SPOILERS as to who is A on Pretty Little Liars.

Full disclosure: I do not watch Pretty Little Liars. However, much of the free world and I learned that the person behind all the heinous acts of "A" was in fact a transgender woman. Did it seem familiar to see a transgender character as a criminal on a TV show? Probably, because 25% of all fictional transgender characters on TV are committing a crime.

Popular culture and media are hugely important to how we form opinions, particularly on polarizing social issues. This is part of why representation of minorities is so important; people make both positive and negative choices about how they treat other people based off of how they feel about these characters. So I wanted to take a critical look at how transgender individuals were portrayed on television, and how that actually looked in relation to the reality. To do so, I analyzed 51 characters from 49 TV shows. Anyone who transitioned from the gender they were assigned at birth to their identified gender was counted in my research, including two gender fluid characters.

Disclaimer: I'm sure there are characters I missed. I did my best to find all the ones I could and represent them accurately. Unfortunately, I cannot watch every TV show ever, mostly because I am in grad school and don't have a life. Also if you're thinking that Laverne Cox doesn't fit into the argument, it's because she's usually the notable exception and also a straight up boss.