When it comes to transgender issues, the mainstream media does not fail to disappoint.

On the daytime ABC soap opera, All My Children , a "flamboyant rock star" character by the name of Zarf (Jeffrey Carlson) will be undergoing gender transition, becoming a woman named Zoe. The introduction of this storyline has met with much hype from the network's PR machine, citing Zoe as being "the first transgender character to make a transition from one gender to another during a U.S. television daytime drama." It doesn't seem like that big of a deal when you have to point out that such things have been seen outside of dramas, outside of U.S. television, and involving characters who may have already transitioned.

If you were looking for an honest, sensitive story, you might have to look elsewhere. Yes, I am sure that under the cautious hand of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, as well as a few well-placed transgender folks, both of which consulted on the project, this will not rank among the worst portrayals. Nevertheless, it seems clear that this is little more than an attempt to bolster ratings with sensationalism: evil twins are clichŽ, after all, and something more contemporary and shocking might bring eyes to the television sets – especially in those markets where All My Children might be up against the dregs of daytime talk shows and their own brand of transgender storytelling.

Of course, I want to tell you this is a great story line, and that everything about it will benefit transgender people as a whole – but like I said, the media never fails to disappoint me. The show may well do a fair job, but in the end this is not about telling an honest tale: it is about ratings. All My Children is not exactly a ratings powerhouse, and this is a desperate attempt to at least get someone to watch the show: even if it is just those of us who are transgender, and who are hungry to hear our stories told.

All My Children's writers have made no commitment to the character, as far as the long-term goes. There is no decision if they'll follow Zoe all that way to the operating table – assuming, of course, that Zoe opts for genital reassignment – and little to keep them behind the character if any of the so-called pro-family groups decide to make an issue of this.

Moreover, All My Children's own press release tips the hand on how they really feel about their character. Zoe is referred to as "Zarf" and "he," with any idea that this character is already – on one level or another – a woman left far, far away from things. The character, at the outset, is little more than a shallow re-creation of "Ziggy Stardust"-era David Bowie.

I actually love Bowie from 1973, yet this is more than 30 years later, and the idea that there are many glam rockers wandering around named Zarf nowadays seems rather thin.

Of course, the character will also have a potential love interest, provided by the show's resident lesbian character – a holdover from the last time All My Children needed a ratings push, I suspect. It also remains to be seen if this will serve to lessen the gender identity or sexual orientation of either or both characters.

To me, there are a couple ways this will likely go, and we can look at plenty of examples in the media past to see where Zoe might be in the next year or so.

Going back almost as far as Ziggy Stardust, let's begin with the days of Jodie Dallas on Soap. While Soap was a humorous jab at daytime soap operas, one could likely look at the Jodie character as a good template for Zoe: some strong, honest story lines about transgender issues, followed eventually by the straightening out of the character. Jodie started as a gay male who was intending to become a woman, yet by the show's end was happily male, and happily married.

Or Zoe could go the way of Erica Bettis, the transsexual character on the ill-fated The Education of Max Bickford . She was a strong starter, a post-operative transsexual who served as foil for the curmudgeon in the title role. She did not last long, becoming window dressing before vanishing completely from the program before the show itself finally shuttered. As I alluded to above, it's probably most likely that Zoe will fade away if the interest isn't there, or if the show feels she is more a liability than asset.

There is a third possibility, and that is that Zoe becomes a character to rival Hayley Cropper on the long-standing British soap opera, Coronation Street. Like Erica Bettis, Hayley is a post-operative transsexual, but unlike Erica, Hayley has been the center of many deep plot lines in which the character ended up a hit. This would be preferred – but highly unlikely.

In the end, Zoe will be what the writers of All My Children want her to be and, beyond then, what the people who are writing the paychecks of those writers wish. For now, while striving for a few extra rating points, it is easy to try and create a story line that might capitalize on a perceived success of transgender story lines in Hollywood.  Call it "transploitation," if you will, because it is little more than that: an attempt to use the trans story to sell a few more ad spaces and get the stage lights lit.

By now, we're used to that, because the media never fails to disappoint.

Gwen Smith feels like she lives in a soap opera. You can find her online at www.gwensmith.com.