Jen Richards carefully laid out the argument for why cis men should not play trans women on Twitter recently, in response to the news that Matt Bomer took the role of a trans woman recently in a film called Anything, which is a Mark Ruffalo project.
BOO because I really like Bomer and Ruffalo but honestly, boys, it’s over. Cut it out. No more cis men playing trans women, and FFS, please get your scripts read and reviewed by trans people. Welcome to 2016.
There is so much good in her argument, but I think I loved these two points the most:
I’m not some screechy activist. I mean all this literally. It’s happening all the time. The stakes are life & death. Our women are dying.
and
Having trans people play trans people allows for more informed, subtle, authentic performance. It makes for BETTER ART, which is the point.
I’ll add, as someone who has been interested in trans stories for a hella long time, it’s awesome when new allies get on board, and awesome too when they feel inspired enough to tell trans stories. But I’m very tired of every new dude (it’s mostly dudes) who comes along and does this kind of squee about trans women and we wind up with these exploitative stories of sex workers. So I’ll say it again: if you’re new to trans lives, stories, and identities, please try to remind yourself that there is an entire community – hell, an entire infrastructure – of professional trans people out there who can help you tell these stories well.
What if you’re a transwoman that doesn’t pass as well as Jen Richards, Caitlyn Jenner or at all? While I get it that we’d like real trans people in roles, not all trans people pass well or at all…We’re a diverse bunch.
Quite agree. Transwomen roles should be played by transwomen. Here in the UK trans actress Rebecca Root played the lead in the BBC TV comedy ‘Boy Meets Girl’ and she was wonderful. On the other hand Eddie Redmayne was fantastic in The Danish Girl….