The Danish Cis-man, and how I won't be boycotting.

Please someone do tell me if I’m accidentally being an arsehole, or am indeed just wrong because it happens quite often. And I also want to make it very clear before you ready the rest, that I in no way mean to diminish the pain of trans people, this is not a 'get over it', they have every right to be angry as fuck; it's more like a 'next steps and let's all look to the future together', so if you've come here with a bigoted view point expecting me to agree you can fuck off right now.

Now I’ve only seen the trailer, and I’m cis-gender, thus by extension I have no idea how it feels to be trans and so could just be talking utter bollocks. But is it just me that thinks the reason that a cis-man, or more specifically Eddie Redmayne, was chosen to play Lili Elbe is that she presents as a man for a large portion of the movie, and that might be a bit distressing for a trans-woman to play? Like it’s not like that movie with Elle Fanning in, About Ray, where Ray presents as a man for the entire movie, so therefore should have been played by a trans-man (once again I’ve only seen the trailer, I could be wrong, please do tell me), or even Orange is the New Black where Laverne Cox has a twin brother who is able to play pre-transition Sophia. 











Like a trans actor should have played Ray in lieu of Elle Fanning, most definitely, but I feel like a trans-woman, with an identical twin brother, both of whom chose acting as their profession, both of whom are good enough actors to do this story justice are just too rare a find. I think it’s just one of those things that’s just a bloody shame, and although we’ve got a long way to go in our battle for trans representation, this is one of the ones we’ve just got to accept as a loss.

I feel like the only thing that boycotting this film would do is tell the powers that be over in Hollywood is that not even trans people and allies are going to see films about trans people, and the film industry is all about making money. It’s all about baby steps, we can’t expect positive representation right away, film-makers are starting to wake up to something we’ve known all along, that trans people matter, they are regular people with regular jobs, and regular stories for regular films, and they’re trying but come on Rome wasn’t built in a day, and when was the last time you got something right first try? Queer representation in mainstream cinema still isn't perfect, not even close, but like it started will gay characters being the villain or the butt of every joke, so I think we all need to think about how far we have come, and remember, we're not at the end of the trans representation in mainstream cinema journey, we're still getting there, but I won't be boycotting The Danish Girl or About Ray, because although I think they're far from perfect I also think that if no one goes to see these films then films like this will stop being picked up for the big screen, and instead of making progress in trans representation, we'll take a big step backwards. In a perfect world we'd take one giant step forward, but the world isn't perfect so I'd rather take lots of little steps forward than a big step back.

So by all means please do keep voicing your concerns about the Danish Girl and About Ray, but don't boycott them.