In highschool I had a science teacher that would occasionally let us watch CSI episodes for class (it was a forensics class) and when we watched this episode she talked to the class after explaining that the trans serial killer stereotype is made up and harmful. And this school is in a very rural area so she was definitely a real one for that.
@@M_M_ODonnellor a social studies/psychology/etc teacher watching it and then talking about all the biases and propaganda and stuff. That would actually be cool
@@M_M_ODonnellI actually had a teacher that did this! He'd also toss candy at people when they used scientific names (he taught marine bio and ecology)
the idea that all trans people's names are just the "opposite gender" of their dead name is always so funny to me. paul and pauline, sam and samantha. we need more realistic representation, like people naming themselves after obscure characters
My girlfriend didn't even change her name when she transitioned. Neither did my transmasc enby cousin. Neither did noted trans content creator Ezra Butler.
A lot of trans people pick totally different names because they want to distance themselves from their old lives. I always interpreted Milander doing the opposite as a dig at his parents because they wanted to pretend he was dead.
Well I mean... A lot of my trans acquaintances did the opposite gender name thing. Its intuitive and easy for everyone around to remember. (I, on the contrary, did the stupidest thing ever and now I have literally got an Ace Attorney character aah name, which I love)
It's always wild to see the trans guy rep out there. People tend to forget we exist, and when they do remember, they decide we're just sad, misguided women, like you briefly touched on. I WISH transitioning just made me big and strong and powerful immediately lol The idea of someone being able to completely transition so quickly and easily, and completely hide that they've done so?? Wild.
I always get surprised when that occasional Lily video is about a trans man, or even genderfluid and nb people honestly. It's tough just trying to search of media we barely exist in
@@The-Seal-Of-Approval My disappointment cannot be measured and my day is ruined: yorkie bars are chocolate bars, and not the bar-with-yorkshire-terriers-you-can-pet-and-buy-dog-treats-for-while-you-get-a-beer-and-some-chips-for-yourself-and-watch-sports-with-strangers version of a cat cafe. :( 0/10 not enough small hairmop dogs.
Can you cover the transphobia of Adam Sandler films? I've noticed there's a running trend of a trans character used for "wtf moments" in the movie Click and 50 First Dates
Adam Sandler doesn't believe in avoiding all types of people in comedy but I don't remember him ever having anything bad to say about other races or genders. Edit: I meant outside of his comedy. Much like Matt and Trey, Adam goes after everyone equally.
@@Topdoggie7 okay but the punchline is 100% of the time just "LOL THIS FREAK IS TRANS LOOK HOW FREAKY AND WEIRD THEY ARE BECAUSE THEY'RE TRANS!" There's including everyone in comedy and there's using people's already turbulent existence as the comedy
16:38 - OH MY GOD, THE DOCTORS GAVE HIM A HAIRCUT!!! Like, I get its meant to be "he got a sex change in that cut", but it just looks like his barber was working out of A&E
Fun fact about CSI, if you google "That episode" the top result links to the wikipedia article about the infamously bad "furry" episode on that show (furry in quotations since they butchered it so badly I'm hesitating to even give them that much even if it was their intention).
I'd even go as far as to call it the worst episode mentioning furries that has ever come out of hollywood. It's infamous in the furry fandom due tho how much harm it has caused, with it being the introduction to the furry fandom for many otherwise unknowing people that now have it as the first association in their heads when someone mentions furries anywhere...
@@ohnothepossum Seriously "Fur And Loathing" has done more damage to the fandom than any of the actual scandals associated with the fandom itself. If the writers at CSI find out just how disproportionately trans the furrysphere is (including yours truly) they might just write the first episode of TV that qualifies as a federal hate crime.
Yes its bad, and unrealistic, and bad, not that furries are just treated as roleplaying people or anything. god beware i saw a furry covering it, oh boy
I came out as trans in 2019. People I hung with a few years prior got ahold of me, and acted like I already transitioned. Uh, it's a process. I wasn't on HRT yet. I hadn't even decided my name yet. All it was was dressing different and doing my hair different at that point. They seriously have no idea of how much goes into it. I threw everything at my hairline, and miraculously got it to grow back. I had to build a new wardrobe. I had to break down several mental barriers I had built up since early childhood from all the abuse I dealt with related to my gender.
ah yes, CSI, the show that gave me the most incorrect undertanding of transitioning and probably set my transtition back a few years and that I still reference to explain the internalized transphobia I had.
How can he fake his identity as a judge?? Did he walk into a courtroom wearing a judge robe and say "hey im a judge!"? If he passed the State Bar to become a lawyer and was appointed the judgeship then he isn't faking. He's actually a judge.
And if he is a judge he probably has a history somewhat that woul be very hard to hide? Not impossible, but it would be a stretch, and a way more interesting trail to go for. And if he is a fake judge he is impersonating an official and they get him for that.
Fun fact, in a lot of US states, you do not have to be a lawyer to be a municipal judge or a justice of the peace. In fact, in a lot of places, there are absolutely no qualifications besides being elected to the position and completing a short (4 days - 2 weeks) certification program. In some states, a non-lawyer judge can sentence you for misdemeanors and even send you to jail!
Though cop show portraying cops treating trans people awfully is pretty much the most accurate-to-real-life thing you'll ever find on a cop show unless they have an episode devoted to cops beating up homeless people.
To answer the question about DNA tests on hair, you can. BUT you need the hair follicle, the root, to do so. Anything above that is useless for DNA unless it has a secondary source of DNA.
And also, standard boilerplate disclaimer that DNA tests can take weeks or months to perform, depending on how busy the lab is. You don't send one out and get the results back same day. Or at least you didn't when this episode was made.
Have you watched Grey's Anatomy? There's an episode (that I haven't seen in years so I may be remembering incorrectly) that might fit this series. There was a teenage patient who was AFAB, but I'm pretty sure they wanted to go by he/him but the parents weren't affirming. I think it turned out the patient was intersex and the parents had known since the kid was born but they didn't want to tell their kid or want the doctors to tell them. The parents were painted as the bad guys iirc, and I think the show was **trying** to be affirming and supportive but I watched it before I was really all that knowledgeable about trans issues so I have no idea if the episode holds up. Like I'm pretty sure that the doctors were like, oh since the kid is intersex, that explains why they feel like a boy (or like not a girl).
@@lukaluukaa i know for a fact this must be a real thing. the number of trans people i've run into in the scene is unreal. furries too. my bet is that hacking is a niche, and niche attracts niche. i guarantee you some mf did this shit, and i want to find them and crown them king of the codes
To be fair, the show couldn't even get forensic science right. In the show about forensics. Forensics in the 2000s. So the fact that they treat other subjects abyssmally isn't a surprise.
Whadda ya mean there's no computer that can magically analyze and compare fingerprints to a database of millions of suspects? I'm sure it was invented by the same person who invented the defibrillator that magically zaps people back to life.
Like listening to her at work, it's like chatting with a friend while i work. Also helps me feel better about not being able to be out in any way, at least i have one accepting friend w me 😅
Plus theres a long history of the police being one of the primary enforcers of systemic transphobia, by portraying trans ppl in copaganda as villains it seeks to justify that violence
Most murders are probably the same reasons over and over; boring things like personal grudges, money, jealousy, etc so these writers gotta spice it up with queer ~scandal~ that's sure to shock viewers! (eye roll)
@@TV-8-301also, CSI specifically was made for CBS. The channel was genuinely assumed to be targeted to older generations, so it's very likely that there's an anti-queer bias because they know the audience was raised with those same biases.
"What we don't understand, we fear. What we fear, we judge as evil. What we judge as evil, we attempt to control. And what we cannot control...we attack" ― Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol
17:08 can confirm, my biological mother is obsessed with CSI and other transphobic media you have covered before. She parrots the talking points from these shows without questioning their validity.
The one off mention of Silence of the Lambs made me want to watch your analysis of it! It has a really interesting place in film history, and if I remember correctly has a slightly more nuanced take on identity than the stuff that followed- there’s a fair few queer themes especially with Jodie Foster and her character. I think there’s also a line from Lector about the main villain not being trans- though that hardly explained away the themes the story reinforced. If you’re on a police procedural kick, I’d highly recommend it and would love to hear your take.
Agreed. The fact that they at least had the characters try to clarify the difference was honestly better than most things at the time. It's still uncomfortable, but I give them some credit for trying when they could have leaned fully into the transphobia.
For real! If you're just looking for an episode synopsis, go somewhere else! 😂 We're here to see Lily ramble to her heart's content for AT LEAST 1/3 of the video's run time
As a Cis male boomer, my attitude has evolved over the years, but I've found it pretty appalling to see how gay and trans people are treated so badly by society and writers. I was taught not to fear and hate people who are different.
As a boomer, there would've been some people in your life who absolutely taught you to fear and hate those who are different, even if it was just subtle. It might have been teachers, coaches, other relatives, your peers etc. You just chose that fearing and hating those who are different is wrong. Give yourself that credit. It's not just about what you were taught, it's about your own sense of morals and justice. I'm gen X. Most of my friends and relatives growing up taught me to hate and fear those who are different. It was my paternal grandmother who set me straight and explained what I had been taught was fucked up. She is in her 90's now, and still an amazing woman.
