I hope it's okay to start a thread here regarding the television show Transparent. I really need to discuss this...but not as it pertains to being simply a TV show.
My trans friends and family do NOT like this show. They say it does not accurately depict it...and they're up in arms about it being a cis male (Jeffrey Tambor) in the lead role.
The thing is, for me, it's just so frigging accurate. Is it because I'm still 'privilege' set for not having yet made any kind of transition? For not even committing to even doing so anytime in the near future? I don't understand the uproar against having a cis person play a trans person...as I have always believed that acting and roles, etc, should be entirely at the discretion of the person taking the roles. Is it not why they take difficult roles? To challenge themselves? I'm not even comfortable admitting to my trans friends that I like the show, because I've seen them shaming others for admitting to it. The thing is, it so totally fucking speaks to me. I see what Moira goes through (AND ADMITTEDLY I'M EARLY IN MY VIEWING...NOT QUITE HALFWAY THROUGH FIRST SEASON) and I feel it's mirroring parts of my own life. And I wonder, if I was on the side of transitioning, would I think this show inauthentic? But you can't have insight without experience, can you...you can predict or assume...but unless I was sitting here on the other side of transition, I can't accurately predict what I would think of the show. And I can't tell my trans friends and family members that it is helping me and reaching me, etc, etc...if it's something that they see as deplorable.
I'm going to my city's queer community centre soon to search out a kind of trans group meeting that might be right for someone like me...someone who just doesn't know. I went to the centre and found their Coming Out Being Out group two and a half years ago...and it was absolutely helpful to my journey. I'm hoping they have something for me now.
I just feel like there is a lot of hostility towards this show that is giving me so much comfort. If I think it's accurate, what does that mean? I wish I could talk to my cousin about these things, but she's pretty closed off to this show...but this show is opening a dialogue for me that cannot be quenched.
Is it because of the age of the trans people I know? Because I'm close to ages with Jeffrey Tambor...and like the Moira character I have grown children and I grew up in a time where it was more unacceptable and more of a secret to keep.
Could it really be a grossly inaccurate telling made worse by the cis male lead? Or are backs up BECAUSE of the casting?
Anyway...I'm rambling.
My trans friends and family do NOT like this show. They say it does not accurately depict it...and they're up in arms about it being a cis male (Jeffrey Tambor) in the lead role.
The thing is, for me, it's just so frigging accurate. Is it because I'm still 'privilege' set for not having yet made any kind of transition? For not even committing to even doing so anytime in the near future? I don't understand the uproar against having a cis person play a trans person...as I have always believed that acting and roles, etc, should be entirely at the discretion of the person taking the roles. Is it not why they take difficult roles? To challenge themselves? I'm not even comfortable admitting to my trans friends that I like the show, because I've seen them shaming others for admitting to it. The thing is, it so totally fucking speaks to me. I see what Moira goes through (AND ADMITTEDLY I'M EARLY IN MY VIEWING...NOT QUITE HALFWAY THROUGH FIRST SEASON) and I feel it's mirroring parts of my own life. And I wonder, if I was on the side of transitioning, would I think this show inauthentic? But you can't have insight without experience, can you...you can predict or assume...but unless I was sitting here on the other side of transition, I can't accurately predict what I would think of the show. And I can't tell my trans friends and family members that it is helping me and reaching me, etc, etc...if it's something that they see as deplorable.
I'm going to my city's queer community centre soon to search out a kind of trans group meeting that might be right for someone like me...someone who just doesn't know. I went to the centre and found their Coming Out Being Out group two and a half years ago...and it was absolutely helpful to my journey. I'm hoping they have something for me now.
I just feel like there is a lot of hostility towards this show that is giving me so much comfort. If I think it's accurate, what does that mean? I wish I could talk to my cousin about these things, but she's pretty closed off to this show...but this show is opening a dialogue for me that cannot be quenched.
Is it because of the age of the trans people I know? Because I'm close to ages with Jeffrey Tambor...and like the Moira character I have grown children and I grew up in a time where it was more unacceptable and more of a secret to keep.
Could it really be a grossly inaccurate telling made worse by the cis male lead? Or are backs up BECAUSE of the casting?
Anyway...I'm rambling.