#cis actors

[whydoyoucarewho-iam]

I think it’s only acceptable for trans characters to be played by cis actors of the same gender, NOT the same bio-sex.

Of course it’s better for trans people to be played by trans actors, but if that’s not an option I’d much rather see a trans woman played by a cis woman than by a cis man, and a trans man by a cis man than by a cis woman.

And of course, ONLY if those cis actors are fully supportive of trans rights.

[ruubez]

Just while everyone is discussing the #AnythingBoycott #MattBomer #TransCasting, here's a video I made in 2016 about the topic!

[gaywrites]

As brilliant as Jeffrey Tambor is, as brilliant as Jared Leto is, and all these actors who play trans women, when people who don’t know anything about trans folks and trans women see the very sexy Jared Leto and his beard accepting an Oscar for playing a trans woman, the message that it sends is that trans women are really men. So when men find themselves attracted to trans women they have anxiety about that because of their own internalized homophobia and transphobia, and they’ve gotten this message that trans women are really men, and then this leads to violence.

Laverne Cox, SiriusXM Progress interview

[juliennotjulian]

Stop casting cis people to play trans characters. Thanks

[virginiahallauthor]

Response of Julia Serano’s posting about transgender actors

Julia Serano wrote an interesting post. With the Emmy’s just happening, maybe it is time to think a bit about it.

There is a tendency to conflate female impersonators (aka drag, female impressionists) with people who are transsexual. One group is not better than the other. They are just different.

Cis people have the most exposure to drag culture and the fact it is performance is usually underscored, and by performance they mean it is merely an act and something that can be shed. Not real in a fundamental sense.

Cis people have almost no exposure to trans people who move through society without making even a ripple. I will only speak to the experience of trans women, because that is my experience. People who are women 24/7 and living with partners and holding down everyday jobs are not on the radar. Many of us are married to straight cis men, but we would be loath to stand up and say that there is another side to this.

Perhaps there are people of transition in Hollywood, and elsewhere, who are either intersexed or trans who simple have crossed over and have a career. And I am not referring to some of the “aluminum foil hat” people who believe everyone in Hollywood is one of those people.

For a man to play a woman or a woman to play a man, in a way, is a stunt. A drag show. We don’t watch a show about a murderer and then marvel afterwards, “wow, that person was not really a murderer!” Hannibal was not really a cannibal.

I agree with author Serano that none of it ought to not matter. Where it seems to matter is when the plot has a person transitioning and using a cis actor reenforces the concept of impersonation.