Television has introduced the first transgender superhero in the fourth season of CW’s “Supergirl.” The character, Nia Nal, is played by Nicole Maines, who is an actress and activist. She is also transgender in real life as well. This effort to cast a transgender character in a main role on a popular show for kids is a blatant attempt to normalize a movement. This not only fails to represent the majority of children’s experiences, but attempts to indoctrinate them at an age when they are the most impressionable.
“Supergirl” first debuted in 2015 on CBS and moved to CW in its second season. The plot is typical: The main character, 12-year-old Kara Zor-El, escapes planet Krypton to live on Earth with the Danver family. She grows up learning to hide the powers she shares with her cousin who is, naturally, Superman. After CW picked up the show, it was one of that “network’s best ratings earners, even though its numbers dropped by well over 50% in both the demo and total audience size.”
Now, in its fourth season, perhaps as a way to pick up viewers, or just continue to be as “woke” as possible, “Supergirl” has introduced a transgender character into the mix. Nia Nal is a new reporter at a media company called CatCo. Kara Danvers, Supergirl, takes Nal under her wing. Nal has big aspirations. In an interview, Maines said her character “has this ferocious drive to protect people and to fight against discrimination and hatred.”
The new character also helps drive home the show’s larger purpose. In an interview at Comic-Con with Clevver News, Jessica Queller, an executive producer of the show said, “Our show is all about inclusion and representation. It seems the perfect moment in our culture to introduce a trans female superhero.”
As you can imagine, much ado was made about writing a transgender character into this show – and not just any show, but one about superheroes geared towards kids. Maines was chosen for the role for very important reasons, least of all due to her acting chops. Nicole Maines, the actress who plays the transgender superhero, is not any actress playing any role. In real life, Maines identifies not just as transgender or an actress but a transgender activist. In 2014, Maines “successfully sued her school district after being denied access to the girl’s restroom at her school.” The book Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family features her story of transitioning; HBO featured it in a documentary. She has few acting credits to her name.
David Mamet, playwright, film director, screenwriter and author said:
This particular genre, while it may seem silly to adults, is influential for young people. Studies show while a very small minority of children struggle with dysphoria, it can be incredibly detrimental to their physical and mental health to allow or encourage them to transition. Some doctors, albeit few, have called it tantamount to child abuse.
If children watch shows like this without interacting with adults about it or observing it with critical reasoning skills, they could end up more confused than inspired, more frustrated than encouraged.
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
