Jokestress (aka Andrea James)
Andrea James (me!) in 2014
Born	(1967-01-16) January 16, 1967 (age 57)
Education	B.A. (English, Latin, Greek), Wabash College, 1989 M.A. (English), University of Chicago, 1990
Occupation(s)	Filmmaker, consumer activist
Website	andreajames.com

Hi, I'm Jokestress, aka Andrea James (born January 16, 1967), an American filmmaker and consumer activist.

Education

I grew up in Franklin, Indiana and attended Wabash College, where I majored in English, Latin, and Greek. After graduating in 1989, I obtained an M.A. in English language and literature from the University of Chicago in 1990.

Career

I worked for ten years in advertising in Chicago. During my gender transition, I became involved in consumer activism, particularly exposing medical and academic fraud. In 1996 I created the consumer website now called Transgender Map, as well as hair removal consumer websites HairFacts and HairTell.

In 2003 I moved to Los Angeles and co-founded Deep Stealth Productions with entertainer Calpernia Addams. We created content for transgender people on makeup, facial feminization surgery, and coming out, starting with a vocal feminization instructional video, Finding Your Female Voice.

I criticized psychologist J. Michael Bailey’s 2003 book The Man Who Would Be Queen after published reports that Bailey was using images of young gender diverse children without their knowledge or consent, provoking laughter from students and faculty. Sexologist Kenneth Zucker devoted an issue of his journal Archives of Sexual Behavior to the controversy, centered on a target article by historian Alice Dreger, a colleague of Bailey's at Northwestern University. Dreger accused me of stifling academic freedom, then tried to stop me from speaking in academic settings about the controversy. I wrote that the book was an example of academic exploitation of transgender people, and a “cure narrative” framed by one unconfirmed case report about a six-year-old child. Gender studies professor K. Surkan said our protests against Bailey “represented one of the most organized and unified examples of transgender activism seen to date.”

I expanded my criticism to include Zucker and Ray Blanchard of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health for their pathologization of transgender children and adults via Zucker's gender identity disorder in children diagnosis and Blanchard's transsexualism typology. After Zucker and Blanchard were appointed to lead the committee revising transgender sections of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 2009, I helped organize protests at the American Psychiatric Association conference. In 2015 the gender clinic where Zucker and Blanchard worked was closed following an investigation.

In 2004, I founded the nonprofit GenderMedia Foundation. That year, I produced and performed in the first all-transgender cast of ”The Vagina Monologues”, debuting a new piece created by Eve Ensler for the occasion. I also appeared in Beautiful Daughters, a documentary about the event. In 2005 I coached Felicity Huffman for her role in Transamerica and had a cameo in the film. I appeared in the 2005 HBO documentary Middle Sexes: Redefining He and She, and I directed transgender-themed short films, including “Casting Pearls” in 2007 and “Transproofed” in 2009.

I served on the Board of Directors of TransYouth Family Allies, a nonprofit that supports transgender youth and their families, from 2007 to 2014. From 2008 to 2013, I served on the Board of Directors of Outfest, where I was involved in the restoration of the documentary Queens at Heart.

I was a consulting producer for, and appeared in, the reality-dating television series Transamerican Love Story on Logo in 2008.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). I began guest blogging at Boing Boing in 2009 and portrayed lawyer Joni Thome in the 2010 documentary Bullied. I directed two seasons of a web series for Disney fan club D23, one season of the web series Beatdown for drag performer Willam Belli, coached Kate del Castillo for her role in K-11, and co-produced Living Things, a 2014 dramatic feature on veganism. In 2012 I co-founded Thought Moment Media, where I directed the 2013 children’s film “Family Restaurant” and the 2015 Showtime concert film Alec Mapa: Baby Daddy, both about LGBT adoption.

I edited and advised on several books, including the 2002 autobiography Mark 947 by Calpernia Addams, the 2007 autobiography Pholomolo by Veronique Renard, the 2014 self-help book Trans Bodies, Trans Selves, and self-help parody Suck Less by Willam Belli. I co-edited the 2014 anthology Letters for My Sisters with Deanne Thornton. I am featured or quoted in photography books Vagina Warriors by Eve Ensler and Joyce Tenneson and The World According to Wonder by World of Wonder, in consumer guide Facial Feminization Surgery by Douglas Ousterhout, and in 51%: Women and the Future of Politics by Terri Spahr Nelson. I also contributed to the anthology To My Trans Sisters edited by Charlie Craggs. I have also been a notable contributor to, and critic of, Wikipedia.

In 2014, I discussed complexities of the slurs "tranny" and "shemale" in the wake of objections to their use on RuPaul’s Drag Race. I criticized writer Parker Molloy as emblematic of clickbait journalism and Twitter's outrage culture. A group of transgender Twitter users signed an open letter denouncing me for my stance. Molloy resigned later that year after directing abuse and slurs at trans women. I have also discussed controversies around casting transgender roles in films. In 2015 I was a script consultant on an episode of Royal Pains about a transgender teen played by Nicole Maines. I was also a consulting producer on the 2015 reality TV series Transcendent. In 2016, I participated in the Intelligence Squared debate on gender identity filmed in Sydney, Australia for BBC World News.

I have worked with social media platforms like Facebook on content moderation and community standards. In 2016, I worked with Tinder on rolling out gender-inclusive profile options. I have discussed trans politics during the Presidency of Donald Trump. My media projects in 2017 included a pilot of Conversations with Coco starring Coco Peru and Lily Tomlin and the documentary Gender Revolution with Katie Couric. In 2019, I announced a new interactive project to analyze transphobia in the media. Our film Whirlybird about Zoey Tur and Marika Gerrard was one of 16 films in the US Documentary Competition at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, and my interactive media adaptation of Becoming a Man in 127 Easy Steps starring Scott Turner Schofield premiered at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival and Outfest. In 2021, I helped produce The Ts Madison Experience starring Ts Madison and began hosting the interview show WOW Now for WOW Presents Plus.

In 2021, my life's work was selected for preservation by the United States Library of Congress.

Filmography