Pretty Little Liars sparks anger with transgender ‘psycho’ storyline
(Warning: Spoilers!) Pretty Little Liars has come under fire – after the mysterious villain ‘A’ was revealed to be a trans woman struggling with her gender.
After five seasons, the popular ABC show finally revealed that the show’s antagonist – who has been tormenting people for several years – was in fact trans character CeCe Drake..
With so few transgender characters on TV, fans were disappointed by the show’s only trans character being revealed as mentally unstable and prone to incest.
After the reveal many fans claimed that they had “wasted half a decade” and that the plot twist was almost as bad as “the terrible green screen” – however one of the most noticeable themes among critics is accusing the writers of transphobia.
The character’s psychotic tendencies were shown as being a result of her ‘gender confusion’ – being denied the right to wear dresses.
CeCe, played by Vanessa Ray, told the “liars” – the protagonists of the series: “For as long as I can remember, I asked mum to buy me dresses, but he [Kennith] wouldn’t let her so I just played dress up in her closet. She thought it was cute. but dad found out.”
The Ray’s character was supposedly admitted to a mental institution at the age of seven or eight where they remained till they were 16.
The character then dated her own brother after transitioning..
Although many people criticized the character, her portrayer describes her as: “a layered-tragic character”.
The show has also came under fire for pronouns- with the character described as “He, she, it, b*tch!”.
Pretty Little Liars has previously been celebrated for its LGBT storylines, even being nominated for ‘Outstanding Drama Series’ at the 25th annual GLAAD awards.
Emily Fields, portrayed by Shay Mitchell, was often named as one of TV’s best LGB characters – hailed for being portrayed as three dimensional, and not purely defined by her sexuality.
