I am really excited about Taylor Masonâs appearance in Showtimeâs Billions.
Hereâs Showtimeâs behind the scenes introduction of Taylor on YouTube, with interview snippets with the actor and the writers.
I donât know the show at all. It is definitely not my usual genre. No one does any science or magic, you know? Itâs a fast-paced businessy financey drama thing. I donât even remember how I found out, but when I heard that Billions claimed to have the first ever nonbinary character on TV⌠well, to be honest, I kinda did a skeptical face. The articles are all very US-centric, and explicitly nonbinary characters are not uncommon in some parts of the world. And anyway, ânonbinary characterâ usually means âgender non-conforming binary characterâ because thatâs usually the best we can hope for. But yeah, I was interested, so I looked into it.
Hereâs my TL;DR: Billions is the first mainstream US TV show to my knowledge that contains a character overtly described as nonbinary and whose they/them pronouns are stated in the show and affirmed by almost all of the other characters.
Weâre introduced to Taylor, played by Asia Kate Dillon (also nonbinary, they/them pronouns), in the first episode of season 2 - toying with another character about being vegan. Theyâre a sharp, brilliant, think-outside-the-box intern.
In episode 2 it gets a bit more in-your-face:
That guy in the second shot, Bobby Axelrod, is the very rich, very arrogant boss of macho boyâs club Axe Capital. And he just accepts Taylorâs assertion of their pronouns, no questions asked, no raised eyebrows. Just, âokay.â
Taylor proceeds to seriously impress the very rich arrogant boss guy in the chair.
Taylor isnât going through some coming out plot, working out their gender and discovering themself. Taylor is out and comfortable and confident in their identity. People who refuse to accept them get bulldozed, either by other characters or by the plot itself.
Later in that episode thereâs a scene in which Taylor isnât present, and Taylor is misgendered by that bald guy, Bill:
Itâs hard to capture the tone in this scene. Itâs an alpha male showdown, over a nonbinary personâs pronouns. The arrogant guy who misgenders Taylor gets corrected, and then has two guys above him in the pecking order stare him down until he concedes, in body language and facial expression. Taylorâs rich white old guy boss is not gonna tolerate you misgendering them. (Over the next few episodes it becomes clear that Taylor is replacing Bill as Axelrodâs âfavourite.â)
Bobby Axelrod upholds the pronouns of every singular-they nonbinary person in this one scene, to everyone watching the show. After that the conversation continues as before. It all happens very naturally as part of a conversational plot to take down a business rival, like itâs important and yet no big deal at all to correct a colleagueâs pronouns.
There are people watching this who are nonbinary and going âwow, thatâs me.â There are nonbinary people who havenât worked themselves out watching this and going âwow, maybe thatâs me?â There are parents of nonbinary kids watching this and going, âwow, maybe using new pronouns isnât so hard? Maybe my child is not just going through a phase?â There are nonbinary kids watching this with their parents, thinking âmaybe now my parents see Taylor being taken seriously they will take me more seriously.â
Naturally, I have concerns. Iâve got them on the back-burner because one TV show is not a pattern among TV shows. It does, however, fit a known trend of nonbinary visibility.
Taylor is white, AFAB, thin, young, wealthy, able-bodied, and masculine-presenting. They fit the nonbinary clichĂŠ so well that I canât even find any deviation from it. In reality nonbinary people are very diverse in pronouns, gendered presentation, race, body type, and class. But when newspapers are interviewing these ânewâ and fascinating nonbinary people, they always seem to choose people mostly like me: white, thin, AFAB, young, apparently able-bodied, androgynous-to-masculine-presenting. (Iâve been interviewed by journalists for articles about nonbinary people that then didnât even include me in the final piece, because I refused to be seen as a representative of nonbinary people in some way.)
Taylor is also autistic. I donât know if itâs deliberate, goodness knows writers create accidentally autistic characters all the time, but if you know what to look for in TV-autism itâs really really clear. And people really like to draw attention to the way autism and gender non-conformity overlap, to the extent that articles have been written by and focusing on doctors who believe that some gender non-conformity is directly caused by autism and should not be treated. (Article link. Warning: Daily Mail, general awfulness, etc.)
So going forward, Iâm hoping that if and when there are more nonbinary people in TV shows we get to see some femininity, some differing body types, some people of colour, etc. Iâm also hoping that we get to see some nonbinary people who are not obviously autistic - characters who express emotion freely and are not somehow brilliantly sharp and intelligent and innovative in one particular area of interest, for example.
But for now, I am thrilled. A TV show is portraying someone like me. In this case Iâm lucky because I fit that autistic nonbinary clichĂŠ down to the ground, and I am perfectly represented in a mainstream US TV show for the first time in my life. I want other nonbinary people to experience that too, and this is a huge step forward and a long-deserved validation of the nonbinary community. I am excited to see what happens next for nonbinary representation and visibility.
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