I'd be interested to see you cover the Dark Angel episode "Out." It was apparently the first American tv show to feature an openly transgender actress, portraying a trans woman who went on a date with one of the side characters in the B (maybe C?) plot of the episode. Unfortunately it isn't streaming anywhere, but I'm pretty sure someone's uploaded it to YT.
Damn it was a pretty good scifi show and surprisingly stacked cast wise with talent later going famous, it even had a kinda hiv episode and, its a good scifi mutant storry, and logan is a great show how dude in a wheelchair is really good representation and badass. And good dystopian oddly prophectic of the 9/11 reaction, not oddly eagle seems to be a great wrighter. And the catgirl puns and that are pretty tasteful? Really if they did fanservice, with good writing. Ok thats highly respectable. And the puns are, mostly just fun and not too much. And yes some dystopian scifi breeding ground for genetic super soldieers makes sense to do weird mating stuff. That not bad to have to make them creepy.
CSI is also a really dumb show in general. MC dude is constantly dropping some Jordan Peterson level outdated psychology snippets and the science is often just mind bogglingly bad. Add the profiling garbage and general cop show nonsense and you have a show you can only watch pirated with alcohol and friends to make fun off. The furry episode down the line is a real pisskicker
I really enjoy csi for the most part, it's one of my hyperfixations but there's so much transphobia which just makes me dysphoric and uncomfortable and weird stuff about autism. As a trans man there's very little representation and the fact that in a show I watch all the time they have a serial killer who is a trans man really pissed me off. I also remember at least one episode where Sarah dropped the t slur just cause and then there either wasn't a trans character or they were there for like 5 minutes.... Appreciate the video, subscribed.
Came for the tangents, stayed for the insightful video essay Also you can in fact get DNA from hair, you just need a folicle to extract the DNA from, but hair if you don;t have a folicle you can do a comparison from a known hair to a suspect hair under a microscope, which is an okay preliminary test to see if they came form the same source, but it's definetly not as good as DNA confirmation I could write an essay on all the cool shit hair can tell you, but I am going to stop myself because no one is going to read it lol
Hair comparison is a soft science, it's in the same realm as handwriting analysis. It should basically never be used as evidence of guilt, it should only be utilised as exculpatory evidence. It's too dodgy and prone to human error and disagreement to use as evidence of guilt. That said, yeah, the hair needs to be complete at the root, basically if it broke apart when removing it is worthless for DNA, however if it has it then it's standard DNA comparison. Also depending on the violence it was pulled out with, you may also have a not insignificant amount of skin cells, and may even have a little blood. All of which can be used for DNA uses. The best aspect of hair for hair analysis though is that because hair grows from the root, you're able to see a persons past in the hair. If they were deficient in some aspects for a period, like if a person was malnourished, you may be able to find evidence of that in the hair strand. You can also see if it's been dyed, how faded the dye is giving you an idea of when it was dyed, and even some drug usage shows up in your hair, all of which can be vitally important lifestyle information for identifying a criminal. If you can see they dyed their hair red approximately 3 months ago, but the person you're suspecting was visibly blonde around the same time, you're almost definitely suspecting the wrong person. If the hair has a period where the person was vitamin d deficient, one could estimate they hadn't seen sunlight much for a narrow range of time, which could help if a person was suspected of being held hostage in a basement, etc etc etc Basically I hate how hair comparisons are done in cop shows, but hair can be incredibly important, it's just not like fingerprints where it can be very definitive, unless you have DNA
There was that short story where a hair talks about gix they're such an important piece of evidence and ends up getting shot by the one they're talking to (which may be a worm, but I don't remember because I didn't read it in years.) ..I'll just let the smart hair individuals talk.
@@Aryasvitkona I remember NCIS had an episode where a man had been falsely convicted of a crime because of hair comparison and now that it was known to be a faulty method they looked for the person who actually did it, and the forensics person felt really bad about getting it wrong the first time
In defense of Silence of the Lambs, they did at least *try* to separate Bill from the trans community. They could've done a much better job, yes, but they did at least put in *some* effort to improve the light cast on Bill by the source material.
and people say the Furry episode was bad representation haha. i was obsessed with csi as a teen. and i definitely feel conflicted about both these episodes for similar reasons. at the time, the furry episode was the source of a lot of hate on the Internet, people seeing furries as gross. but looking back, i can't help but love it for being stupid and... kind of "Getting It." this one, i appreciate the acknowledgement of intersex people and everything, but i think it ultimately fails to capture the community. and it is blatantly transphobic. as a kid who didn't know about silence of the lambs, i only saw Paul as a tragic figure. like what happens to people who aren't given the support they need by society.
when i told my dad i was trans when i was like 15 he got all emotional and sad and told me he didnt know how many weeks recovery i had to be in after "the surgery" and that i couldnt miss school for that long - i had to tell him that theres a bit more to it than just saying "im trans" and immediately going into a single surgery and coming out different, like it takes years to "fully" transition, especially with all the waiting times (rn ive waited 8 years just to get to see a doctor about testosterone, i hate my life lmao)
Funnily enough the second season of Squid Game had a decent representation of a trans woman (though played by a cis man - but I doubt there are a lot of trans actors in South Korea). The language two characters used early on made me a bit uncomfortable about her "wanting to be a woman", but it was in line with how a lot of people think and those characters did eventually warm up to her as well. One character immediately called her "unnie" (it's a way to address older sister type people) and later called her beautiful, which made me happy.
before I watch this video I’m manifesting Lily saying a sweet one liner and then pulling off sunglasses while the music goes YEAH!!!!!!!!! in the background 🤞
I just didn’t know about this particular episode but I do want to see how Lily covers the other two. I do feel like CSI is the better show when it comes to trans representation but it’s a very low bar to clear.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on Squid Game Season 2's character Hyun-Ju, I finished watching it the other day and I'm actually pretty happy with how it went, nothing super groundbreaking, but the presentation itself is pretty respectful and the behind the scenes discussions about it are quite interesting!
The rep may be horrible but as a transmasc person I will literally take the tiniest putrid crumb Edit--- Okay, the bit about treating trans people as murderers of their "former selves" really resonates with me. I've been out to my parents for two years and for those two years i've been treated as both murderer and victim. It really doesn't help much with all the struggle that accompanies being trans to be mourned while one is up and about.
@@hello_there_bees So there are 21 seasons of Grey's so... a lot XD But there are several instances of trans characters, some better than others. You in particular I think would like Dr. Casey Parker from season 19.
Unfortunately youtube removed much of the control over ads a few years back when they changed their systems so not much power over that one but thank you
i thought i had forgotten about this ep but then you said Paul Milander and i could feel it in my bones. it really did feel like the show was going, "you think this guy is messed up? wait till you find out the twist!" of him being trans. agh.
Do you think you’re gonna do a video about the trans character in Squid Game ? Her being played by a cis male made a lot of controversy but from what I saw trans people (including me) thought the portrayal was nice
Idk if you do preschool shows but there’s a Madagascar preschool series called “A Little Wild@ about the main characters as kids living in NYC. There’s an episode called “What Floats Your Float” where they’re throwing an animal pride parade (not literally gay animals, just animals being proud I guess lol) and there’s an okapi. Marty doesn’t understand what they are so he tries to find which animal float they can fit into. But the okapi being an okapi is a metaphor for being non binary/having an unlabeled identity and still belonging. The okapi is even voiced by a nonbinary actor and the character becomes a reoccurring one.
Cold Case is devastating if you are a Philadelphian. A great deal of that s*** is true. E.g. I was born in that home for wayward pregnant 🤰 girls where the Nuns were so cruel while the girls were delivering.
I recommended the trans episode to a trans woman friend of mine. The show is interesting, the cops initially are as rough and insensitive as cops from 2004 would be given the case. But at the end "Daniela" (that was the episode name) was treated extremely sympathetically and my friend said she was in tears at the final song. As a cis lesbian myself, "Best Friends" is my fave episode. That show was very progressive for the mid noughties and always knew the right song to punch you in the guts with at the end. ETA: Regarding CSI, I had totally forgotten about this character. I thought the video was gonna be about the back street gender affirming surgeries doctor and the trans woman she had killed to protect her identity.
@varalys the music choice in Cold Case was always perfect. They just chose the best possible song to really punch you in the gut. I found some of my all time favourite songs through it. It started airing when I was maybe 14/15 when it hit the German speaking market.
@@elliganzweitweg Yes, I was born in 1974. So the stories set in the eighties and nineties really induced extreme nostalgia in me. I've also got a lot of tunes I found via the show stored on my devices too. There's some playlists with just the final montages and tune here on TH-cam, some of those can still set me off lol.
