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Trans on Film

Trace Lysette in Hustlers.

There’s good news and bad news from Hollywood. It seems that last year’s film crop, and the two years before that, did not feature any transgender characters in mainstream films. But, all is not lost. There were trans actors playing roles that were not specifically trans characters. GLAAD keeps track of things like this and their report said of the 118 big-budget movies analyzed by their researchers, not a single one depicted a trans or nonbinary character or storyline. Some movies—like STX Films’ Hustlers, which included Transparent alum Trace Lysette in its star-studded cast—featured transgender actors in roles that are never established as trans. But GLAAD doesn’t count how many non-transgender roles are taken by trans actors. If you are the kind of person who enjoys looking through long reports you can read the GLAAD 2020 Studio Responsibility Index here.

Beauty Boys

There has been a movement in recent years in which young men, many still in their teens, become attracted to glamorous feminine makeup, on their own faces. They perfect their beauty and then some of them become “influencers” on YouTube and Instagram. Displaying pouty lips decorated with the latest shade of lipstick and featuring false eyelashes out-to-here, the beauty boys put some of the female makeup influencers to shame. In 2016, James Charles, at 17, became CoverGirl’s first male model. Since then others like Manny MUA and Jeffrey Starr have gotten deals with makeup companies to push their products and have created makeup collections.

James Charles for CoverGirl.

What is wild about the beauty boys is they don’t see themselves as members of the transgender community. Some may consider themselves to be queer but most of them feel wearing makeup isn’t necessarily feminine or masculine. Their perception of self exists outside the restrictions of gender, and that gives them freedom to create and re-create their identities as often as they want. While the initial buzz over companies using beauty boys to model their products has died down, thanks to social media platforms they have their own followers and some have launched their own lines of makeup. Learn more about this 21st century phenomena from The Guardian.

Debut EP From Skye Cooper

Skye Cooper

Skye Cooper is a trans electronic music artist from the U.K.  She was born in Wales and now is based in Manchester. At a young age she joined the army and served in operations overseas. Her press release says, “After becoming disenfranchised with military life and realizing the potential for other things, she left to follow her passions, music and helping people. For the next three years Skye trained guide dogs and performed acoustic sets of original and cover songs around the U.K. Eventually an opportunity to pursue a higher education in music led to moving to Manchester to study music production full time. A lifelong love of learning and a rebellious attitude have created an independent and articulate artist ready to set the world to rights through music.”

Skye has a new electronic rock EP titled Hello World |Open Eyes, which is her debut release. You can listen to her music on her YouTube channel or Spotify.

Animated Trans Toons

Double Trouble

Children are often more comfortable with the idea that there are people who feel a different gender than their physical sex than people give them credit for. Adults will judge or ascribe some hidden agenda to a trans person. Kids, especially kids who have seen trans and non-binary characters in their cartoons, are more accepting. Several cartoon shows are feature trans and non-binary characters including She Ra, Stephen Universe, and Too Loud.

She Ra features a non-binary character named Double Trouble who is voiced by non-binary actor Jacob Tobia. Double Trouble is a mischievous shape shifter who seems to be based on the Norse god Loki. A trouble maker but ultimately fun to be around. Most of the time. There are several other trans characters in She Ra including a trans man named Jewelstar. This character is voiced by trans actor Alex Blue Davis.

The gender shifting in Stephen Universe is different than it is in the real world. It’s imposed on the main character by his family. Stephen has been looking for his biological family across several seasons of the show and across the universe. Finally he finds them but they don’t believe he is who he says he is. They believe he is actually his own mother, pretending to be a boy. He has to struggle to persuade his family who he is and to get them to call him Stephen, and generally to respect him for who he is. The show features other characters who are LGBTQ.

Desiree

Too Loud centers on the lives of two siblings who are volunteering at their school’s library. Sssh! One of the siblings has been presented as a boy called Jeffrey till one episode in which she comes out as a trans girl by the name of Desiree.

There are several other cartoons with trans characters and you can read about them at length in The Guardian.

Award Winning Director is a Trans Man

Can a trans man film director who used to be in a punk rock band make it in Hollywood? If you ask Silas Howard he’s going to say yeah. Howard is from Vermont but early in the 1990s he moved to San Francisco where he played guitar for Tribe 8. Then it was on to Hollywood and film school. After graduation he co-directed, co-starred and co-wrote his first feature film, By Hook or by Crook in 2001 with former band mate Harry Dodge. It was a buddy picture about gender nonconforming buddies. Then he wrote and shot another film on a micro budget but managed to get Kevin Bacon for a very small role.

Silas Howard

His big break came in 2017 when he was brought on to direct Jill Soloway’s Transparent for two seasons. That opened doors and since then include award-winning feature films, documentaries, musical videos, web series and television episodes including The Fosters, Faking It and the NBC series This Is Us. He is currently at work on the Apple TV+ show Dickinson, which recently won a Peabody Award for the coming-of-age story starring Hailee Steinfeld as the American poet Emily Dickinson. Other projects are on hold due to the pandemic but we expect Howard to keep moving up after things open up. For more info on Silas Howard check out the article in The Rutland Herald, his hometown newspaper.

That’s the showbiz news for this month. Back with more in August!

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Tags: featured, film, Musician, news, Transgender, TV

Category: Transgender Community News, Transgender Fun & Entertainment