Now that there is more discussion of
transgender people in society it is becoming more acceptable for film makers to
make movies about their lives. This is a good trend in one respect. The mere
fact that it is not too taboo to get these movies made is a positive step to be
sure. But there is still a dark side. (Hmmm…where have I heard that phrase
before???)
I have struggled with whether to
celebrate films such as The Danish Girl
or Dallas Buyer’s Club for their portrayals
of transgender women as more than two dimensional oddities for the amusement of
audiences. The characters were portrayed respectfully. But they were played by
men. Do the positive effects of exposing wider audiences to positive stories
about transgender people and normalizing them in society outweigh the fact that
they were not portrayed by transgender actors? Native Americans were portrayed
by white actors whose skin was painted to make them look like Native people.
But eventually real Native American actors were finally used to portray these
people, well until Johnny Depp anyway. Maybe with time the same thing would
happen for transgender people. And if this were the case, waiting for progress
and opting to support movies in which men portray transgender women could be
good. The more support these movies receive the more they will be made and the
sooner transgender actors will be chosen to play transgender people. I wasn’t
sure if this was the right conclusion but there often aren’t easy, clean cut
answers to questions like these. So I had made up my mind I would choose to
support these movies in the hopes that my decision would create a positive end
result. But that all changed this weekend.
A Facebook friend who is a
transgender women posted a heartbreaking video about a movie being made about
Angie Zapata who was murdered by a man because she was transgender. My friend
was upset because Angie was being played by a male actor. It was a complete
erasure of who Angie was, her lived experience, and her murder. She was killed
because she was a woman born in a male body. Seeing my friend’s pain changed my
mind in an instant. I cannot support the erasure of the lives of transgender
people any longer.
There is still no easy answer. There
may be transgender people who believed as I once did that any positive
depiction of a transgender person is a good thing and small steps are better
than no step at all. However, for me, after seeing the pain Angie’s erasure
caused my friend, I know my choice is to hold out for transgender women actors
to play transgender women. The lives of transgender people are under attack
literally and figuratively. We do not just vote in the ballot box. We vote with
the choices we make every day including whether or not we buy a ticket to a
movie.
This post brought up some great points about what qualifies as proper representation for trans people in the media. While I’m not sure I have a good example for film, I wanted to add to this by talking about two representations in television that are the first that come to mind when discussing proper trans representation.
ReplyDeleteThe first example is of the character Sophia, portrayed by out trans actress Laverne Cox, from the series Orange is the New Black. Cox has become one of the most recognizable examples of transwomen, partially because it was so groundbreaking for an actual transwoman to portray a trans character, without, as the blog mentioned, being treated as a joke. While being a prisoner might not seem like positive representation, the effort and depth the writers have brought into her character is an extremely important step towards equality of representation. Also, another example of how this show’s writers took this character seriously can be seen in the portrayal of Sophia’s backstory. I read in an article before that when they casted the character, their joke “dream” was to find a trans actress with a twin brother. It was important to them so that they could show Sophia’s journey pre-transition without causing the actress to experience any dysphoria. While it was not a requirement for the role, they somehow managed to find exactly what they were looking for, and for me that adds a lot more to the story.
Another current example is of the character Aaron, portrayed by Elliot Fletcher, on the show The Fosters. Obviously, a show about an interracial lesbian couple and their numerous foster children has “diversity” screaming everywhere, but it appears that they have avoided becoming too much of an after-school special and actually provide important insight into trans stories. This character is an interesting example because he is already far into his transition, so it is not “revealed” he is trans until a little while after his introduction. Since a trans actor portrays this character, I can imagine that it might be a refreshing change of pace to not be type-casted into playing a character whose entire story is based on their gender identity. Also, though I haven’t kept up with the show in a while, I read that he might be currently dating the main character of the series, which is also a groundbreaking step for trans representation.
I think that the examples from the original post and the ones I have provided reflect a common idea that television can often be more progressive than film. As you said, this is not solely about entertainment, but reflects a much larger issue of how we view trans people and their stories.
This trend of transgender movie roles not being played by actual transgender individuals can possibly be explained by a survey done on an interesting place, restrooms. The fact of these restrooms is that transgender people are being openly discriminated against in one of the most public settings of American society. If transgender individuals are discriminated so openly based off of where they want to go to the bathroom, then why would they want to be in feature films that would potentially be seen by millions of people? In the movies’ you cited like The Danish Girl, Dallas Buyer’s Club, and even Native American movies that used white actors to portray their roles, use male actor’s whom society are comfortable with. In a sense, I think these movies do more good than bad, because they are definitely getting the transgender message to be accepted by a large majority and winning large amounts of awards. With more movies being focused on how transgender individuals live, I think being transgender will become much more accepted by society, which would lessen the discrimination of main stream society vs. transgender people. However, I am not transgender, and I could see how they could get offended for not seeing change faster, and not being represented properly for who they are through film and even restrooms.
ReplyDeleteOverall, this trend of this large-scale discrimination against transgender people in places like restrooms is proven statistically. “In a survey of 27,715 transgender respondents (2 percent of the adult transgender population in 2015), 60 percent of the people tested avoided using public restrooms for fear of confrontation. Furthermore, 12 percent of these individuals were actually harassed in public restrooms, with 1 percent being physically attacked, and 1 percent were physically assaulted.” This is something that people must pay attention to in order to promote equality in this aspect of sexuality. If transgender people are openly discriminated to this degree in places like the restroom, then how can we expect the transgender population to branch out in society as a whole. Another scary statistic for the transgender population as of 2015 were in the topics of suicide and depression. The statistics go as follows: “40 percent have attempted suicide in their lifetimes compared with 5 percent for the U.S. population, and 7 seven percent attempted suicide in the previous year, nearly 12 times the rate for the U.S. population, and 39 percent experienced serious psychological distress.” All of these statistics represent the lack of mental stability within the transgender community. With this lack of mental stability, it is easy to see why there are not a large majority of prominent transgender figures within society. I think with the help of the film industry, that transgender society can soon be accepted by modern society, and discrimination in places as simple as the restroom will become a thing of the past. All in all, the lack of actual transgender people playing transgender roles in movies represents a suppression of transgender voices that everyone should fight against.
Trotta, Daniel. "U.S. transgender people harassed in public restrooms: landmark survey." Reuters. December 08, 2016. Accessed April 10, 2017. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lgbt-survey-idUSKBN13X0BK.