110: Boy Meets World Accidentally Does a Trans Episode
“Chick Like Me” (January 31, 1997)
Rider Strong’s Shawn Hunter is not canonically a trans character, but there is a season-four episode of Boy Meets World that gives you all the evidence you’d need to conclude that Shawn might be. For this extra-long episode — possibly our longest! — we are joined by Faati the Street, who explains why this one episode speaks volumes about the trans experience, even if it was not the intention of anyone involved in the episode’s creation.
To read a transcript of this episode, click here.
Read Faati’s Twitter thread “The Silencing of the Shrew.” Also read their promised list of Doom Patrol trigger warnings.
Read Trina McGee’s 1999 L.A. Times column on Shawn and Angela’s interracial relationship.
Listen to Monday Afternoon Movie’s episode about the Linda Blair TV movie Stranger in Our House.
Listen to the Talking Simpsons episode that explains the Julia Sweeney/Dr. Hibbert connection.
The “Snake” anti-drug PSA that Glen mentions.
Samus Aran from Metroid is a trans woman.
The episode’s outro track is “I Never Dance” by Crysalis, which is not on any of the streaming services so why not listen to it on YouTube?
