In Open Letter, Hollywood Companies Pledge to Improve Transgender Representation
56 replies, posted
And why is that? Is it because trans people are lesser? I don't think so, and if that is the case in their mind(hollywood), that's fucking terrible.
What is a more likely reason? Trans people are a tiny, tiny, tiny little fraction of the population. Actors are a tiny portion of the population. The overlap of the two? Probably a fractional amount of both already intrinsically small groups. Expecting massive representation for such a small group is, in my opinion, a tad silly.
Well how many trans roles are there, not much. I've only ever seen less than ten trans actors in roles of ANY kind. If you think Hollywood is a meritocracy, then you're incredibly naive.
I don't think this
But I also don't think there's tens of hundreds of trans actors waiting to fill roles.
Trans people are regular people, the amount of them that want to be actors is probably similar to the normal rate in the normal population, which is to say quite low.
They won't do it considering stuff like that isn't allowed if you want to show your films in China.
And yet in the scale of human population, that's a lot of people. There are hundreds of thousands of actors in the world, if not more
Okay...
There are how many famous actors of note? Maybe 1500? Maybe 2000? How many people are trans in America? It's estimated to be around 0.5%. 350 Million x 0.5%. There's under 2 million trans people out of a population of 350 million. Out of that number how many want to be actors? Being an actor takes a certain kind of person who 1) Seeks attention 2) Accepts rejection on a daily basis. This thins out the herd even more.
How many trans people do you really expect to be actors? Even in an ideal world where Hollywood wasn't filled with assholes, as a job, at it's core "Acting" requires a very specific type of personality.
You have to want to be in front of people, an audience, a camera, etc, and you have to accept that rejection is a daily, constant, non stop aspect of being an actor. 99% of the roles you sign up for, you will not get. That's what being an actor IS. How many trans people are really going to put themselves through THAT, on top of being emotionally charged from their very difficult transition?
Not many is my guess. Not for any reason other than it isn't a seriously compatible set of requirements.
A Prayer Before Dawn is a recent film in which a trans actor (Pornchanok Mabklang) plays a ladyboy prisoner housed in a male jail, whom the main character has a sexual relationship with.
http://images.fandango.com/ImageRenderer/0/0/redesign/static/img/default_poster.png/0/images/masterrepository/performer%20images/p856153/PornchanokMabklang-2017.jpg
Thailand is a good place to begin for hollywood if they actually want real stories and more importantly fresh material for hollywood, because a whopping 1% of the population in thailand is transgender and of course the sex industry there is of course notorious for the phenomena of men who ostensibly identify as heterosexual routinely having sex with MTF trans. Thats a wrinkle thats important to notice, because it is both controversial, and provokes thought and discussion.
A trans actor is going to be much more intimately familiar with the emotions and experiences related to a trans role that they're playing. Simple as that. Hollywood cigar-chompers should consider that a major asset to an actor's skillset, but they don't, and they don't opt for trans actors when doing so would make sense.
The whole point of acting is people portraying people unlike themselves.
I’m in support of trans actors being cast in the role of anyone, and anyone who has the skill or talent required to play a trans person. I see no reason why unlike all other realms of human endeavour only the group in question can play the character.
Being trans has has a whole host of emotional hiatory. Are you saying a non trans person can’t relate? Empathize? Understand? Truly? That’s pretty incredible, and I disagree very strongly.
Jesus fucking Christ, don't put words in my mouth. No, that's not what I'm saying at all. I'm saying that being trans is a huge asset towards being able to play a trans character. There are tons and tons of tiny little nuances to the experience of being trans that you just don't know about in an intimate fashion if you aren't trans. You can learn about and understand them if you aren't but understanding them from personal experience is a great tool
will the day ever come where you don't misconstrue someone else's point in order to dunk on them
He did it literally our entire conversation, it was mind boggling
if I’m getting this right, their central point was that trans people will be more understanding of the minutia of the trans experience. I did not dispute this, I argued that this is not the position any other realm of human experience is put in. It is assumed an actor of sufficient depth can portray the minutia of any experience. I believe this is the same with trans people and experiences and thus don’t see a reason why trans actors are the only ones able to accurately portray that. I am however saddened that trans actors struggle to get roles when they go for them. It’s not fair and I don’t support it.
ok but AtomicSans didn't say that
I believe the point they were getting at is that even when it would make sense to hire transgender actors for their experience and how it would help in a more authentic portrayal, it seems most of Hollywood still resort to choosing cisgender actors - not that cisgender actors are categorically incapable of portraying a trans character.
https://youtu.be/IJ7oLXg9zFg
Relevant.
This is pretty much what I meant, yes. I stand by it.
Sure, omit literally everything you said and yes, I must seem unreasonable without that context.
Good job sirius
... But i said multiple times that I want saying only trans project should get trans roles...
This response dude. Read it. Read what YOU wrote.
"Going with anyone else is going out of your way to not choose a trans person". What does that state to you? That not picking a trans person for a trans role is transphobic? You're about one word away from that there, and the implication isn't hard to see.
"Best case scenario is that you're choosing another story" Okay, so, just so you understand here, all you've done here is create a false dichotomy which later on, much of your arugment was unable to support.
You can think, all you want, that I'm purely unreasonable on this. That's fine. I don't really care, but if you read what you said and actually analyzed it, this wouldn't be an issue.
I have no problem admitting I fucked up with my reply to Atomicsans. But I didn't fuck up with you.
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