I remember I believe in SVU there was an episode with a trans girl and the end message was that her dad was right for denying her access to hormones… in the same episode I remember the main guy calling a trans man “both Robin Hood and maid Marian”
Ugh, I got reminded of the final case of CSI Deadly Intent( Crime Scene Impersonator) where they lean into the creepy cross dresser trope with Marcelle(the main suspect of the case who looks like Hannibal Lector) with the CSIs almost seem annoyed at times where they had to address her by her prefer name instead of her dead name. If you ever want to cover that
Man, if only transition was as easy as cis people think it is. I've been on T for nine years and my voice is still stuck in that ambiguous 'kid going through puberty' phase.
Oh boy, CSI! I haven't watched this righteous trash since I was in high school where my dumb mush brain hadn't yet grown up enough to understand how ludicrous the whole show was. 5:58 And yes, you can get DNA evidence from hair! I believe usually it needs to have the follicle still attached to the root for them to get the most of it, but hair is definitely used in crime scene investigation as evidence. That much CSI didn't make up.
hey lily! just another suggestion here as if you aren’t weighed down by enough! sons of anarchy has a couple episodes with a character named Venus and i’d love to hear your thoughts and analysis of how they handled her character! thank you!
I swear to God, I have like PTSD related to several of the shows you've covered. Seeing that kind of terrible representation while closeted for decades. It was rough.
My nephew recently came out as a trans man. His grandmother on my sister in law’s side flipped out and basically said “she lost her daughter” similar to the parents in this episode. Thankfully my nephew’s immediate family is supportive.
Omg. I've been on a CSI binge recently and it aged so badly. I was like, "I wonder if this youtuber ever covered CSI" and I was so happy to see you got to it recently! There is so much bad transphobia with mtf people in the handful of episodes they're mentioned, including some weird comment by a lab tech "You know, I enjoy having a penis." I'm looking forward to your next video!
It’s not the hair they test, but any skin cells that happen to be on it (usually at the hair follicle). Hair doesn’t always have skin on it to test though.
I remember this episode of CSI but I can see how much I misremembered it! What I remember from seeing it when I was young was that transmen also exist, and that this one was smart and a badass (and yeah he was a serial killer but this is CSI, so there are tons of killers and he was the only trans one, so I didn't see the two as connected in any way). I'm transmasculine and for sure this wasn't a role model, but it was still a way to learn that trans guys existed and could be accomplished people (even in a terrible way). He had a family, he was about to outsmart the team on several occasions. And as you pointed out, they didn't misgender him which is nice. He's treated as a man at the very least. Obviously I prefer better representation but it wasn't the worst, all things considered (although if was worse than I recalled).
Gods I always hated the Paul Millander arc. As a kid/teen I just thought it was ridiculously overwritten, with so many plot twists thrown in to pad it out that it becomes almost impossible to follow. Now that I'm aware enough to understand everything else in it my opinion of it has somehow managed to go down
Just once I'd like to see these shows investigate a hate crime against us instead of making us the insane ones. I'm literally an intersex person transitioning to male who doesn't have a dad around (who needs him, I've got my grandpa) and I've channeled all my pain into adopting animals to protect them from the pain I felt. We're usually the victims and almost never the perpetrator
Great video as always. Have you considered doing literature as well as movies and shows? For example, in the Oz series by L Frank Baum, there are multiple instances of characters changing gender. While not done in today's terms, the treatment of the characters is surprisingly positive (one of the biggest examples is Princess Ozma, who, when deciding to transition to being a girl so she could take up the crown, her friends were super supportive and promised that she was the same person, no matter if she was a boy or girl)
Please never stop doing your channel. It's only getting worse in the US and we need critiques of the media that formed our concept of trans people before we actually met real trans people.
Not only is this episode of CSi transphobic & harmful towards intersex people, but it also comes off as sexist in my opinion since the team immediately jump to it must be a woman taking drugs to enhance performance when they were testing the hair thus implying that woman athletes can't just be good at a sport without taking drugs. Also, of course, when they gave the character the name paul, the writers decided that his dead name had to be the opposite & I get some people do that, but most people who decide to change their name tend to pick something completely different
Just made it to 5:36 and got a good chuckle from you/ Lily describing the (passing) trans man as "a manly man-man who's a man". May have to start referring to myself as such, being a trans man myself, but I suppose I'll have to throw in a caveat, something like "but who's *definitely* not a killer-man" just to make it clear that I'm not one of *those* trans men. I remember the other trans episode of CSI, which at least ends on a better note if I remember correctly. I'll wait for your/ Lily's episode on it, though.
Please do the trans episode of ncis . It’s my comfort show and there’s one in the early seasons (before Kate’s actress leaves the show) and it’s 😭😭😭 smth It’s transphobia + horrifying sexism + objectifying women 😁😁😁
i know LOL, ive watched the whole show, and their first episode (i think) involving trans people called "Dead Man Talking" was really really rough to watch tbh. the episode "An Eye for an Eye" is a bit better bc they explain it more like a woman being trapped in a man's body, but they still use some outdated terms and in both episodes their use of pronouns is pretty inconsistent for both potrayals. it was definitely a sign of the times in 2005, but at least the second episode kind of tried to explain it? for me its a bit of a conflicting thing bc of all the jokes they make about pronouns and pre op and shit like that
Omg I completely forgot about eye for an eye! (Dk how since it’s in the intro for the longest time 😭😭) yeah I agree that one does do it a lot better (raises the bar from in hell to the Mariana Trench) and I think Tony being a pervert is also slightly mellowed down (it’s still bad in the ziva era but Kate era Tony is something ELSE) . Also this reminds me something else about dead man talking-Tony “kissing a man”/“kissing a [derogatory term for trans person” is directly referenced by both ziva and Kate frequently (and phrased that exact way 😭😭), which is something about that episode that I feel like is kind of unique to the other crime shows . Like they don’t end the transphobia there it comes up again and again afterwards (it genuinely might be one of the most referenced not plot significant episodes in the show) ty for giving me the title! In my household it’s just “…that episode” lmao .
Things referenced in ncis: -the meat puzzle/body inside of a body(different things, evoke the same reaction) -hot tub deaths (greatest bit of all time) -elf lord -that one time the show was aggressively and horrifyingly transphobic /j
Sorry one last thing (NCIS is so improtant to me can you tell) I also think smth that makes the second episode a lot better (as I’ve said, essentially raising the bar from being burned to death to being stabbed to death) is that the trans plot isn’t really central afaik . Like that gets overshadowed by the eye thing and the cartel and whatnot , at least for the viewer I feel like it does
When you're off your copaganda kick, you should check out shameless. He's not in it for a long time but trevor, a love interest for Ian, is one of my favorite characters!
suggested this before a while back, but in case you missed it, Whatever Happened to Robot Jones is a super underrated cartoon network show from the early 2000s that has a Gender Episode (called "Gender" if you can believe it) that is overall surprisingly wholesome and insightful both for the time and demographic it aired for. although the term nonbinary didn't really exist at the time, we essentially get fairly clear confirmation that the main character of the whole show is nonbinary, after they spent the majority of the episode experimenting with different gender expressions! it's of course not perfect and something could still be said for the tendency to only give nonhuman characters nonbinary genders, but it's the kind of thing that i wished i had grown up watching myself so i could've had the chance to realize sooner that not only are the categories of "boy" and "girl" fairly nebulous, they don't encompass everyone. it's definitely a much nicer thing to watch than police procedurals anyhow, you're braver than any marine for slogging through this
1) I'm non-binary. I just came out a month ago, so I just like saying it. 2) Would you ever consider covering Steven Universe? While Steven isn't necessarily trans, I picked up on some trans issues in season 4, like that his family still see him as his mother and misgender/deadname him until they get it right, and even then, it takes them a while to accept it. If you squint at the entire series and Rose/Steven as characters, I think there is some transness there.
Steven Universe is on my plan for the end of the year, mostly so I can release it and go on vacation to ignore the very active fanbases that exist around loving and hating that show
i havent got the funds to financially support but commenting for engagement, great video and fascinating to see coverage on CSI i always heard of it but haven't really seen it covered often and its truly wild how many leaps people will make before considering trans, intersex and non-bnary people's existences
19:57 wait! That doesn't make any sense. If his parents were presenting him as a boy outside of the house but as a girl inside of it, that would necessarily mean he was assigned male at birth. Because his parents were fighting over what he really was, which means they knew he's intersex, but why make him present as a boy at all if he passed as a girl? All that would do is raise questions and why would you want that? The only way this could work is if he was indeed AMAB but was non-confirming in some way. But then, why the medical and legal sex change? That only makes sense if he's AFAB, but then we come back to the beginning, presenting him as a boy to the public would only cause the issues they wanted to avoid. You could say they never say that but then why having this issue to begin with? Unless the dad was supportive of his AFAB intersex son and wouldn't tolerate the mother's abusive bullshit and decided to take charge of any judgement that went to their household or behind her back... Did the mom pay someone to kill her husband? I think this case is not at all closed CSI people.
