Welcome to the first installment of The Trans* Series, we’re always looking for more! This particular one was brought to you by a reader who specifically wanted to sponsor a piece on trans* issues. Thanks, reader!
I’d like to take a moment to talk about Jared Leto.
No, I haven’t seen Dallas Buyers Club. This isn’t about that.
This is about Hollywood’s uncomfortable relationship with transgender people.
Every so often, an opportunity presents itself to advance the rights of various sects of LGBT individuals. Whether or not these opportunities are realized usually has to do with the willingness of the individuals who unwittingly end up in the spotlight to seize that moment, using it as a platform for advocacy. For example, Gavin Newsom’s 2004 decision to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in San Francisco and Edie Windsor’s 2010 legal battle both paved the way for the advances the country has seen on that issue. Those were both situations neither Newsom nor Windsor could have anticipated, but they were there, ready to become heroes.
When it comes to transgender issues, it’s hard to identify a moment where anyone has been able to truly capitalize on the public’s momentary interest in the topic. Sure, Laverne Cox was there last week to push back against invasive questions from Katie Couric, but if Couric’s audience was at all significant, I somewhat doubt her show would have been cancelled in the first place. Well, if an audience is what’s needed, look to when and why the public has shown the most interest in trans issues.
According to Google, April 2012 was a high point for trans interest in the United States. The interest was fueled by controversy surrounding transgender beauty queen Jenna Talackova’s quest to compete in the Miss Universe pageant. Rather than address the broader scope of trans issues, Talackova instead opted to hire Gloria Allred, lawyer to the tabloid stars. Talackova was eventually allowed to compete in the pageant, but opted to pursue reality-TV fame instead of taking up the mantle of advocate.
And that’s all well and good. No one should feel obligated to take on the role of activist. If starring in Brave New Girl (seriously, that’s the name of Talackova’s show…) is what works for her at the moment, good for her.
Trans people have found themselves front and center for another one of these once-in-a-blue-moon opportunities. Unfortunately, the person with the opportunity to capitalize on it is far from any trans advocate’s first choice. Jared Leto, of Requiem and 30 Seconds to Mars fame (Ed. note – that’s right, none of us have watched My So-Called Life), has found himself in a position to move public discourse on trans topics. As an analogy, this is like finding yourself in the bottom of the 9th inning with two outs, the bases loaded, and…your pitcher up to bat (Ed. note — I do not understand this analogy).
While I don’t think any trans person should feel obligated to take on the role of activist, I don’t believe that applies to individuals who find themselves profiting off the existence of trans people while not being a part of the community.
In what has almost seemed to be a concerted effort to distance himself from his Dallas Buyers Club character, Leto has been making the media rounds with a full beard, often turning his interviews into jokey explanations of how unlike his character he is. Consider this to be the cisgender man’s version of “no homo.”
Now, I know, he’s an actor. Of course he’s not the same person as his character. That’s his job. But that’s a given. Did Jennifer Lawrence need to reassure audiences that she had never killed a man after The Hunger Games? Did Sandra Bullock have to tell people that she wasn’t really an astronaut? Of course not. So why does Leto have to make such a show out of reminding us that he’s not actually trans?
Jos Truitt wrote an excellent piece about Leto, Hollywood, and trans issues over at Feministing. In it, she criticizes the fact that a cisgender man was cast in the role of a trans woman in the first place. “No matter what Dallas Buyers Club does as a film, the narrative around this movie, the fact that a man in drag is playing a trans woman, perpetuates the stereotype that we are men in drag,” she writes. I couldn’t agree more.
Leto’s Golden Globes acceptance speech wasn’t particularly well received by trans individuals. As Shadi Petosky tweeted, Leto is “‘man in a dress’-ing us all the way to the bank,” going on to create a sarcastic translation of his speech, boiling the points down to, “body joke, grooming joke, thanks for letting me exploit you.” Again, I’m inclined to agree.
It would have been nice to see Leto focus less on how hilarious it was that he had to wax his eyebrows, and more on issues facing trans individuals. At the very least, he could have made mention of some issues that impact trans people, like employment discrimination, denial of medical care, or widespread homelessness. Instead, he made it through his whole speech without even mentioning the word “transgender.”
Many have condemned Leto on the basis that the role would have been better in the hands of a trans actress. I don’t believe that kind of criticism is fair. Rather, blame the casting director or the writer. After all, Leto’s character wasn’t based on an actual human being, but rather, was simply used as a convenient plot device. It’s not Leto’s fault that the film never intended to cast a trans woman to play the role of, well, a trans woman.
