South Park invalidates trans people's lived experiences with its misleading narrative that a trans athlete would ‘start identifying as trans’ to participate in women’s sport, and by using hyper masculine Randy Savage look-alike features to portray her.

“It’s a repetition of the world’s oldest trans trope: the idea that trans women are just men in disguise,” Mey Rude writes.

The idea that trans folks are ‘deceptive’ or that they ‘owe disclosing’ their identity is perpetuated through violent and invasive misrepresentations of trans people in pop culture through horror movies, tv shows, and pulp novels.

“In the ‘Disclosure’ documentary — which looks at the depiction of transgender people in movies and television — actor Jen Richards says: ‘Having cis men play trans women, in my mind there's a direct link to violence against trans women,’” CNN reports

One in five trans and intersex people have been physically or sexually assaulted in the previous five years — double that of other LGBTQ+ groups, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights 2020 survey found.

“When cisgender actors play trans characters, ‘that can often reinforce the misguided notion that being transgender is a costume, it's dress up, it's performance, when in fact, transgender people are living full, authentic lives,’ Alex Schmider from GLAAD, told CNN.

Along with the ongoing process of countering 100 years of inaccurate stereotypes and misrepresentation, the hope is to have more nuanced portrayals — beyond transition narratives, beyond focusing on trauma and tragedy of trans people's lives, Schmider told CNN.