Lily, have you done an episode on _The Silence of the Lambs?_ I'd be interested in your takes on it. I'm a straight, cis male, so I know that I come at this stuff fully from an outsider's perspective, but I always thought that the film significantly tried to point out how Gumb _wasn't_ transgender, but just a sick person who used that as an in-their-own-head justification. Writing this out, though, I can certainly see how that kind of difference would be largely lost on an audience. Anyway, if you haven't done a video on it, I really would be interested to hear your thoughts. Thanks!
Would love to hear you talk about Longlegs, specifically bc nic cage told people in interviews that his character used they/them pronouns. Also Oz Perkins talked about how the mother in the film was representative of his mother withholding his father’s aids diagnosis from him, which, whooooooo buddy
Oh, man, I had completely forgotten about this character. I haven't watched this show in like 15 years, but I used to be obsessed with it. I'm guessing "Ch-ch-changes" is the other CSI trans episode you plan on reviewing. From what I recall, that one is fairly better, but I still don't feel compelled to rewatch it (or really any other episode of this show) ever again. Definitely looking forward to your video on it! 🫶 Thank you for your work!
I will give Ch-ch-changes one teensy half-kudo for this: the trans character is a trans woman who transitioned because she identified as a woman. But oh my gosh the episode is horrible. I saw it again a few years ago and our '''sympathetic''' MCs are ridiculously transphobic towards the victim
Please do an episode on the Ben Shapiro trans episode... Brett Cooper. /s 🤣🤣 No but seriously. I'd love to see more coo shows on here. A collab with Skip Intro would be awesome. Break it down from every angle. I learn so much from this channel, I'd love to get that perspective.
Oh my god...they had two kids named Paul and Pauline, and they didn't make the connection?! Worst cops ever. Also, can they please stop the "changed my name to the opposite gendered version of my deadname" cliche? Heck, that would be a good twist for a trans suspect to have a name nothing like their deadname. "Francine C. Miller used to be Frank C. Miller?" is a lot less surprising than, "Oh my god. Luna Celeste McKenzie used to be Frank Miller?"
6:05 Biologist (tho not forensic scientist) here: Yes, buuuut - hair itself is dead ceratin, unless they developed some magic new technology since my basic lectures (only DNA/RNA I cared about in like 5 years is in microorganisms and plants) you cant test the hair as it doesnt contain working DNA. The hair follicle does though. A hair that just fell out is probably worthless, a hair that was pulled out/got stuck on something etc and still has the follicle or a scrap of skin/blood should work. But also the way they spout off a persons details from a DNA sample is odd, full sequencing is expensive, ESPECIALLY back then (human genome project ended only 2003 and gave us the first fully sequenced human genome, it started 1990). Sequencing has gotten cheaper and quicker in the years since but is the cost/value really worth it? Not to mention random DNA is everywhere and doesnt neatly sort itself, isolate DNA from a pillow and you might find the owners, their ONS, their cat, family member they hung out with last week and potentially whatever chicken or thuna was in pet food. And you need something to compare your sample to as well. Which is probably easiest for humans but even then its rare a gene neatly codes for one phenotype (no "this person 100% has blue eyes" gene), so afaik the main use of DNA in criminal cases is to directly compare it to suspects you already have, not to tarot-read what your suspect looks like. Tldr: Its nothing new CSI shows dont really care about science realism and at the time this was filmed/is set its incredibly unlikely they could use DNA to this degree.
even if not DNA, hair can also document a lot. like the water you drink has certain characteristics that get marked in the hair as it grows and can give you an idea of where the person lived/got water. going along the length of the hair gives you a timeline. this is newer technology though of course and generally used for identifying does
@@lexxist I mean yeah but thats not DNA - its probably Mass Spectrometry or something chemical testing? More in the physics/chemistry than in my beloved molecular genetics. I had a prof who uses HLPC and MS to analyze proteins and I know weed usage shows up in your hair, but those are not aspects of science I ever learned in-depth.
As a radical feminist, I’m very sad to see the comparison to far right thinking. We do not believe biology is a part of oppression or misogyny, instead it’s socialised within patriarchy. For example, JK Rowling is not a radical feminist. She is a bio-essentialist who is a far right idiot. She has even teamed up with anti-abortion campaigners?! That’s the opposite of feminism! There is nothing radical about her thinking, it’s conservative. It’s really disappointing to see this on this channel. I really enjoyed listening and learning from these videos. I always will see trans women as women, who need protecting because they are one of the most vulnerable groups of women. It’s just sad to see this faux division being believed by so many feminists. ☹️
I'm actually not in the best headspace atm to watch this, but here's a comment regardless. I sped through the video so your views go up hajhdskjsh, your stuff is always great, I might revisit this later! I really hope something more positive is in the works, the reality of how little we're valued as people for literally just being normal people is depressing.
It's funny you mentioned Red Dragon because he was in the original film Man Hunter Also, I remember another trans episode I just can't remember what the over arch was. Just I think she was the victim, had been taking her period so her fiance wouldn't find out.
Commenting before I finish the video because I will forget - I would love to see you do Grey's Anatomy in this series!! There are at least 6 different trans characters over the course of the show, and as someone who binged the entire show in about 4 months, it's sort of fascinating comparing the first time they have a trans character to most recent.
Not too long ago I tried watching a show called Hope Street. The show ended up not being for me but the first episode (I guess technically episode 1.2) had a trans story line. Spoilers: it is a case where the trans character is dead and the fact that she was trans was part of the twist but the story felt like it was done with compassion
In highschool I had a science teacher that would occasionally let us watch CSI episodes for class (it was a forensics class) and when we watched this episode she talked to the class after explaining that the trans serial killer stereotype is made up and harmful. And this school is in a very rural area so she was definitely a real one for that.
I could see a science teacher make a lesson out of "Let's watch an episode of CSI! ...and now let's talk in detail about the inaccuracies."
@@M_M_ODonnellor a social studies/psychology/etc teacher watching it and then talking about all the biases and propaganda and stuff. That would actually be cool
That is so based of your science teacher to uphold scientific consensus on things
@@M_M_ODonnellI actually had a teacher that did this! He'd also toss candy at people when they used scientific names (he taught marine bio and ecology)
what a queen
the idea that all trans people's names are just the "opposite gender" of their dead name is always so funny to me. paul and pauline, sam and samantha. we need more realistic representation, like people naming themselves after obscure characters
My girlfriend didn't even change her name when she transitioned. Neither did my transmasc enby cousin. Neither did noted trans content creator Ezra Butler.
There was Funky Winkerbean newspaper strip where that happened.
I’d argue that the “opposite name” thing is completely realistic. my name is samuel. Guess what my original name is.
A lot of trans people pick totally different names because they want to distance themselves from their old lives. I always interpreted Milander doing the opposite as a dig at his parents because they wanted to pretend he was dead.
Well I mean... A lot of my trans acquaintances did the opposite gender name thing. Its intuitive and easy for everyone around to remember.
(I, on the contrary, did the stupidest thing ever and now I have literally got an Ace Attorney character aah name, which I love)
It's always wild to see the trans guy rep out there. People tend to forget we exist, and when they do remember, they decide we're just sad, misguided women, like you briefly touched on.
I WISH transitioning just made me big and strong and powerful immediately lol The idea of someone being able to completely transition so quickly and easily, and completely hide that they've done so?? Wild.
I always get surprised when that occasional Lily video is about a trans man, or even genderfluid and nb people honestly. It's tough just trying to search of media we barely exist in
Would a Yorkie bar cheer you up?
That's what guy's want, right?
for real, it surprises me every time
@@The-Seal-Of-Approval My disappointment cannot be measured and my day is ruined: yorkie bars are chocolate bars, and not the bar-with-yorkshire-terriers-you-can-pet-and-buy-dog-treats-for-while-you-get-a-beer-and-some-chips-for-yourself-and-watch-sports-with-strangers version of a cat cafe.
:( 0/10 not enough small hairmop dogs.
As an autistic person... you gotta learn to use the suspicion that you're murderous to your advantage. My rent hasn't gone up for 3 years
Oo that's a good idea.
I just realised I really have used that to my advantage a lot.
Teach me your ways 😭
😈
As another autistic person, what?
Can you cover the transphobia of Adam Sandler films? I've noticed there's a running trend of a trans character used for "wtf moments" in the movie Click and 50 First Dates
thats a good one
And like... the entire premise of Jack and Jill.
@DragonbIaze052 jack and jill honestly aint the worst hes done
Adam Sandler doesn't believe in avoiding all types of people in comedy but I don't remember him ever having anything bad to say about other races or genders.
Edit: I meant outside of his comedy. Much like Matt and Trey, Adam goes after everyone equally.
@@Topdoggie7 okay but the punchline is 100% of the time just "LOL THIS FREAK IS TRANS LOOK HOW FREAKY AND WEIRD THEY ARE BECAUSE THEY'RE TRANS!"
There's including everyone in comedy and there's using people's already turbulent existence as the comedy
16:38 - OH MY GOD, THE DOCTORS GAVE HIM A HAIRCUT!!!
Like, I get its meant to be "he got a sex change in that cut", but it just looks like his barber was working out of A&E
His doctors also have Instant Beard in the operating room!
