Off with the cisgenders!
Should only trangender performers be casted for transgender roles? And if yes, why?
This is Sara Giudice and you’re reading Crip 101. Every other month, Crip 101 comes to you with questions, not answers, on the everlasting topics of media diversity, narrative change and cancel culture. Spoilers ahead, blablabla — thank you for being here.
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To be or not to be… an activist.
Two years ago on Crip 101, we talked about the need for a properly diverse casting in regards to disabled characters and actors. But look no further, because the queer community faces the same issue.
Soon-to be star of new horror flick ‘Cockoo’, Hunter Shafer recently told GQ she doesn’t want to be perceived as the trans actress anymore. As far as transmedicalism goes, with which Shafer is already familiar, the actress’ choice opens an already happening debate on how and why trans actors and actresses should or shouldn’t be casted for trans roles. Yes, trans performers should be given the possibility to put their experience and expertise in trans roles, but only being cast for those same trans roles could result in the capitalist process of commodification, ultimately making transness a forgettable niche.
Just like ‘The L Word’ lesbian creator back in 2005, Shafer recognizes the responsability she has in being a top tier trans actress in Hollywood, but wants to break free from it. As good as it feels, being a part of the change is also a significant weight the audience cannot expect every (young) queer actor and actress to bear.
But responsibility doesn’t just slide off of you just because you want to. To take such decision inevitably positions Hunter Shafer in a very specific part of the political spectrum (at least in the eyes of the audience). It’s not shameful nor a negligence, but it is a matter of fact. Fortunately, she’s not the only trans actress in Hollywood so the cisgenders aren’t (hopefully) taking over again.
Taking a step back to take one further.
It all “began” with Scarlett Johansson, who stepped back from ‘Rub & Tug’ in 2018. In the movie, she was supposed to play trans American gangster Dante Gill but decided to renounce after backlash from the LBGTQ+ community. As reported by Out, in the end, Johansson welcomed criticism and decided to leave space for a new casting choice. If she truly believes it or just tried to not let her ignorance show, it doesn’t concern us. A win is a win. Another similar case was that of Eddie Redmayne, who played a trans woman in 2015 movie ‘The Danish Girl’. After getting his Oscar nomination and giving his performance, the actor supposedly regretted playing a trans woman while also believing actors ‘should be able to play any sort of part if one plays it with a sense of integrity and responsibility’, as reported by the BBC.
Redmayne’s statement on integrity and responsibility stands on the flimsy middle ground of the debate and raises a couple of questions. Who gives trans roles to cisgender performers? Casting directors, ultimately. But who decides to take on the role or not? Performers themselves, mostly.
We could call for a communal act of cisgender common sense. With all-queer tv show ‘Pose’, cis responsability worked so well that one of the protagonists’, trans actress MJ Rodriguez, won a Golden Globe for playing a trans woman in the show in 2022. Regardless, hoping cis directors, showrunners and executives will learn and change by themselves isn’t enough. It lacks planning and it’s doomed to not work, because the problem at the centre the very system, not in the sidelines.
As recently stated by trans actor and director Elliot Page, queerness and queer cinema aren’t ‘niche’. They are perceived as such because the system (and the people who maintain it) treat queerness as a quirky exception, something nice to put on the screen once in a while — which it isn’t.
Diversity News!
📰🌈
Worldwide famous TERF loses her mind over new Scottish Hate Crime Law.
Not everybody liked the American ultra-diverse tv adaptation of Liu Cixin’s novel ‘The Three-Body Problem’… especially Chinese nationalists.
Ken Loach, ‘working class hero’ director, announces his retirement.
Vera Drew’s trans unauthorized adaptation of Todd Phillips’ ‘Joker’, ‘The People’s Joker’, hits the theatres.
Sky Documentaries encourages ‘diverse-owned or diverse-led’ indipendent companies to apply for ‘a minimum of £15,000 towards enhancing their development slate, with ideas directed at Sky Documentaries’.
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Thanks for reading the Crip 101 Newsletter. This project was born out of sheer enthusiasm for media diversity and narrative change and is completely run by yours truly, Sara Giudice. Keep reading, keep supporting and, most of all, keep writing.