Entertainment through the eyes of the Queer community

Cinema is an all-pervasive tool that reaches countless people at once and challenges the conditioning of our society – helping people form an opinion about certain elements, or in this case, a specific community. People who don’t have the access to academic resources or other informative avenues rely highly on the entertainment industry for their knowledge, but unfortunately, the industry takes it for granted. The majority of production houses would rather make dramas and films that commercially benefit them rather than showcase issues that matter.

Let’s take the hushed secret of our society: The Queer community. Often dismissed as the lesser gender or the ‘third’ gender, the Queer community seldom gets the attention it deserves when it comes to TV and films.  Their representation is confined to side roles and they’re often shown to be two-dimensional characters with stereotypes thrown left and right, surmising to a very cliched and unreal portrayal with barely any character arc to them when compared to the layered depiction of the leads.

While there are serials being made in the country that mirror their issues; from disowning the trans child to hiding his/her identity, Pakistani dramas have been talking about everything but in an unpleasant and comedic way until recently… But what’s changed? And is it enough of a change?

The documentary, “Poshida: Hidden LGBT Pakistan,” released in 2015 swayed production houses towards a better direction. Subsequently, a lot more documentaries, films, and dramas have been made that started showing the trans community in a better light, grounded in real and emotional portrayals.

Even with better representation, there are still gaps in theatrical films which have been beautifully filled by content on the web where some path-breaking projects like Churails have shown a representation of the community, which was unfortunately banned in Pakistan because the majority of people got offended with the characterisation. Then there are a few short films like Darling and Rani which work beautifully in depicting the struggles faced by the Queer community. But how many people in Pakistan have actually seen it?

The reason why such depictions did not work in Pakistan is the same reason why people don’t say “He is gay” but instead say, “He is a gay”. Dissociation from homosexual people has got a cultural thumbs up a long time back. It drifted onto the younger mindsets picking up derogatory terms to call out someone they find to be gender-suspicious.

The problem lies within­—deeply rooted for generations: the Queer community does not fit in the gender dichotomy of Pakistan. They are usually called Khusra, Chakka, or Hijra, which might sound typical for others but feels highly derogatory to them. The most socially acceptable word for them, on their NICs, is Khuwaja Sirah which loosely translates to the eunuch (an inadequate person), which in my opinion is even more derogatory. But one can argue that people usually don’t even know the meaning of this word. So, I am penning this down, in hopes that maybe this piece can bring people to talk about this long-ignored community, with a more open minded approach.

To give us a better insight on this topic I spoke to Kami Sid, who is the first out of the closet trans actress, model, and social activist in Pakistan from her community.

Talking about queer folk who are out of the closet, she said: “There are a lot of problems that we face being who we are, the first and foremost being that people doesn’t accept us as ‘normal’. We struggle throughout life to make people understand that we too are just as normal as you. People didn’t even want to acknowledge us just a few years back, but now that I have come into the media, I feel that the perspective is slightly changing. More and more people are coming out and it has become evident that the trans community is everywhere around us.” She further shared: “Lots of queer characters are played by men, and there is quite a stereotype keeping us on either side of the spectrum, we’re either shown to be too happy/funny or completely depressed. And I think people want to see not just real characters but also real stories, and I also want for our community to be represented better.”

“People simply bear with us rather than truly accept us. If a queer character is not played by someone belonging to the Queer community, then they cannot represent the community properly,” concluded Sid.

It’s about time the entertainment industry starts being inclusive because there are so many trans people working in the industry that are still in the closet and fear coming out due to the judgments that will follow. While the same problems plague the rest of the world, albiet in a lesser degree, it’s their media that plays an essential role in advocating for queer rights, where the Queer community is not only accepted, but celebrated with shows like Queer Eye, Rupaul’s Drag Race, Pose, etc.

When asked what she would like to change about the entertainment industry, Sid answered that she would love to make more films as a director: “I have some work scheduled soon on transgender love stories. Maybe the film industry will take lessons from my short stories and start making new and realistic productions soon. I believe that the Queer community must have representation in every department, be it actors, actresses, cameramen, directors, producers, line producers, etc. And why not? They are very talented if given the right platform.” Most of the trans folk are left with no other option than to beg and/or sell themselves into prostitution because there are barely any jobs given to them in our society. They are abandoned at birth, raised by people from their own community with already limited resources, and hence have no means to proper education and welfare.

And while Sid is on a mission to change the long-standing narrative our society holds, I also spoke to the trans folk who we often find on the streets, struggling to make ends meet, and asked them how accurately they find their community being represented. And they had a lot to share: “We do watch dramas but frankly speaking, we are immune to being made fun of and find it very normal. Yes, there are dramas where we like the representation of ourselves, such as Guru and Bubbly in Parizaad and the way our struggles were portrayed in Khuda Mera Bhi Hai, from being abandoned and looked down upon since our birth to the prospects of us getting admissions in school and respectful jobs. What we don’t understand is that there are no films or dramas made taking transgenders as the lead, or at least we haven’t seen any.” Hence proving that whatever little representation they have is just not enough. And it makes me wonder why can’t they be cast as leads? Why can’t we make content that makes the society aware of their struggles? Why can’t we build narratives that help the society to empathise with them?

There’s a lot that can go wrong in trying to humanize queer and trans people on screen in Pakistan and in writing their narrative because of the general unacceptability of the community. Because of the intense intolerance surrounding the LGBT+ community, their stories hardly ever surface, their problems barely get the attention they deserve and there is an almost complete silencing of their existence and narratives. Since heteronormativity is the norm, homophobia is widespread, and extremely inaccurate representations of the community dominate people’s opinions about the said community. For this reason, there is a serious need for filmmakers and writers to go the extra mile in crafting nuanced and well-informed queer characters, while ensuring that they do not contribute to further demonizing an already marginalized community or its members.

However, the onus of representing and providing an empathetic light of the Queer community not only lies on production houses, but also falls on our society as a whole. It also lies with parents to nurture their children despite the trivialities of gender, schools to give them admissions, corporate sectors to be more inclusive in their hiring, and society to break ties with transphobia once and for all.