I’ve been giving it some thought for days now, about what aspects of casting a man to play a trans woman–especially a major historical figure like Lili Elbe–isn’t just insulting, but jumps my rage meter from 0 to 10. And believe it or not, it’s not because you’re calling us men. I’ve spent my entire adult life with some pumped-up asshole telling me I’m a man to try and undermine me. I can deal with that. Being a trans woman means a life of dismissal and ridicule and violence and a super-magnified virgin/whore dichotomy.



It’s because you’re saying we deserve it.

Because let’s be honest: No one would ever cast a straight white man to play a cis woman, and if they did people would be upset. No one would argue that Jared Leto was just the best actor to play Adda Lovelace or Boudica, or Hermoine Granger. No one would tell critics they were overreacting if they called foul at Orlando Jones playing Harriet Tubman or Cleopatra Jones. No one would say Eddie Redmayne was just doing women a favor by taking on the stressful role of Anne Frank so a woman didn’t have to, when the casting call never even went out to women. Elenor Roosevelt had a masculine face, but the general public would balk at casting Andrew Garfield to play her.



But when they cast a man to play a trans women, the general public trips over themselves to tell we angry few why we’re in the wrong for being upset. Because they think we’re men. And you think we’re men.

And that means you agree with every piece of garbage legislation that says trans women shouldn’t be allowed in women’s bathrooms. That means you’re on the side of the middle-aged men hounding and threatening teenage girls for the crime of peeing. That means you think it’s perfectly okay for trans women to be cut off from from vital women’s services, including women’s shelters and rape counseling, being left to freeze to death in the dark. It means you’re on the side of every man who found himself attracted to a trans woman, decided she was to blame, and punished her violently for ‘tricking’ him. What you’re saying is that trans women are men, and that we should be treated like men, and should be punished like any man who walks into women’s space or attracts another man.



You don’t think a male actor is the best choice for the role. You think a male actor is the honest choice for the role. And you’re happy to tell us to our faces when we get upset. You’d never admit how much you think we deserve the pain, but you’re all too eager to remind us that our place is in the middle of it.