Whenever the suggestion that trans people should be given trans roles comes up, Internet commenters everywhere jump in to remind us that acting is about being someone you’re not, and therefore, it’s fine that the role would go to a cisgender individual. After all, straight actors like Modern Family’s Eric Stonestreet play gay characters without (much) blowback; why should this be any different? Well, for one, I could rattle off plenty of gay actors who play straight roles, like Neil Patrick Harris on How I Met Your Mother. Can you tell me the last time a trans actor was given the role of a cisgender character?
Exactly.
Also, given that trans individuals are so few in number, many people don’t know of any trans individuals in person, leaving their exposure to trans topics up to the media. So, when a trans woman is portrayed as a “man in a dress,” that’s what the public will see us as: men in dresses.
Disappointingly, trans concerns are often ignored by the LGBT media, or, at very best, given only momentary consideration. I watched as journalists from several LGBT media outlets celebrated Leto, rejoicing in his Golden Globes victory despite the very real concerns held by many trans people. These outlets have written glowing reviews of his performance, though some have incorrectly labeled Leto’s character as a “transgender man.” Interviews with him are everywhere, always consisting of the same softball questions.
Even in their criticism, LGB journalists have a tendency to shift the focus on themselves. “Was Jared Leto’s acceptance speech homophobic?” I saw more than one journalist run this line. No, his speech wasn’t “homophobic,” it was transphobic (and more specifically, transmisogynistic). While I understand there is overlap between the two terms, it’s important not to conflate homophobia with transphobia as that does little more than reinforce the idea held by so many that being trans is just basically being “gay to the max.”
Dare to comment on one of these articles and trans people can expect to receive a litany of replies from LGB individuals telling us to “stop whining” and to “stop being so nitpicky,” or maybe, “just be glad you’re getting some recognition!” But that’s the thing: this is not recognition. When you have an actor who was supposedly so into his role that he stayed in character throughout filming, it’s disappointing to see him say “transgendered” (this is not a word, much like a gay man is not a “gayed man”) and in one early interview, use an explicitly transphobic slur.
In the end, regardless of whatever else comes out of this movie from a social impact point of view, it’s safe to say that the opportunity to shift public discourse on trans topics came and went with little change. Maybe we’ll have better luck next time.
Tags: lgbt, mallory doesn’t understand sport, movies, nicole got the baseball analogy just fine, parker molloy, the trans* series, trans* issues
YES. I got in a minor fight with my family about this when they insisted we go see Dallas Buyers Club over Christmas. Thanks for articulating this so well.
A++ to the editor’s notes.
http://instagram.com/p/ivDS60lefW/
I saw an early review of this movie (maybe at autostraddle?) and immediately thought, nope, not paying $10 + popcorn to see something that’s going to piss me off. Sorry, Jordan Catalano.
Tangentially related: Laverne Cox is due to publish a memoir! Should be out sometime in 2015. Everyone get your credit cards/library waitlists ready.
sooooooooooo disappointing. and so much worse in light of how incredible and graceful laverne cox was during that interview.
And Carmen!
You would think this would be simple to understand, but the continued terrible behavior around it suggests that it is somehow not.
OMG my friend and I were having this very conversation WHILE this article was being posted. We got to talking about something that I’d like to ask here: how did transfolks react to the film Transamerica at the time that it came out? Was it perceived as beneficial to “The Cause” for being one of the first biggish films to humanize its trans lead character or was the casting choice of a cis woman too glaring to forgive?
On a google search I found this article excoriating it http://www.btchflcks.com/2012/06/lgbtqi-week-tran… but it’s from 2012 and hindsight’s 20/20. I feel like I remember Felicity Huffman using the media attention as a platform for trans advocacy but I was way too young and myopic at the time to have any kind of sensitivity to trans issues.
I remember feeling like it was at least a step up that they cast a cis woman instead of a cis man. It was clear at the time that a trans woman would likely have been a better choice, but the bar in Hollywood is set pretty low.
I did not actually see the movie, less because of the casting than because the plot summary made it pretty obvious that there were going to be a lot of transphobic and transmisogynistic messages being conveyed, and I did not require that in my life. In retrospect, I would still not see the movie.
Yeah I mean, I wouldn’t recommend it because the plot is totally like, “this is my journey to go buy a sculpted vagina and become a Real Woman” – it falls into the trap of focusing on the trans person’s genitals, there’s a few really gawky tucking/stuffing scenes, etc etc. Just trying to get a read on what public opinion was like at the time since as a college-educated white cis dude my “enlightened” opinion is affected by my privilege.