Body hair growth ray.
@@voilet-the-non-violet-vulpix must have gone to the GTA barber
Doctor Barber!
@@nahometesfay1112 Pretty sure that's just the Freddy Pharkas universe
Or how my dyslexia read it: "The Disturbing Transphobia of CIS"
I mean...
I kept reading that as the actual tittle lol it took me like 5 minutes to realize
I’m dead lmfao 🤣
Always felt that transphobic rant Dooku went on at the end of Attack of the Clones was particularly uncomfortable
Not far off, Mate!🤣
Fun fact about CSI, if you google "That episode" the top result links to the wikipedia article about the infamously bad "furry" episode on that show (furry in quotations since they butchered it so badly I'm hesitating to even give them that much even if it was their intention).
i watched that episode in xmas with my mom and its offputting how strangely bad it is
that episode was my introduction to the show, it was on in a rental suite thing at a family reunion. Burned into my memory forever
I'd even go as far as to call it the worst episode mentioning furries that has ever come out of hollywood. It's infamous in the furry fandom due tho how much harm it has caused, with it being the introduction to the furry fandom for many otherwise unknowing people that now have it as the first association in their heads when someone mentions furries anywhere...
@@ohnothepossum Seriously "Fur And Loathing" has done more damage to the fandom than any of the actual scandals associated with the fandom itself. If the writers at CSI find out just how disproportionately trans the furrysphere is (including yours truly) they might just write the first episode of TV that qualifies as a federal hate crime.
Yes its bad, and unrealistic, and bad, not that furries are just treated as roleplaying people or anything. god beware
i saw a furry covering it, oh boy
As an intersex trans man whose dad is named Paul, clearly this episode was specifically made about me lmao
Bro I wish T worked that fast. Where do I find this magical elevator
Obviously in Las Vegas
Tell me about it. I've been on T for nine years and my voice has stagnated at about 13 year old boy.
I came out as trans in 2019. People I hung with a few years prior got ahold of me, and acted like I already transitioned. Uh, it's a process. I wasn't on HRT yet. I hadn't even decided my name yet. All it was was dressing different and doing my hair different at that point.
They seriously have no idea of how much goes into it. I threw everything at my hairline, and miraculously got it to grow back. I had to build a new wardrobe. I had to break down several mental barriers I had built up since early childhood from all the abuse I dealt with related to my gender.
ah yes, CSI, the show that gave me the most incorrect undertanding of transitioning and probably set my transtition back a few years and that I still reference to explain the internalized transphobia I had.
How can he fake his identity as a judge?? Did he walk into a courtroom wearing a judge robe and say "hey im a judge!"? If he passed the State Bar to become a lawyer and was appointed the judgeship then he isn't faking. He's actually a judge.
true
And if he is a judge he probably has a history somewhat that woul be very hard to hide? Not impossible, but it would be a stretch, and a way more interesting trail to go for.
And if he is a fake judge he is impersonating an official and they get him for that.
I would imagine that forging documents would possibly be part of that whole "faking an identity as a judge"plan as well.
He should have pretended to be a cop instead. "Yeah I got let go from NYPD because I-"
"Say no more, brother"
Fun fact, in a lot of US states, you do not have to be a lawyer to be a municipal judge or a justice of the peace. In fact, in a lot of places, there are absolutely no qualifications besides being elected to the position and completing a short (4 days - 2 weeks) certification program. In some states, a non-lawyer judge can sentence you for misdemeanors and even send you to jail!
As a transman, with a Mum who loved CSI (and cop shows in general) and struggled to accept my transition, I'm having a "Ohhhhhh 😬" moment right now.
Get her to watch 9-1-1 Lonestar. It has some great transman rep.
can't spell csi without cis
I love how the transitioning elevator cut implies that the hospital not only gave him surgery but also a makeover
Admittedly, pretty much everyone gets bad representation in these cop shows, except for the police and 3-letter agencies.
And even that representation is "bad" in the sense of "inaccurate." It's just usually unrealistically favorable.
Unless those three letters are IAB
lol
Unless it’s the OIG of those agencies.
Now, THAT'S copaganda! 😲😲
Though cop show portraying cops treating trans people awfully is pretty much the most accurate-to-real-life thing you'll ever find on a cop show unless they have an episode devoted to cops beating up homeless people.
To answer the question about DNA tests on hair, you can. BUT you need the hair follicle, the root, to do so. Anything above that is useless for DNA unless it has a secondary source of DNA.
And also, standard boilerplate disclaimer that DNA tests can take weeks or months to perform, depending on how busy the lab is. You don't send one out and get the results back same day. Or at least you didn't when this episode was made.
22:50 Yes, the pocket dimension with the gun shows up like 6 months with HRT
Can confirm, 6 months after starting E the pocket dimension disappeared, along with all my pockets...
Have you watched Grey's Anatomy? There's an episode (that I haven't seen in years so I may be remembering incorrectly) that might fit this series. There was a teenage patient who was AFAB, but I'm pretty sure they wanted to go by he/him but the parents weren't affirming. I think it turned out the patient was intersex and the parents had known since the kid was born but they didn't want to tell their kid or want the doctors to tell them.
The parents were painted as the bad guys iirc, and I think the show was **trying** to be affirming and supportive but I watched it before I was really all that knowledgeable about trans issues so I have no idea if the episode holds up. Like I'm pretty sure that the doctors were like, oh since the kid is intersex, that explains why they feel like a boy (or like not a girl).
That sounds like the house episode word for word ngl
@@ulrichwagner7311 only difference being the house episode had the kid amab
i also vaguely remember there being a trans doctor who like hacked into the dmv to get his information changed or something
@@lukaluukaa i know for a fact this must be a real thing. the number of trans people i've run into in the scene is unreal. furries too. my bet is that hacking is a niche, and niche attracts niche. i guarantee you some mf did this shit, and i want to find them and crown them king of the codes
To be fair, the show couldn't even get forensic science right. In the show about forensics. Forensics in the 2000s. So the fact that they treat other subjects abyssmally isn't a surprise.
To be fair, the police/DA forensics crowd _also_ can't get science right.
Whadda ya mean there's no computer that can magically analyze and compare fingerprints to a database of millions of suspects? I'm sure it was invented by the same person who invented the defibrillator that magically zaps people back to life.
yet another lily playlist to add to my 'rewatch forever' list. I just love listening to her talk
yet another on my vid essay to fall asleep to playlist
same, its like when your friend starts rambling and you just sit and listen
Like listening to her at work, it's like chatting with a friend while i work. Also helps me feel better about not being able to be out in any way, at least i have one accepting friend w me 😅
Why do these studios hate queer people so much?
easy money I guess
Plus theres a long history of the police being one of the primary enforcers of systemic transphobia, by portraying trans ppl in copaganda as villains it seeks to justify that violence
Most murders are probably the same reasons over and over; boring things like personal grudges, money, jealousy, etc so these writers gotta spice it up with queer ~scandal~ that's sure to shock viewers! (eye roll)
@@TV-8-301also, CSI specifically was made for CBS. The channel was genuinely assumed to be targeted to older generations, so it's very likely that there's an anti-queer bias because they know the audience was raised with those same biases.
"What we don't understand, we fear. What we fear, we judge as evil. What we judge as evil, we attempt to control. And what we cannot control...we attack" ― Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol
17:08 can confirm, my biological mother is obsessed with CSI and other transphobic media you have covered before. She parrots the talking points from these shows without questioning their validity.
The one off mention of Silence of the Lambs made me want to watch your analysis of it! It has a really interesting place in film history, and if I remember correctly has a slightly more nuanced take on identity than the stuff that followed- there’s a fair few queer themes especially with Jodie Foster and her character. I think there’s also a line from Lector about the main villain not being trans- though that hardly explained away the themes the story reinforced. If you’re on a police procedural kick, I’d highly recommend it and would love to hear your take.
Agreed. The fact that they at least had the characters try to clarify the difference was honestly better than most things at the time. It's still uncomfortable, but I give them some credit for trying when they could have leaned fully into the transphobia.
0:15 Just call it copoganda.
Skip Intro’s Copaganda series is excellent
Wait, people get mad about tangents? I love the tangents! They're half the fun in videos like this!
Yeah, same! The tangents are part of the charm. The style. Definitely part of why I'm watching, at least.
For real! If you're just looking for an episode synopsis, go somewhere else! 😂 We're here to see Lily ramble to her heart's content for AT LEAST 1/3 of the video's run time
But wher is the other math :O
yes ranty sideways ways it keeps it fun but not off track is fun.
As a Cis male boomer, my attitude has evolved over the years, but I've found it pretty appalling to see how gay and trans people are treated so badly by society and writers. I was taught not to fear and hate people who are different.
As a boomer, there would've been some people in your life who absolutely taught you to fear and hate those who are different, even if it was just subtle. It might have been teachers, coaches, other relatives, your peers etc. You just chose that fearing and hating those who are different is wrong. Give yourself that credit. It's not just about what you were taught, it's about your own sense of morals and justice. I'm gen X. Most of my friends and relatives growing up taught me to hate and fear those who are different. It was my paternal grandmother who set me straight and explained what I had been taught was fucked up. She is in her 90's now, and still an amazing woman.
