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Translating the Nonbinary

The importance of diversity awareness in film/tv translation as explained through Taylor of 'Billions'.

By Angie LovedayPublished 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago 3 min read
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Translating the Nonbinary
Photo by Shane on Unsplash

I recently started watching Billions on Netflix. I know, I'm late to the game, but here we are. But you see, the thing is I'm watching the Spanish dubbing of the show. My surprise came in Season 2 when we are introduced to the character of Taylor.

If you are acquainted with the show, or Asia Kate Dillon, you might know Taylor is non-binary. Taylor was the first non-binary character to be introduced to mainstream American television. The character is introduced with the singular they pronouns in order to themselves. Interestingly enough, most of the other characters respect the pronouns and Taylor's gender identity, creating a very strong stance and representation within an environment with a strong macho culture since it is set within the stock-trade business.

However, there is a small detail of the Spanish dubbing that turned this non-binary representation into a not-so-great one for the Spanish speaking world. The pronouns given to Taylor in Spanish are ellos, which rather than translating into a gender-neutral pronoun, is the equivalent to the masculine plural. Unfortunately, whoever created the translation, sought a direct translation of they, without stopping to check for the cultural and queer context of the pronoun that changes its use.

Unfortunately, a base mistake such as this one, not only ends up misgendering the character/person, which is bad enough, but because Spanish is a heavily gendered language in nouns and plurals affect verbs, everything is modified around this pronoun.

This type of translation, rather than serving as a normalizing portrayal of non-binary people within stories that are not specifically oriented for lgbtqia+ audiences, it alienates Taylor within the narrative. The rise of gender-neutral language in Spanish has been slower and has received massive backlash, precisely because it demands a language change not just regarding pronouns but also most nouns and adjectives.

The gender-neutral pronoun in Spanish is now elle, while the currently promoted way to use gender-neutral language is to use an e termination instead of a or o which usually stand for feminine or masculine respectively. Gender-neutral language in Spanish also seeks to promote the use of the e termination to provide equal standing to the binary genders as well since traditionally the masculine terminations are used to refer to groups of people when both men and women are present.

Unfortunately, by using ellos as Taylor's pronouns, there are two major faults. Number one, the masculine pronoun is used as a go-to, which is contrary to the idea of non-gendered speech. Number two, it is plural. This is unlike in English, where this same argument is sometimes used by people to attempt to invalidate the use they, where the use singular they has in fact existed since before its adoption by non-binary people and is used almost every day in regular speech. As mentioned before, a plural pronoun in Spanish creates a ripple effect for verbs and the rest of the sentence structure.

While a big point in favor of Taylor's representation in 'Billions' is the respect that others have for the pronouns and identity, in Spanish it sounds like they're making fun of the character every time when they refer to them in plural terms. Speaking in plural verbs is maintained as a constant throughout but it can easily be misconstrued as ridicule.

Hence the importance of diversity awareness and inclusion in translation. While mistaking an initial they for its plural and translating as such could happen, it is odd to believe that no one in the team realized that this was an essential part of the character's identity when it is made so clear in show. Translating what is gender-neutral in English to a gender-neutral Spanish can be a challenge. I know, as I have done it myself and was momentarily daunted by the task before me. But it is possible. It might require some more tweaking, some more research, but maintaining that original intention within the translated work should be part of the job just as much as getting across the meaning and message of the rest of the work.

Sacrificing non-binary identities should not happen and, hopefully, steps continue to be taken towards better translation of queer identities at the same time that more diverse characters make an appearance in our screens.

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About the Creator

Angie Loveday

An asexual Costa Rican filmmaker and writer fumbling her way through words, hoping to make some sense to the netizens. You can follow me online @ang_lovestheday

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