I tried to offer a counter argument to Ashley Love about this, pointing out how she may be incorrect in her assessment of this show in the thread of a post on her page. But as usual, she deleted my comment. While I have some respect for Ashley as an outspoken activist, she seems to have trouble dealing with intelligent counter arguments or indeed anything but fawning praise and agreement. At least in public forums. So, this being my own page, here is the counter-argument I tried to make on her own post, in full: Im going to very cautiously offer some defense of the show here. Though I personally found the casting of Tambor to be a move that can be justified by the transition timeline of the character; I dont think its a terrible thing to use his casting as a springboard for discussion. What I do think is important to mention is that Jill Soloway has held up on her promise to round out the cast with Trans actors playing Trans roles. Notably the incredibly talented and highly experienced Alexandra Billings as well as the very funny Ian Harvie. Speaking as a Trans woman and an actor, I find that to be very positive progress. I would also note that a number of other Trans actors I know were asked to audition, including, full disclosure here, myself. Now, I wouldnt say I was exactly happy to not get the part. But thats the business. And besides, losing a role to an actor the caliber of Alexandra Billings feels like losing a role to Meryl Streep.... Thats a whole lot better than the director of Dallas Buyers Club who claimed not to know there even were an Trans actors out there. Even after hiring Calpernia Addams as a consultant. Jill Soloway knows there is a wealth of talented Trans actors out here trying to work. And she has actually made efforts to reach out to us. So, while I think we need to keep discussing these things and keep the conversation going around issues of trans visibility and trans self-representation. I also think its important to acknowledge when people in Hollywood are doing their best to be good allies. And so far, Transparent is doing a better job of actually putting Trans actors in major Trans roles than any other show out there. Lets at least give them the chance to get a season out there online and come back to judge the show by the merits of the work.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 19:16:30 +0000
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