This weekend the heavy favorite to take home the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series is Jeffrey Tambor, who plays a woman on Amazon’s show Transparent.
More accurately, Tambor plays a trans woman – a woman who has transitioned from being a man. It’s a stellar role on a series that spends a lot of time on voices we don’t traditionally hear from in sitcoms.
And I really, really dislike it.
Jamie Clayton and Freema Agyeman, stars of Netflix’s Sense8.
This isn’t my typical hyper-critical nature rearing its head. The show is fine. The thing I don’t like is Tambor himself in the role.
Having a cisgender man (i.e., “a person whose self-identity conforms with the gender that corresponds to their biological sex”) cast in the role of trans woman not only takes the role away from a trans actor, but also emphasizes the inherent maleness of the character. That’s a trait most trans woman characters are trying to leave behind as they live an external life aligned with their internal gender identity. If a trans actor wasn’t available for the part, a cisgender woman would be more appropriate since the truth of the character is as a woman, not a man.
No matter how much Tambor transforms into the role, we will still see him at awards ceremonies as a man. His next role will likely be as a man. Tambor is sensitive and supportive in every media appearance for the show – a true ally – but all the accolades he’s won and will continue to win for Transparent will be about how bravery and honesty of his portrayal of a woman in transition.
It would be more brave and honest to have an trans artist like the Jamie Clayton on Sense8 or Laverne Cox in Orange Is The New Black (two shows with their own set of other representational challenges).
I’ve had trouble articulating this discomfort to friends in conversation, especially as a cisgender white dude who doesn’t really have a stake in this discussion. Why do Transparent and The Dutch Girl bother me so deeply when I’m fine with the way Drag Race and Hedwig and The Angry Inch dissect gender roles with men portraying women?
Then, a few weeks ago, I came across a powerful series of tweets from writer and actress Jen Richards. Richards articulates my objections concisely and crystallizes them with additional detail. I present them here, unedited, in their entirety.
I auditioned for this. I told them they shouldn’t have a cis man play a trans woman. They didn’t care. https://t.co/T7YFe6OeX9
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
I’ve made this point in a few interviews, but never on Twitter, so let me lay it out. Reasons not to have cis men play trans women:
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
First, there’s the practical/economic one. It denies actual trans women opportunities, jobs, resources, which hurts entire community.
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
Then there’s an aesthetic. Now, I agree, in principle, that anyone can play anyone. As an artist, I want that kind of freedom myself, but…
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
Having trans people play trans people allows for more informed, subtle, authentic performance. It makes for BETTER ART, which is the point.
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
There’s a reason why @HerStoryShow has resonated so much with trans people, why we love @Lavernecox, @MsJamieClayton, @angelicaross, etc.
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
Eddie Redmayne, Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, etc., are great actors, but we, and those who know us, see the difference between them & us.
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
Cis audiences reward them because they see being trans itself as a performance. Trans actors rather perform THE STORY, not our gender.
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
But all of this pales to the main reason not to have cis men play trans women. This is the reason that is making me cry as I type this…
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
It will result in violence against trans women. And that is not hyperbole, I mean it literally. Cis men playing trans women leads to death.
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
Here’s why. I’ve spent years looking at violence against trans women, particularly who does it & why. I talk to survivors. There’s a pattern
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
Straight men are attracted to trans women. They always have been, always will be. We are some of the most popular sex workers. It’s a fact.
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
BUT they are afraid that being with trans women makes them gay/less masculine. They seek us out, enjoy us, then punish us for their anxiety.
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
Let’s be more direct: They have sex with us, worry that makes them gay, then reassert their masculinity through violence aimed at us.
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
Back to the point. WHY do men, who aren’t attracted to men, who only date women, think being with trans women makes them gay/less masculine?
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
Because culture as a whole still thinks trans women are “really” men. Decades of showing us that way in shows. It’s been internalized.
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
Again & again cis men play trans women in media with the furthest reach, are rewarded for it, & tell the world trans women are “really” men.
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
When Jared Leto plays Rayon and accepts his Oscar with a full beard, the world see’s that being a trans women is just a man performing.
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
When @MattBomer plays a trans sex worker, he is telling the world that underneath it all, trans women like me are still really just men.
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
And that is going to lead to violence. Not to me, likely, but to girls already most at risk. Any cis men who do this have bloody hands.
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
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.
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
I’m a filmmaker. I hold the freedom of art sacred, but I also recognize its power as a responsibility. We shape perception, we are culpable.
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
Dear @MarkRuffalo & @MattBomer: if you release this movie, it will directly lead to violence against already at risk trans women.
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
You will exacerbate the cultural belief that trans women are really men, which is the root of violence against us. @MarkRuffalo @MattBomer
— Jen Richards (@SmartAssJen) August 28, 2016
Thank you, Ms. Richards, for your words and your voice. You’ve said it better than I ever could. For further reading:
- Transmisogyny 101: What It Is and What Can We Do About It
- Sense8’s Jamie Clayton in conversation with GLAAD and AfterEllen
- Laverne Cox in conversation with Time for her historic cover story
- Meet the trans people we’ve lost to violence in 2016, including Philadelphia’s Maya Young, in a heartbreaking feature at The Advocate.
- The Frisky asked if this was the summer of Anti-Trans Violence.
- How the Broken Criminal Justice System Fails Transgender People
- How Bathroom Discrimination Puts Trans People at Risk
- Milk.xyz cites Gendered Restrooms and Minority Stress: The Public Regulation of Gender and its Impact on Transgender, saying “People’s Lives from UCLA law shows an alarming 70 percent of respondents in a survey on trans bathroom use reported that they’d experienced “denial of access to facilities, verbal harassment, and physical assault” when trying to use the bathroom that their gender identity aligns with.”
If I got some things wrong, I apologize. I’d love to learn more, but it’s not your job to be my instructor if you’re an LGBTQ* reader – especially if you are a trans woman or trans man or otherwise gender non-conforming. Don’t worry – I’ll keep learning, growing, and using my platform to amplify messages like this one.
If you have other resources to suggest, please do so in the comments below or send me a tweet.
Edited to add: Indeed, Tambor won the Emmy, and had this to say:
“I would not be unhappy if I were the last cis-gender male to play a transgender female on television. We have work to do.” -Jeffrey Tambor
— David Chen (@davechensky) September 19, 2016