Hollywood Needs To Shut The Fuck Up And Listen
Tags: Hollywood, Transgender, LGBTQ, Movies

Two weeks ago I wrote an essay about how Hollywood deals with transgender characters. I this essay, I pointed out specific problems that exist in the way that Hollywood tells stories featuring transgender characters. I took aim at movies like Tom Hopper’s The Danish Girl, Mark Ruffalo’s upcoming movie Anything, and Michelle Rodriguez’ upcoming movie Re-Assignment. All movies starring cis actors playing transgender characters

Last week I wrote a follow-up open letter to Mark Ruffalo on his response to the backlash to Anything when he brought a weak apology with no follow-up to what I call ‘window-dressing progressive idealism’. It’s the same empty idealism that caused him to prove he understood the reasons why it’s important for gay men to tell their own stories, but outrageously took a role playing a gay man anyway. It was a hollow gesture on his part, but this week we got to see what an even worse response would be when Michelle Rodriguez responded to criticism of her role:

I think the Transgender situation you could talk about if you were talking about a film that was focusing on the psychology or the social aspects of the situation, this isn’t about that. It’s an action film. We’re not trying to get psychological, so lay off.

Despite the fact that I didn’t obtain explicit permission from Ms. Rodriguez to talk about the issues with her exploitative role in an exploitative movie in this piece, I’m going to talk about it anyway.

The issue trans people have with this movie isn’t only that it’s a misrepresentation of who we are, we also take issue with the fact that we’re being used as a spice for a movie with an otherwise bland and uninteresting plot. The audience can look at a movie like Re-Assignment and say “Oh, a hitman movie…that’s original”. But when you add in the oh-so-scandalous gimmick of a TRANSGENDER hit(woman?), suddenly a minority becomes the lipstick on your pig. You make us an accouterment, a piece of minority ‘bling’, you make us the knock-off Rolex on an ugly wrist.

I’m here to say to all of Hollywood, trans people aren’t your silly jesters. We’re not the tiny dog you carry in your Gucci bag when you go shopping on Rodeo Drive. We are struggling, and we don’t need or want your exploitation. It’s not helping us and it’s high time that Hollywood cuts the bullshit and stop acting like they’re doing us a favor by hijacking who we are for their own selfish gain while patting themselves on the back about how ‘progressive’ they are.

We’re not the tiny dog you carry in your Gucci bag when you go shopping on Rodeo Drive. We are struggling, and we don’t need or want your exploitation.

Rodriquez goes on to say:

It’s an entertainment piece, guys [haha] I’m on your team!

If you watch any major league sport, what you see is a group of peak athletes working together to achieve an objective. They help each other move down the field, they often pass a ball between one another, sometimes a sacrifice must be made for the greater good of the team; but one thing that a good team member always does is listens. Without communication, there is no coordination. Without coordination, there is no unity. Without unity, there is no team.

Later in the interview, Rodriguez and director Walter Hill comment on the controversy surrounding the previous working title: Tomboy, a title that evokes stereotypical reflections of identity. It’s during this discussion that Rodriguez’ true motivation comes out. (Hint: It has nothing to do with supporting the transgender community.)

By changing the title to something that’s not a good sell, you’re pretty much damaging the possibility of success of the entire film.

Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize that by raising issue with someone pissing in my cereal that it might compromise the success of what they’re trying to do. What’s important isn’t the negativity Rodriguez’ film has already proven to propegate, it’s squeezing every ounce of possible success out of a movie that is, let’s be honest, destined to bomb harder than a hydrogen nuke. It’s unfortunate that an actress with such a strong lesbian identity who by all rights should understand the struggles of transgender actors and actresses insists on riding this bomb all the way down.

The sad truth is that there is little the transgender community can do to change this trend apart from making it clear that this kind of treatment is not welcome. The profit margins from poorly conceived B-movies like Tomboy or Re-Assignment, or whatever working title they end up releasing this tripe under will outweigh the lives these plots dance on like a sad Donnie Osmond routine.

If Hollywood won’t shut the fuck up and listen, the least they could do is pay an actual trans person to act in these terrible movies, but apparently they won’t even do that. As it turns out, the interest of Hollywood isn’t to be supportive in any substantial way. It is to appear supportive, because as we know, in Hollywood, appearances are everything. In the meantime, I hope audiences will enjoy the transgender blackface act.