I'd be interested to see you cover the Dark Angel episode "Out." It was apparently the first American tv show to feature an openly transgender actress, portraying a trans woman who went on a date with one of the side characters in the B (maybe C?) plot of the episode. Unfortunately it isn't streaming anywhere, but I'm pretty sure someone's uploaded it to YT.
Fimgers crossed she sees the comment, and makes the video. It sounds very interesting.
Damn it was a pretty good scifi show and surprisingly stacked cast wise with talent later going famous, it even had a kinda hiv episode and, its a good scifi mutant storry, and logan is a great show how dude in a wheelchair is really good representation and badass.
And good dystopian oddly prophectic of the 9/11 reaction, not oddly eagle seems to be a great wrighter.
And the catgirl puns and that are pretty tasteful? Really if they did fanservice, with good writing. Ok thats highly respectable. And the puns are, mostly just fun and not too much.
And yes some dystopian scifi breeding ground for genetic super soldieers makes sense to do weird mating stuff. That not bad to have to make them creepy.
@@marocat4749 Oh, dang! I'll try to check it out, it sounds really cool.
CSI is also a really dumb show in general. MC dude is constantly dropping some Jordan Peterson level outdated psychology snippets and the science is often just mind bogglingly bad. Add the profiling garbage and general cop show nonsense and you have a show you can only watch pirated with alcohol and friends to make fun off. The furry episode down the line is a real pisskicker
Remember the kids spinning a micro uzi down a pole, firing live rounds, as a game? Yes, that's an episode of CSI if y'all weren't aware.
@@FearlessLeader2001 young people/teenagers have weird ideas. That was the case in that episode.
theme song’s the only good thing about it💔
I _love_ your "random tangents"
I really enjoy csi for the most part, it's one of my hyperfixations but there's so much transphobia which just makes me dysphoric and uncomfortable and weird stuff about autism. As a trans man there's very little representation and the fact that in a show I watch all the time they have a serial killer who is a trans man really pissed me off. I also remember at least one episode where Sarah dropped the t slur just cause and then there either wasn't a trans character or they were there for like 5 minutes.... Appreciate the video, subscribed.
Wait... Does no one else have a weapon-spawning pocket dimension?!? Do I need to get that check out?
Imagine a show with 9 trans characters, 3 good 3 evil 3 neutral/wild card, and each trio had a trans man a trans woman and a nonbiner bean.
Petition to rename enbies to beans
nonbiner bean😭
I'm pretty sure there's an anime of that somewhere.
It can be called Three is Company Squared.
@@MaskedImposter Why not "Three Squared Is Company"?
Came for the tangents, stayed for the insightful video essay
Also you can in fact get DNA from hair, you just need a folicle to extract the DNA from, but hair if you don;t have a folicle you can do a comparison from a known hair to a suspect hair under a microscope, which is an okay preliminary test to see if they came form the same source, but it's definetly not as good as DNA confirmation
I could write an essay on all the cool shit hair can tell you, but I am going to stop myself because no one is going to read it lol
i would read it haha that was interesting
Hair comparison is a soft science, it's in the same realm as handwriting analysis. It should basically never be used as evidence of guilt, it should only be utilised as exculpatory evidence. It's too dodgy and prone to human error and disagreement to use as evidence of guilt.
That said, yeah, the hair needs to be complete at the root, basically if it broke apart when removing it is worthless for DNA, however if it has it then it's standard DNA comparison. Also depending on the violence it was pulled out with, you may also have a not insignificant amount of skin cells, and may even have a little blood. All of which can be used for DNA uses.
The best aspect of hair for hair analysis though is that because hair grows from the root, you're able to see a persons past in the hair. If they were deficient in some aspects for a period, like if a person was malnourished, you may be able to find evidence of that in the hair strand. You can also see if it's been dyed, how faded the dye is giving you an idea of when it was dyed, and even some drug usage shows up in your hair, all of which can be vitally important lifestyle information for identifying a criminal. If you can see they dyed their hair red approximately 3 months ago, but the person you're suspecting was visibly blonde around the same time, you're almost definitely suspecting the wrong person.
If the hair has a period where the person was vitamin d deficient, one could estimate they hadn't seen sunlight much for a narrow range of time, which could help if a person was suspected of being held hostage in a basement, etc etc etc
Basically I hate how hair comparisons are done in cop shows, but hair can be incredibly important, it's just not like fingerprints where it can be very definitive, unless you have DNA
i know about the drugs thing
There was that short story where a hair talks about gix they're such an important piece of evidence and ends up getting shot by the one they're talking to (which may be a worm, but I don't remember because I didn't read it in years.)
..I'll just let the smart hair individuals talk.
@@Aryasvitkona I remember NCIS had an episode where a man had been falsely convicted of a crime because of hair comparison and now that it was known to be a faulty method they looked for the person who actually did it, and the forensics person felt really bad about getting it wrong the first time
In defense of Silence of the Lambs, they did at least *try* to separate Bill from the trans community. They could've done a much better job, yes, but they did at least put in *some* effort to improve the light cast on Bill by the source material.
and people say the Furry episode was bad representation haha.
i was obsessed with csi as a teen. and i definitely feel conflicted about both these episodes for similar reasons.
at the time, the furry episode was the source of a lot of hate on the Internet, people seeing furries as gross. but looking back, i can't help but love it for being stupid and... kind of "Getting It."
this one, i appreciate the acknowledgement of intersex people and everything, but i think it ultimately fails to capture the community. and it is blatantly transphobic. as a kid who didn't know about silence of the lambs, i only saw Paul as a tragic figure. like what happens to people who aren't given the support they need by society.
when i told my dad i was trans when i was like 15 he got all emotional and sad and told me he didnt know how many weeks recovery i had to be in after "the surgery" and that i couldnt miss school for that long - i had to tell him that theres a bit more to it than just saying "im trans" and immediately going into a single surgery and coming out different, like it takes years to "fully" transition, especially with all the waiting times (rn ive waited 8 years just to get to see a doctor about testosterone, i hate my life lmao)
Funnily enough the second season of Squid Game had a decent representation of a trans woman (though played by a cis man - but I doubt there are a lot of trans actors in South Korea). The language two characters used early on made me a bit uncomfortable about her "wanting to be a woman", but it was in line with how a lot of people think and those characters did eventually warm up to her as well. One character immediately called her "unnie" (it's a way to address older sister type people) and later called her beautiful, which made me happy.
to add to the cop dramas that vaguely cover trans identities, criminal minds has a couple of episodes - machismo (s1ep19) and conflicted (s4ep20)
before I watch this video I’m manifesting Lily saying a sweet one liner and then pulling off sunglasses while the music goes YEAH!!!!!!!!! in the background 🤞
Finally! Thank you Lilly!
Edit: I didn’t even know about this episode! I hope you cover the other two episodes!
Ain't that always how it always goes with these police procedurals 🤦♀️
I just didn’t know about this particular episode but I do want to see how Lily covers the other two. I do feel like CSI is the better show when it comes to trans representation but it’s a very low bar to clear.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on Squid Game Season 2's character Hyun-Ju, I finished watching it the other day and I'm actually pretty happy with how it went, nothing super groundbreaking, but the presentation itself is pretty respectful and the behind the scenes discussions about it are quite interesting!
The rep may be horrible but as a transmasc person I will literally take the tiniest putrid crumb
Edit--- Okay, the bit about treating trans people as murderers of their "former selves" really resonates with me. I've been out to my parents for two years and for those two years i've been treated as both murderer and victim. It really doesn't help much with all the struggle that accompanies being trans to be mourned while one is up and about.
Legit question have you watched Grey's Anatomy
@@Tazzie1312 I haven't, what does it involve?
@@hello_there_bees So there are 21 seasons of Grey's so... a lot XD But there are several instances of trans characters, some better than others. You in particular I think would like Dr. Casey Parker from season 19.
Your tangents are great, very entertaining! Also, get those mid-roll ads wherever they let you! Gotta feed your cat and pay rent, eh?
Unfortunately youtube removed much of the control over ads a few years back when they changed their systems so not much power over that one but thank you
i thought i had forgotten about this ep but then you said Paul Milander and i could feel it in my bones. it really did feel like the show was going, "you think this guy is messed up? wait till you find out the twist!" of him being trans. agh.
Do you think you’re gonna do a video about the trans character in Squid Game ? Her being played by a cis male made a lot of controversy but from what I saw trans people (including me) thought the portrayal was nice
Idk if you do preschool shows but there’s a Madagascar preschool series called “A Little Wild@ about the main characters as kids living in NYC. There’s an episode called “What Floats Your Float” where they’re throwing an animal pride parade (not literally gay animals, just animals being proud I guess lol) and there’s an okapi. Marty doesn’t understand what they are so he tries to find which animal float they can fit into.
