The 'T' That Cinema is Missing

When we think of LGBT+ representation in mainstream media, we think of Orange is the New Black (2013 - present) or RuPaul's Drag Race (2009 - present): in short, we think of queer representation gracing our television screens every week in a flamboyant and fantastical way, a fun way. Both of these series in particular have given light to homosexual relationships, the discrimination of same-sex lifestyles and the art of drag, aspects of the LGBT+ community that have been acknowledged but nowhere near as popularised as they are now.

There is an issue, though, when it comes to cinema, specifically the representation of the trans community. Because when it comes to showing trans people on screen, it ends up being that they are portrayed by not only cis-actors but actors of the opposite sex; men playing trans women is just a glorified form of drag and does not honestly represent trans people, but Hollywood doesn't seem to have caught onto this.

Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

A recent example of this is Dallas Buyers Club (2013). Jared Leto plays a trans woman suffering from HIV and drug addiction, a role which he barely adheres to in his acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor in 2014. Though he acknowledges the hardships of those who suffer with HIV ("[...] this is for the 36 million people who have lost the battle to AIDS"), he also goes on to say that his award reflects "[...] those of you out there who have ever felt injustice because of who you are or who you love", implying that he represents the struggles and injustices of the LGBT+ community.

Jared Leto is a heterosexual, cis-male. It's not his place to represent the community, especially considering that he isn't part of it. That's not to say that straight people, people comfortable with their assigned gender, are not allowed to be allies: of course they are, but their job is to give queer people the space to speak out, not to speak for them. 

The Danish Girl (2015)

It's considerably problematic for cis-men to play trans women (or vice versa) because it's not a true portrayal of reality and, more often than not, these actors don't understand a trans person's experience, even with a script (which, let's be honest, is usually written by a cis person as well).

Of course, Jared Leto is not the first man to play a trans woman. Lee Pace, Eddie Redmayne, Denis O'Hare, Terence Stamp, Ted Levine and Cillian Murphy can be added to that list as well. Let's not also forget that women (such as Hilary Swank and Elle Fanning) are also guilty of this, and play trans men in their respective films.

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)

My friend/flatmate is transgender: he identifies as a trans-masculine, non-binary individual. I asked him about tropes surrounding trans representation in Hollywood, which ones he'd change or say were unrealistic. To my horror, I found that so many parts of trans representation in our mainstream media are toxic and demonising. These are just some of the things that he listed.

• Showing the murder of trans sex workers is too hauntingly close to real life. The murder rate for people who identify as trans is infinitely higher (especially in the U.S.) than other minorities in the LGBT+ community, so to show that explicitly in a series/film is both disrespectful and painful to watch, to say the least.
• Focusing primarily on how physically transitioning and how that affects the next of kin/family of the trans person instead of showing how they feel: transitioning is obviously difficult for people to come to terms with but they don't get a say in it happening, and the focus should be on the trans individual instead of them.
• "Trans misery porn", or rather, a narrative with dysphoria and suicidal ideation at the epicentre, as opposed to celebrating the metamorphosis of someone becoming their true self.
• Explicit shots of full frontal nudity, objectifications of the trans form (whether that be male or female)

Sleepaway Camp (1983)

• Establishing stereotypes (such as "cutting hair off and strapping down your titties") that are not only misinformative of the trans experience but also potentially harmful, i.e. binding with bandages instead of approved binders, that can actually lead to fluid build-up in the lungs and cracked ribs.
• The demonisation of trans people in horror films, a subject which is touched on in a documentary called The Celluloid Closet (1995) that focuses on the depiction of homosexuality in cinema. Examples of this are Psycho (1960), Sleepaway Camp (1983), The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Split (2016), in which the plot twist/main relies on the antagonist being a member of the opposite sex. 
• The tokenisation of trans actors, such as Laverne Cox and Chaz Bono. This isn't to say that these two aren't talented individuals, but there are few and far between trans actors who are established, or even given roles for that matter. There are plenty of people who identify as transgender who are willing and more than able to fill an acting role but they are not given the chance.
• Trans women who are given a spotlight are often white, strange considering that a large part of influential culture in the LGBT+ community consists of POC. This also leads to the last point, which is the erasure of existing trans characters: Marsha P. Johnson (a black, trans activist) was omitted from Stonewall (2015), despite the fact that she was one of the frontrunners of that movement. 

Soldier's Girl (2003)

So, the problem stands that trans people in film and television are portrayed by the wrong kinds of people, and the solution to that is pretty straightforward: hire trans people to play trans characters. It's not that difficult. In the same way that Scarlett Johansson and Tilda Swinton have been criticised for playing roles attributed to characters of an Asian heritage, the actors aforementioned are guilty of playing roles attributed to a gender expression/lifestyle which is alien to them. They cannot truly represent a trans character as a cis-person in the same way that you cannot represent an Asian character as a British person. It doesn't work.

If Hollywood would be more open-minded and cast out their net a little further, they would find actors suitable for these LGBT+ roles. Imagine the success they would gather if they held true to representation: I know from experience that it made a world of difference for me to see lesbian characters on television because it meant that I didn't have to be closeted, that I was normalised, that I was validated. 

It would be nice to be able to watch a film with real diversity and know that not only are these people real but they are celebrated through the form of cinema, and not met with deprecation or erased completely. 

- K