Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

What's your view on Jack Whitehall playing a gay character?

312 replies

LyndorCake · 13/08/2018 14:45

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/film/2018/aug/13/jack-whitehall-role-gay-disney-character-row-jungle-cruise

People have gone wild on twitter about it.
One argument says that as he is straight, he can't understand the role properly and is taking roles always from LGBTQ+ actors. The other side of that is he's an actor and therefore he is always pretending to be someone he isn't in any role, how is this different?

I can sort of see both sides but curious as to what you think?

OP posts:
mummabearfourbabybears · 13/08/2018 19:08

It's ridiculous. Clare Foy played The Queen in The Crown and she's not a queen. David Prowse played Darth Vader. And I bet he's not actually a really one Hmm

bonquiqui · 13/08/2018 19:10

@MingeUterusMingeMingeYoni

True. Not all have a marginalised experience, like not all women do. Women and trans people are the biggest targets for violence and murders etc aren't they? I know women have a much bigger problem with it as we're a larger majority, but it's a big problem in the relatively small trans population. Idk, it's not so much a who trumps who when everyone deserves basic rights and protection from violence etc, if you see what I mean.

bonquiqui · 13/08/2018 19:12

@HotblackDesiatoto

I apologised for the use of cis as I didn't realise the context it held for some people. I have never called you cis. I am not a trans person either, so would be being offensive to myself too in using it. You seem to have a massive problem with me and are just cherry picking bits of my posts now.

HotblackDesiatoto · 13/08/2018 19:13

I don't know you and couldn't have any kind of problem with you. I'm reiterating to make a point that I think you still do not understand.

YeTalkShiteHen · 13/08/2018 19:14

But I was saying I hoped people in positions of trust/the law makers would use a common sense approach to ensure that didn't happen. I think I was mainly trying to get across that not all believers in trans rights are these snowflake lefties who just think "live and let live regardless of risk" kind of thing.

I don’t trust the law makers in the slightest, especially not since they haven’t been particularly good at protecting vulnerable groups from harm in the past.

I think trans rights is an ambiguous term too, and that trans men and women have been done a massive disservice by the high profile activists who are exactly using this platform to keep a boot on the neck of women speaking up for women’s rights.

But they appear to be the loudest voice, and those protesting against it are being quickly and in some cases violently silenced. That I will not stand for, not everZ

BartholinsSister · 13/08/2018 19:15

Women and trans people are the biggest targets for violence and murders etc aren't they?

No, it's men.

AveABanana · 13/08/2018 19:17

John Barrowman didn't get the role of Will in Will and Grace because he wasn't gay enough Seriously?

YeTalkShiteHen · 13/08/2018 19:18

Even putting women and trans people in the same group is clouding the issue.

There is a problem with violence against women, a huge one.

There is a problem with violence against trans people. I don’t know the stats however.

But the two groups have no more in common than being more likely to be harmed or killed by a man, than men so to link them is muddying the waters.

OlennasWimple · 13/08/2018 19:18

Back onto the thread topic...

Isn't the argument that only a gay actor can play a gay character really reductive? Surely there should be more to an actor than who they want to shag?

NapQueen · 13/08/2018 19:20

If straight men couldnt play gay parts then we wouldnt have the most amazing Cameron Tucker in Modern Family. No one could play that part better than Eric Stonestreet. Its irrelevant that he is straight

Bowlofbabelfish · 13/08/2018 19:23

Men commit the vast majority of violent crime - over 95%.

It’s safer statistically to be a transwoman than a woman in the UK. It’s also statistically safer to be a transwoman in the USA - by even the most inflated violence figures it’s one of the safest categories in terms of violence committed against them.

medium.com/@sue.donym1984/inauthentic-selves-the-modern-lgbtq-movement-is-run-by-philanthropic-astroturf-and-based-on-junk-d08eb6aa1a4b

The ‘fact’ that transpeople are being killed in great numbers and are this the most oppressed group ever is not bourne out by facts.

Two women a week in the UK are killed in domestic violence.

MingeUterusMingeMingeYoni · 13/08/2018 19:24

I know women have a much bigger problem with it as we're a larger majority, but it's a big problem in the relatively small trans population

Depends where you're talking about. It's not particularly in the UK, it is in a number of countries in the Americas.

As for who trumps who, unfortunately sometimes that's exactly what it comes down to. Most people would accept that trans women and gender non conforming males are at risk using men's toilets, and other sex segregated facilities such as changing rooms. And that the risk to them will be greatly reduced if they're with the women. It's also the case that allowing entirely free access to women's single sex facilities to any penis holder who wants to come in and claims to identify as a woman puts women at risk, because it's begging to be abused by, well, abusers.

We know that both of these things are the case because there are trans women and GNC males who have been attacked in male facilities and there are males who have attacked females in women's facilities.

Timefortea99 · 13/08/2018 19:28

Acting is pretending to be somebody different, it’s the nature of the job. So why wouldn’t a gay man pretend to be straight and vice versa.

bonquiqui · 13/08/2018 19:29

Okay, I'm going to actually bow out of this major diversion in the topic now before I incite anything else. Like I say, I agree with or can at least see a lot of the points being made. I think above all we all want women to be protected, whatever your stance is on how trans people and their rights effects that.

GerdaLovesLili · 13/08/2018 19:35

And there goes another thread...

imnotreally · 13/08/2018 19:35

I'm bemused because on the same day Ruby Rose has left twitter because of the backlash against her playing a lesbian batwoman because she's not gay enough. 🤷🏻‍♀️

YeTalkShiteHen · 13/08/2018 19:36

I'm bemused because on the same day Ruby Rose has left twitter because of the backlash against her playing a lesbian batwoman because she's not gay enough

What is “gay enough”?

imnotreally · 13/08/2018 19:37

I have no idea. I'm just repeating what I read.

YeTalkShiteHen · 13/08/2018 19:38

Ah I thought that it might have been explained. I’m really confused now.

imnotreally · 13/08/2018 19:39

I have decided people just like to be argumentative for the sake of it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Cuppaorwine · 13/08/2018 19:40

Get off the idiocy of twitter!

Life is normal without it and abnormal with it.

Why would you even give clearly crap nonsense like this head room.

YeTalkShiteHen · 13/08/2018 19:40

I agree with that!

YeTalkShiteHen · 13/08/2018 19:40

That was to imnotreally

imnotreally · 13/08/2018 19:53

Oh sorry it was too gay actually. I'm confused. I was trying to find the article and it's disappeared.

imnotreally · 13/08/2018 19:54

Actually both were said. I'm really confused now. www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-australia-45166592

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.