To wit, I mostly think Will & Grace is whitewashed heteronormative trash and feel like I’m soooo above it or whatever but a friend of mine said it was the only positive representation of gays he had access to growing up in Tennessee and that it was essential to his construction of gay identity, so y’know.
Thank you for this piece (and for helping cisgender people—like me—become better informed).
This is an excellent article.
Regarding that baseball analogy, I think it’s referring to the fact that in the National League, the pitcher is required to bat and so the author is saying this is like when everything’s on the line but the last person up is the one least qualified to produce a hit.
Yeah, Mallory, it’s the exact scenario at the end of A League of Their Own! Of course, in that case, Kit Keller hit it right out of the park, which is why Kit Keller is way better than Jared Leto. (Well, she doesn’t hit it out of the park, but they win the game. You get it.)
Despite being glib above, I appreciated this thoughtful piece, which represents what should be common sense, or would be in a reasonable world.
I came to explain the analogy, but I think Jared Leto speaking for trans people would be more like if there was some fucked up rule where a player for the other team comes to play for your team in that last-chance situation. I didn’t hear it, but my new girlfriend said that Jared Leto was a huge douche on Fresh Air and Terry Gross was getting noticeably irritated at his fickleness, like, “I can’t tell if you’re serious or joking right now” or something. This is all hearsay, I should listen to it myself, I just want to hear Terry get pissed at someone and get snappy.
lol you guys are probably explaining it so well but I’m still not quite there
The key piece of understanding here is that pitchers are usually the worst batters on the team, because they are people who have invested all their skill in pitching well. No matter how good you are at basically any other position (with maaaaaybe the exception of catching), you have to also be at least a decent hitter to make it in the majors. Pitchers are allowed to be bad at batting because their skill at pitching is much more important.
And that – especially in the AL – pitchers are so expected to be bad at batting, they’re literally not even asked to bat. But then if they’re playing an NL team in an NL park, all of a sudden this pitcher has to bat. As I write this, I realize how complicated it sounds….
Something that confused me when I watched Dallas Buyers Club: all the other characters referred to Rayon, Jared Leto’s character, with male pronouns. Granted, I don’t remember them doing this in front of Rayon, but even so, they were supposedly Rayon’s best friends. Is this a sign of the times, that in the 80s, pronouns weren’t a thing? Did Rayon want to be referred to using male pronouns? Did the script writer fuck this up?
I assumed the script writer fucked up, given the activism that trans women were doing at the time. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Transvestite_…
“Can you tell me the last time a trans actor was given the role of a cisgender character?
Exactly.”
THIS. And I imagine if Laverne Cox were cast as a cisgender woman character, the same frothing Internet hordes that insist “actors are supposed to pretend to be different people!” would be up in arms over it.
Totally agree to your last part. It’s just a way for privileged people to complain and argue that they should get to do whatever they want.
Jared Leto’s face is so beautiful that sometimes I forget he’s kind of a dick.
“Your beauty in Requiem For A Dream detracted from the narrative.” Simon Amstell is perfect.
Every day I love you a little bit more, Mallory.
“I wanted to destroy something beautiful.” – Edward Norton after beating the crap out of Leto in Fight Club 😉
OH MY GOD I didn’t realize it was him in that movie!
I have the same problem with Jude Law. And I don’t even like boys that much to begin with.
“And that’s all well and good. No one should feel obligated to take on the role of activist. If starring in Brave New Girl (seriously, that’s the name of Talackova’s show…) is what works for her at the moment, good for her.”
I struggle with this all the time! I find myself getting mad at actors/comedians/etc for not “representing” in the way I would want them to, and have to remind myself that they’re not obligated to be activists just because they’re minorities in the spotlight. But I’m allowed to be a little frustrated, right?!
Yeah, I think that blaming the person who opts to not put themselves waaaaay out on the line is missing the bigger picture, but it’s still super frustrating to see someone actually get the chance to be an advocate and pass on the chance. The real fault is with a system that gives so few chances, but it’s really frustrating.
I think it’s definitely OK to be frustrated but I do think it’s good to remember that being in that spotlight is hard enough, especially when you’re part of an underrepresented group. For me, I don’t know if I’d be as political/activisty as I am now if I was famous, because all of the rest of the pressure/criticism would be too much already (especially now, with the internet allowing people to write terrible think pieces about everyone all of the time).
