Trans actors are assuming Scarlet Johansson's gender identity

[leyat]

There's been a huge outcry regarding Scarlet Johansson playing a woman who has been retroactively transed (because that is apparently okay); the issue is that the character she will be playing is being understood as a transman, and so trans activists, including many trans actors, have said SJ should not play this part, and that only a trans person should play the role. The thing is they want to play all sorts of roles, so they want all the trans roles but others too. That is the first double standard. The second is that they are all assuming her gender identity, meaning either that they are basing this on her appearance or they think that she doesn't have the right to privacy regarding gender identity that trans people claim and thus because she hasn't come out as trans that means that she isn't.

All kinds of knots going on there....

My head hurts.

They won’t be happy until we’ve put our hands up and said “Take whatever you like.”

Here is the official description of the movie,

"Rub & Tug" is based on the life of 1970’s Pittsburgh crime kingpin Jean Marie Gill, a woman who masqueraded as a man in order to run a massage parlor and prostitution business. She also ran a an anabolic steroids ring for NFL team the Pittsburgh Steelers, and used her connections in the gay community to circumvent the mob. The film will also focus on Gill’s fiery romance with her girlfriend Cynthia.

So Scarlett is not playing a trans character and this whole upset is because the character doesn't match someone trans headcanon of a butch lesbian.

Oh this isnthem wanting the Lesbians again 🙄

No you can’t have the lesbians, TRA people, they’re ours. Next?

They are retroactively transing her because she apparently liked to be called 'Mr', and look what happened, just like that, every headline is about how SJ is playing a transman and how wrong it is. That is the power they have.

Like they did with the eunuchs of antiquity?

They’re making this up as they go along.

She liked to be called Mr Gill while running a criminal enterprise in the 1970s and tussling with the mob. Gee I wonder why...

Sounds as trans as Mulan... that is to say, not trans at all.

Surely there's a difference to crossdressing for the sake of it and doing so because that is the only way to achieve an objective?

Don’t bring logic into it Cat. It upsets them.

If I was an actor nowadays, I wouldn't touch trans roles/films with a 10ft barge pole.

Saying that, this is not a trans role and they are making themselves look pretty stupid.

Ah the irony. They're up in arms because a biological woman is playing a trans character and they think she's appropriating them. Yet they are more than happy to appropriate womanhood and everyone has to just suck that up and accept it.

By their definition, you can only act a part if you've lived it yourself.

The film world's going to look a bit threadbare isn't it?

I feel a migraine coming on.

What on earth?? I'm half asleep, perhaps it will make more sense in the morning doubt it though

Scarlett should simply come out as a trans man/ gender fluid/ non-binary. Problem solved!

Anyway, as they say, there's no such thing as bad publicity.

I always wonder when these conversations are happening, if someones dysphoria is strong enough to make them transition wouldn't playing a character before they'd transitioned be mentally damaging?

If you think of orange is the new black, Laverne Cox was very lucky to have an identical twin brother.

While you'd think that would be true miri1985 the current trans logic is that you don't need to have gender dysphoria to be transgender.

If a transwoman is a woman, and a transman is a man, shouldn't a man be playing this role? Obviously, I'm assuming the character was indeed a transman, which I see is disputed....

Would they object to a biological male playing the role, I wonder?

Funnily enough, French2019, they don't appear to object to a man playing the role, as this article explains,

amp.slate.com/human-interest/2018/07/scarlett-johansson-playing-a-trans-man-makes-no-sense.html

To quote the writer (who is a trans man)

Cisgender men can play trans men more realistically than women can because they are, well, men. While it’s true that in a few small ways that trans men’s bodies may diverge from cis male norms, there’s also a wide range of what trans men look like, and trans men passing invisibly as cis when they choose to do so is more than norm than the exception in our community. I’ve personally always thought Robert Downey Jr. would be a great choice to play a trans guy, but I’d be happy to leave casting to the experts if they’d just stop casting women to play men’s roles.

So to summarise,

A woman playing a trans man = bad
A woman playing a trans woman = bad
A man playing a trans woman = bad

But,

A man playing a trans man = fine
A trans man playing a man = fine
A trans man playing a trans man = fine
A trans woman playing a trans woman = fine
A trans woman playing a woman = fine

And of course, a woman playing a woman who the trans community has retrospectively decided is trans is also bad.

Ah, thanks witch. At least the logic is internally consistent, I guess.

But couldn't SJ just self-identify as a man for the duration of the filming?

In France, all lawyers are referred to as Maître (master), it’s a job title. Much like I assume Mr Gill was for Jean Marie. The retroactive transing pisses me off so much!

I didn’t know that about French lawyers, Imp. It’s not the same for teachers - my colleague was le maître, but I was la maîtresse! no autocorrect I didn’t mean mattress

I’ve been reading around on twitter and think it’s amazing the violence of the denial that, however they identify, transmen have female bodies.

Radical I think that the maîtresse/maître d’école is sadly an example of sexism at work. Primary teachers were typically women, and heaven forbid we don’t give the men a more masculine title. Whereas no one worries about female lawyers using the masculine title maître.

I’m in secondary so we’re all short-handed to prof anyway, but for professeur/e you’d only spot the feminine if it’s written down. (Sorry, I realise I’m telling you something you already know with that).

Imp don't worry I'm not offended at all, it's just an interesting revelation to me about the lawyers!

Is there an official translobby view on Panto casting yet?

@theknackster LOL!