle all of these, you know, angst that I have as a trans person moving through this world? And then that’s when I decided to just center myself in my experience.
Um, and the complexities, there’re in a lot more, and I think the result right, is a book that like, yes, it’s a book about trans history and visibility on screen, but like I talk about Madea in this book, I talk about RuPaul and drag. In this book, I talk about all these other things that. You know, I think are, are related to the conversation of trans visibility, but folks might not necessarily automatically place them because of the complexities of, of language and identity.
So, you know, I hope a hundred percent I saw. Yeah. So, and I think what’s gonna happen is that people will begin to see [00:14:00] themselves in you. As they read the book, and so I’m so glad that you did put yourself in it and that you, you followed the gut that said, I have more to say than just the history of this thing, and not just the fact of what this thing is and how it was created, but also how I came to this piece and why it meant something to me, or why it informs all this other work that happened.
And so, uh, you, you talk about Madea. And RuPaul when Flip dressed up as that character and it was a comedic thing. And how, how does that translate when we talk about real trans folks lives? Yeah. And how, um, and how folks interact with them in real, in life, um, and how that was set up on television. Yeah.
You know the thing that just comes to mind for me, and this is it, it, it includes Philip Wilson as Geraldine. It includes Tyler Perry as Nia. It includes Martin Lawrence as Shanae and Big Mama. Oh, snaps. Yes. As all the women he’s dressed up with. And may I add, it also [00:15:00] includes the Instagram influencer. Who puts on a wig as a character, right.
For comedic purposes. It’s all connected. I mean, I hadn’t even thought about Martin Lawrence character. Shanae is just, you know, you can get the iconic role that I grew up with. It absolutely is, right. But when you look at those characters and the ways that those characters are written, the ways that those characters are referred to in those shows, So much of the discourse and the jokes about them is about their body.
It’s about the ways that these characters that we are supposed to believe are women, right? Fail womanhood, right. Because Shana Nay has a beard or a mustache because Madea s hands are so big because insert person [00:16:00] here is still showing us right? In various different ways that they are a, you know, quote unquote man, and those same types of jokes, right?
That happened in a Madea movie that happened in On Martin about Shanae that happened, um, in some of the Eddie Murphy projects. Um, those. Same jokes are the exact same things that we as trans people here in real life, right? When folks are trying to justify the violence that they enact upon us, we see each other.
Well, what does that mean? Why? Why is the book called We see each other?
I want it to be clear. So I should say the, we see each other as not the title that I sold the book as. So if folks are like, looking up the history of this book, it’ll look like the book dropped out of the sky because when it was announced, the ti the title of the book was Scene, s e e n, colon, [00:17:00] trans Lives on Screen.
That’s what I sold the, the title. As knowing that I had always changed, I would always change it, but to be quite honest, I went with the title for the proposal phase that I thought would be easily understood by the people potentially buying the book, but I always knew I would change it. It ultimately, I wanted the title to speak to.
The audience that is center of mind for me as I write, which is not to say folks who fall outside, that audience can’t get anything from the book. Um, but I wanted to be clear that even as everybody else gets to, you know, peek in and consume and also grapple with the things that I bring up. I’m writing for black folks, I’m writing for trans folks.
I’m writing for queer folks who live, love and exist like me. So we see each other because we see each other, you know? Yes, we do. Um, I also really like the idea of, cuz you know, we see each other as, you know, [00:18:00] everybody, many people I should say think now of, of, um, candy and Nini, uh, from the housewife Savannah, and, and, and that, um, yes.
And, and I, I wanted something that black people would say a particular way because they understand. Stood it a particular way, but that, you know, the rest of y’all, you know, you could see, we see each other and it’s fine, but, but the people who know know, right. Um, and so that’s, that’s another thing that I was very excited to, to be able to do.
It really, it was about making sure that like I’m speaking to and with, Black trans folks, um, about the types of experiences that we have had. Um, and the rest of you all get to, to listen in on it, but it’s not necessarily written with them and those particulars in mind. So you not, you’re not, you’re not gon, you’re not gonna get a comprehensive, you [00:19:00] know, history.
You go, you go get the things that, that I wanted to fucking talk about, period, because it’s my book. Okay. And you can do that. Yes. Family. So that was just a small excerpt of a larger interview that I did with Tre’vell. If it sparked your interest, if you want to hear more from them. And laugh with us. Believe me, we had some laughs on this interview.
Please go check it out on E three Radio’s YouTube page. The link is in the show notes. And you know what you gotta do now, right? You got to go pre-order the book today. Let us show the power of the Queer News podcast. Go and pre-order that book today. And if you’re listening to this after May 9th, go buy the book.
Yes. We all, we got family. It’s your favorite queer radio personality. Anna DeShawn and I will talk to you next week. Peace.[00:20:00]
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