Sometimes I think I have a pretty good gauge for these issues, and then I read the Toast and realize my thinking still has a long way to go. Case in point: I saw “Dallas Buyer’s Club” with my mother-in-law and Jared Leto’s character/ performance was the only thing about it that I really enjoyed. I thought it was great to see a trans character in a mainstream movie given so much grace and dignity (and style). But this article brings up many good points, and I’m left feeling that the state of things is not even close to good enough. Not yet. In summation: I’m happy to see strides being made, but have to be careful not to let that lead to apathy.
Among other lessons, thanks for teaching me why “transgendered” is not a word, makes total sense. Stricken from vocabulary.
Don’t forget that Leto gets the crap beaten out of him in Fight Club. If the frustration over his behavior gets too much to bear, watching that may be a little cathartic.
Well, If they were trying to hire a NAME person, ie someone who is already famous, there aren’t any on Jared Leto’s celebrity level, are there? except for Laverne Cox I guess. But given her popularity it seems odd that they didn’t take the opportunity to discover a fantastic trans* actress who could be the next big thing, in the same way that 12 Years A Slave discovered the completely flawless Lupita Nyong’o.
Great piece! Looking forward to more in this category.
also I do feel it would have been at least a tiny bit better to hire a cis LADY instead of a cis MAN to play a trans* LADY.
Agreed, or at least someone NOT in a band called 30 Seconds to Mars *hoark*
Don’t you know, there can only be a limited number of people of color and lgbt actors, or else there won’t be enough acting jobs for white straight cis people!
My cousin made this argument, and I really feel like this movie had enough star power with McConaughey and Garner that they didn’t even really need a 3rd “name” person.
absolutely, it would have actually, in a marketing sense, have been better to have an amazing NEW name, a “discovery” story.
Candis Cayne maybe?
I would love if when a cis actor is interviewed about playing a trans character, they were to talk about performing gender, reinforcement of roles with artifice, or literally anything besides how it felt to wear prosthetic breasts/junk. These things are available on the internet to be delivered discretely to your door. If it’s such a burning question, anyone can find out for their own damn self.
This made the rounds a few years ago. Dustin Hoffman: http://bit.ly/1fCNf9a
Thanks, I had seen that but not thought about it in ages.
Representation is so fucking vitally important. I don’t want to derail with “us too!” details, but on behalf of all the cispeeps, I’m so sorry for every “omggg quit nitpicking, at least this is SOMEthing” response ever. That gives me so much rage.
Great piece. I wish, though, that it had included some of Leto’s actual statements instead of just commenting on them. (I didn’t watch the Golden Globes or see any of the other interviews.) I felt skeptical of the full beard = “no homo” critique because I feel like I’ve seen him wear that look before.
Also, he’s got a beard, but he also has long flowing hair that’s been dyed in a stylish ombre. So I feel like at least that cancels out.
Great piece. I wish, though, that it had included some of Leto’s actual statements instead of just commenting on them. (I didn’t watch the Golden Globes or see any of the other interviews.) I felt skeptical of the full beard = “no homo” critique because I feel like I’ve seen him wear that look before.
I feel like while Jared Leto can sometimes put out the effort to be a talented actor, he can never be bothered to put the effort out to not be an enormous dick. And this comes from 20 years of loving Jordan Catalono.
Totally agree to your last part. It's just a way for privileged people to complain and argue that they should get to do whatever they want.
though many of your points i do agree with. what many people who have critizied jared leto & the film as a whole fail to remember 1 simple fact. the film is set in the 1980s & in the 80s transgender & people of the lgb communitty were treated as lepers & any attacks against them were brushed off as ” they deserved it or provoked it”. even if it was set in 2014 america, would a transgender person with a drug habit & aids be even considered for the hormone treatments or the reassignment surgery? even if they didn’t have aid they would have been asked to attend a rehab programme & gain some weight to even be considered. yes he shaved or waxed his eye brows off, maybe rayon didn’t want to spend all the time plucking the hairs out. with some people straight, bisexual, gay, lesbian, alien, whatever. some do prefer to shave or wax off their eyebrows & simply draw them on. there has been many failed pictures floating around as evidence. there was a scene in the movie of rayon with their dad, she is dressed in a suit. a mans suit. would a transgender female be able to do that with the looks of a woman? he tried his hardest, hes human. many forget that.
Did you really just put “alien, whatever” at the end of a list of sexualities?