But the okapi being an okapi is a metaphor for being non binary/having an unlabeled identity and still belonging. The okapi is even voiced by a nonbinary actor and the character becomes a reoccurring one.
Do cold case next. I remember their trans ep (there might have been more) but it was absolutely heartbreaking. Most of cold case was so heartbreaking.
Cold Case is devastating if you are a Philadelphian. A great deal of that s*** is true. E.g. I was born in that home for wayward pregnant 🤰 girls where the Nuns were so cruel while the girls were delivering.
I recommended the trans episode to a trans woman friend of mine. The show is interesting, the cops initially are as rough and insensitive as cops from 2004 would be given the case. But at the end "Daniela" (that was the episode name) was treated extremely sympathetically and my friend said she was in tears at the final song. As a cis lesbian myself, "Best Friends" is my fave episode. That show was very progressive for the mid noughties and always knew the right song to punch you in the guts with at the end.
ETA: Regarding CSI, I had totally forgotten about this character. I thought the video was gonna be about the back street gender affirming surgeries doctor and the trans woman she had killed to protect her identity.
@varalys the music choice in Cold Case was always perfect. They just chose the best possible song to really punch you in the gut. I found some of my all time favourite songs through it. It started airing when I was maybe 14/15 when it hit the German speaking market.
@@elliganzweitweg Yes, I was born in 1974. So the stories set in the eighties and nineties really induced extreme nostalgia in me. I've also got a lot of tunes I found via the show stored on my devices too. There's some playlists with just the final montages and tune here on TH-cam, some of those can still set me off lol.
I remember I believe in SVU there was an episode with a trans girl and the end message was that her dad was right for denying her access to hormones… in the same episode I remember the main guy calling a trans man “both Robin Hood and maid Marian”
Ugh, I got reminded of the final case of CSI Deadly Intent( Crime Scene Impersonator) where they lean into the creepy cross dresser trope with Marcelle(the main suspect of the case who looks like Hannibal Lector) with the CSIs almost seem annoyed at times where they had to address her by her prefer name instead of her dead name. If you ever want to cover that
Man, if only transition was as easy as cis people think it is. I've been on T for nine years and my voice is still stuck in that ambiguous 'kid going through puberty' phase.
Oh boy, CSI! I haven't watched this righteous trash since I was in high school where my dumb mush brain hadn't yet grown up enough to understand how ludicrous the whole show was.
5:58 And yes, you can get DNA evidence from hair! I believe usually it needs to have the follicle still attached to the root for them to get the most of it, but hair is definitely used in crime scene investigation as evidence. That much CSI didn't make up.
hey lily! just another suggestion here as if you aren’t weighed down by enough! sons of anarchy has a couple episodes with a character named Venus and i’d love to hear your thoughts and analysis of how they handled her character! thank you!
OMG YES I’ve been meaning to suggest this for forever!
I swear to God, I have like PTSD related to several of the shows you've covered. Seeing that kind of terrible representation while closeted for decades. It was rough.
My nephew recently came out as a trans man. His grandmother on my sister in law’s side flipped out and basically said “she lost her daughter” similar to the parents in this episode. Thankfully my nephew’s immediate family is supportive.
Omg. I've been on a CSI binge recently and it aged so badly. I was like, "I wonder if this youtuber ever covered CSI" and I was so happy to see you got to it recently!
There is so much bad transphobia with mtf people in the handful of episodes they're mentioned, including some weird comment by a lab tech "You know, I enjoy having a penis."
I'm looking forward to your next video!
It’s not the hair they test, but any skin cells that happen to be on it (usually at the hair follicle). Hair doesn’t always have skin on it to test though.
I remember this episode of CSI but I can see how much I misremembered it! What I remember from seeing it when I was young was that transmen also exist, and that this one was smart and a badass (and yeah he was a serial killer but this is CSI, so there are tons of killers and he was the only trans one, so I didn't see the two as connected in any way).
I'm transmasculine and for sure this wasn't a role model, but it was still a way to learn that trans guys existed and could be accomplished people (even in a terrible way). He had a family, he was about to outsmart the team on several occasions. And as you pointed out, they didn't misgender him which is nice. He's treated as a man at the very least.
Obviously I prefer better representation but it wasn't the worst, all things considered (although if was worse than I recalled).
Gods I always hated the Paul Millander arc. As a kid/teen I just thought it was ridiculously overwritten, with so many plot twists thrown in to pad it out that it becomes almost impossible to follow. Now that I'm aware enough to understand everything else in it my opinion of it has somehow managed to go down
Copaganda was a huge trend.
was ??
Still is.
Just once I'd like to see these shows investigate a hate crime against us instead of making us the insane ones. I'm literally an intersex person transitioning to male who doesn't have a dad around (who needs him, I've got my grandpa) and I've channeled all my pain into adopting animals to protect them from the pain I felt. We're usually the victims and almost never the perpetrator
Great video as always. Have you considered doing literature as well as movies and shows? For example, in the Oz series by L Frank Baum, there are multiple instances of characters changing gender. While not done in today's terms, the treatment of the characters is surprisingly positive (one of the biggest examples is Princess Ozma, who, when deciding to transition to being a girl so she could take up the crown, her friends were super supportive and promised that she was the same person, no matter if she was a boy or girl)
I agree that you providing a great service as a documentation. Keep up the great work!
Please never stop doing your channel. It's only getting worse in the US and we need critiques of the media that formed our concept of trans people before we actually met real trans people.
Not only is this episode of CSi transphobic & harmful towards intersex people, but it also comes off as sexist in my opinion since the team immediately jump to it must be a woman taking drugs to enhance performance when they were testing the hair thus implying that woman athletes can't just be good at a sport without taking drugs. Also, of course, when they gave the character the name paul, the writers decided that his dead name had to be the opposite & I get some people do that, but most people who decide to change their name tend to pick something completely different
i watched a few Las Vegas episodes idk but some of them came off victim blamey
6:50 The lighting in CSI was hilarious. Every lab was dark AF! 😂 It's not like that work requires accuracy... Better just do it in the dark!
Just made it to 5:36 and got a good chuckle from you/ Lily describing the (passing) trans man as "a manly man-man who's a man". May have to start referring to myself as such, being a trans man myself, but I suppose I'll have to throw in a caveat, something like "but who's *definitely* not a killer-man" just to make it clear that I'm not one of *those* trans men.
I remember the other trans episode of CSI, which at least ends on a better note if I remember correctly. I'll wait for your/ Lily's episode on it, though.
Please do the trans episode of ncis . It’s my comfort show and there’s one in the early seasons (before Kate’s actress leaves the show) and it’s 😭😭😭 smth
It’s transphobia + horrifying sexism + objectifying women 😁😁😁
i know LOL, ive watched the whole show, and their first episode (i think) involving trans people called "Dead Man Talking" was really really rough to watch tbh. the episode "An Eye for an Eye" is a bit better bc they explain it more like a woman being trapped in a man's body, but they still use some outdated terms and in both episodes their use of pronouns is pretty inconsistent for both potrayals. it was definitely a sign of the times in 2005, but at least the second episode kind of tried to explain it? for me its a bit of a conflicting thing bc of all the jokes they make about pronouns and pre op and shit like that
Omg I completely forgot about eye for an eye! (Dk how since it’s in the intro for the longest time 😭😭) yeah I agree that one does do it a lot better (raises the bar from in hell to the Mariana Trench) and I think Tony being a pervert is also slightly mellowed down (it’s still bad in the ziva era but Kate era Tony is something ELSE) . Also this reminds me something else about dead man talking-Tony “kissing a man”/“kissing a [derogatory term for trans person” is directly referenced by both ziva and Kate frequently (and phrased that exact way 😭😭), which is something about that episode that I feel like is kind of unique to the other crime shows . Like they don’t end the transphobia there it comes up again and again afterwards (it genuinely might be one of the most referenced not plot significant episodes in the show)
ty for giving me the title! In my household it’s just “…that episode” lmao .
Things referenced in ncis:
-the meat puzzle/body inside of a body(different things, evoke the same reaction)
-hot tub deaths (greatest bit of all time)
-elf lord
-that one time the show was aggressively and horrifyingly transphobic
/j
Sorry one last thing (NCIS is so improtant to me can you tell) I also think smth that makes the second episode a lot better (as I’ve said, essentially raising the bar from being burned to death to being stabbed to death) is that the trans plot isn’t really central afaik . Like that gets overshadowed by the eye thing and the cartel and whatnot , at least for the viewer I feel like it does
When you're off your copaganda kick, you should check out shameless. He's not in it for a long time but trevor, a love interest for Ian, is one of my favorite characters!
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the transmasc representation in _Shameless_ :)
suggested this before a while back, but in case you missed it, Whatever Happened to Robot Jones is a super underrated cartoon network show from the early 2000s that has a Gender Episode (called "Gender" if you can believe it) that is overall surprisingly wholesome and insightful both for the time and demographic it aired for. although the term nonbinary didn't really exist at the time, we essentially get fairly clear confirmation that the main character of the whole show is nonbinary, after they spent the majority of the episode experimenting with different gender expressions! it's of course not perfect and something could still be said for the tendency to only give nonhuman characters nonbinary genders, but it's the kind of thing that i wished i had grown up watching myself so i could've had the chance to realize sooner that not only are the categories of "boy" and "girl" fairly nebulous, they don't encompass everyone. it's definitely a much nicer thing to watch than police procedurals anyhow, you're braver than any marine for slogging through this
1) I'm non-binary. I just came out a month ago, so I just like saying it.
2) Would you ever consider covering Steven Universe? While Steven isn't necessarily trans, I picked up on some trans issues in season 4, like that his family still see him as his mother and misgender/deadname him until they get it right, and even then, it takes them a while to accept it. If you squint at the entire series and Rose/Steven as characters, I think there is some transness there.
Steven Universe is on my plan for the end of the year, mostly so I can release it and go on vacation to ignore the very active fanbases that exist around loving and hating that show
@@LilySimpson Oooo nice! I get that. I love the show, but the fandom is weirdly toxic for a show that's supposed to be about peace and love.
Thanks for another great analysis, Lily! And, fwiw, I love your tangents 🖤
i havent got the funds to financially support but commenting for engagement, great video and fascinating to see coverage on CSI i always heard of it but haven't really seen it covered often and its truly wild how many leaps people will make before considering trans, intersex and non-bnary people's existences
I love your random tangents, they add flavor and personal style to your essays
19:57 wait! That doesn't make any sense. If his parents were presenting him as a boy outside of the house but as a girl inside of it, that would necessarily mean he was assigned male at birth.
Because his parents were fighting over what he really was, which means they knew he's intersex, but why make him present as a boy at all if he passed as a girl? All that would do is raise questions and why would you want that? The only way this could work is if he was indeed AMAB but was non-confirming in some way. But then, why the medical and legal sex change? That only makes sense if he's AFAB, but then we come back to the beginning, presenting him as a boy to the public would only cause the issues they wanted to avoid. You could say they never say that but then why having this issue to begin with?
Unless the dad was supportive of his AFAB intersex son and wouldn't tolerate the mother's abusive bullshit and decided to take charge of any judgement that went to their household or behind her back...
Did the mom pay someone to kill her husband? I think this case is not at all closed CSI people.
Lily, have you done an episode on _The Silence of the Lambs?_ I'd be interested in your takes on it. I'm a straight, cis male, so I know that I come at this stuff fully from an outsider's perspective, but I always thought that the film significantly tried to point out how Gumb _wasn't_ transgender, but just a sick person who used that as an in-their-own-head justification. Writing this out, though, I can certainly see how that kind of difference would be largely lost on an audience.
Anyway, if you haven't done a video on it, I really would be interested to hear your thoughts. Thanks!
Would love to hear you talk about Longlegs, specifically bc nic cage told people in interviews that his character used they/them pronouns. Also Oz Perkins talked about how the mother in the film was representative of his mother withholding his father’s aids diagnosis from him, which, whooooooo buddy
Oh damn Lily I was just binge watching your vids, and now another one comes out
I’d love to see you cover the movie “ladybugs” a gender swap movie from the 90’s.
Why is it that a lot of villains' motives for being evil is because they have parental issues?
Oh, man, I had completely forgotten about this character. I haven't watched this show in like 15 years, but I used to be obsessed with it.
I'm guessing "Ch-ch-changes" is the other CSI trans episode you plan on reviewing. From what I recall, that one is fairly better, but I still don't feel compelled to rewatch it (or really any other episode of this show) ever again. Definitely looking forward to your video on it! 🫶 Thank you for your work!
I will give Ch-ch-changes one teensy half-kudo for this: the trans character is a trans woman who transitioned because she identified as a woman. But oh my gosh the episode is horrible. I saw it again a few years ago and our '''sympathetic''' MCs are ridiculously transphobic towards the victim
Please do an episode on the Ben Shapiro trans episode... Brett Cooper.
/s 🤣🤣
No but seriously. I'd love to see more coo shows on here. A collab with Skip Intro would be awesome. Break it down from every angle. I learn so much from this channel, I'd love to get that perspective.
Oh my god...they had two kids named Paul and Pauline, and they didn't make the connection?! Worst cops ever.
Also, can they please stop the "changed my name to the opposite gendered version of my deadname" cliche? Heck, that would be a good twist for a trans suspect to have a name nothing like their deadname. "Francine C. Miller used to be Frank C. Miller?" is a lot less surprising than, "Oh my god. Luna Celeste McKenzie used to be Frank Miller?"
Damn you even got the "obviously named themselves as opposed to having a name given by their parents" element down!
Oh boy!! posted during my lunch break!!!
6:05 Biologist (tho not forensic scientist) here: Yes, buuuut - hair itself is dead ceratin, unless they developed some magic new technology since my basic lectures (only DNA/RNA I cared about in like 5 years is in microorganisms and plants) you cant test the hair as it doesnt contain working DNA. The hair follicle does though. A hair that just fell out is probably worthless, a hair that was pulled out/got stuck on something etc and still has the follicle or a scrap of skin/blood should work. But also the way they spout off a persons details from a DNA sample is odd, full sequencing is expensive, ESPECIALLY back then (human genome project ended only 2003 and gave us the first fully sequenced human genome, it started 1990). Sequencing has gotten cheaper and quicker in the years since but is the cost/value really worth it?
Not to mention random DNA is everywhere and doesnt neatly sort itself, isolate DNA from a pillow and you might find the owners, their ONS, their cat, family member they hung out with last week and potentially whatever chicken or thuna was in pet food. And you need something to compare your sample to as well. Which is probably easiest for humans but even then its rare a gene neatly codes for one phenotype (no "this person 100% has blue eyes" gene), so afaik the main use of DNA in criminal cases is to directly compare it to suspects you already have, not to tarot-read what your suspect looks like.
Tldr: Its nothing new CSI shows dont really care about science realism and at the time this was filmed/is set its incredibly unlikely they could use DNA to this degree.
even if not DNA, hair can also document a lot. like the water you drink has certain characteristics that get marked in the hair as it grows and can give you an idea of where the person lived/got water. going along the length of the hair gives you a timeline. this is newer technology though of course and generally used for identifying does
@@lexxist I mean yeah but thats not DNA - its probably Mass Spectrometry or something chemical testing? More in the physics/chemistry than in my beloved molecular genetics. I had a prof who uses HLPC and MS to analyze proteins and I know weed usage shows up in your hair, but those are not aspects of science I ever learned in-depth.
Can't wait for the Psych episode.
That counts as a cop show right?
As a radical feminist, I’m very sad to see the comparison to far right thinking. We do not believe biology is a part of oppression or misogyny, instead it’s socialised within patriarchy.
For example, JK Rowling is not a radical feminist. She is a bio-essentialist who is a far right idiot. She has even teamed up with anti-abortion campaigners?! That’s the opposite of feminism! There is nothing radical about her thinking, it’s conservative.
It’s really disappointing to see this on this channel. I really enjoyed listening and learning from these videos. I always will see trans women as women, who need protecting because they are one of the most vulnerable groups of women. It’s just sad to see this faux division being believed by so many feminists. ☹️
A recommendation that I think is more on the positive side is Avatar The Last Airbender 1x04, Kyoshi Island. Also maybe 2x05, Avatar Day.
Filled out my legal name change with this in the background 👍really good video, well thought out and well spoken!
Watching this while stuck in the airport. Genuinely laughed out loud a few times. Keep it up!
(parents deciding to name their children Paul and Pauline?)
"It's plausible!"
asking cos painmeds and crosseyed is messing with me
did you say plausible or paulsible? cos i keep reading the name pun
@bjam89 that pun isn't there, but it needs to be.
I'm actually not in the best headspace atm to watch this, but here's a comment regardless. I sped through the video so your views go up hajhdskjsh, your stuff is always great, I might revisit this later! I really hope something more positive is in the works, the reality of how little we're valued as people for literally just being normal people is depressing.
Oof. That was some very offensive wallpaper
Tricking the audience into thinking it’s okay when cops break the rules “to get the bad guy” is like every cop show, ngl
It's funny you mentioned Red Dragon because he was in the original film Man Hunter
Also, I remember another trans episode I just can't remember what the over arch was. Just I think she was the victim, had been taking her period so her fiance wouldn't find out.
Commenting before I finish the video because I will forget - I would love to see you do Grey's Anatomy in this series!! There are at least 6 different trans characters over the course of the show, and as someone who binged the entire show in about 4 months, it's sort of fascinating comparing the first time they have a trans character to most recent.
I gotta say "The cops believe Paul killed his sister" is an. Interesting. Take on deadnaming.
Not too long ago I tried watching a show called Hope Street. The show ended up not being for me but the first episode (I guess technically episode 1.2) had a trans story line. Spoilers: it is a case where the trans character is dead and the fact that she was trans was part of the twist but the story felt like it was done with compassion
If you need some other trans episodes within coppaganda shows, there are "Daniela" and "Boy Crazy" from Cold Case, which stars Kathyrn Morris.