Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ cast a cis man to play a trans woman
Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ cast a cis man to play a trans woman
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The only thought I really have on this front is that all gender is inherently performative. One cannot be gender, one does gender. So the actor is not a cis man, he acts a cis man.
The question is if his performance can be considered an authentic performance of a trans woman, or if it comes across as acting as a cis man acting as a trans woman. To frame it another way, if we were to run this logic from the other side, could it be said that an actor like Elliot Page failed to properly portray cis-het women in many of his roles before coming out publicly as trans? I would probably argue no, but Elliot did have more practice.
I have not seen Squid Game season 2, so I can't make that call in this case. But even if I had, I am also not familiar enough with the nuances of gender performativity in Korean culture to determine what is and isn't a believable performance of gender. I would bring my own western biases to it if I tried.
At the end of the day, I think the author is trying to advocate a stance that doesn't really require all of that extra rationalization. It's a no-brainer to say "Look, you have plenty of actual trans people struggling to make it in the acting industry, why not just hire one of them?" Can a cis actor perform a trans identity as well as they do their cis identity? Maybe, it depends on how skilled at acting they are, I suppose. It's like asking if an actor who is typecast can do well if taken out of their normal genre—sometimes they can, but a lot of times they just don't. If you need an actor to star in a comedic movie, it's easier to find a comedian than it is to train a dramatist to act funny.
One thing that's bothering me about this is the fact that the actor playing this transgender woman has an obvious 5 o clock shadow where his mustache was, so it kind of looks like they just hired a man because they think transgender women are ugly
That's one way to look at it, but I think it's also unfair to suggest that trans women are universally seen as unattractive just for appearing more masculine by having a 5:00 shadow. Many women, trans or otherwise, can't help facial hair, and this is especially true for those who can't afford treatments to reduce it. And inability to afford treatments is (to my understanding, based on the article) the premise behind this character. Whatever the case, I've just never felt comfortable with the expectation that one needs to "pass" or else you're failing at gender.
There are a number of trans women who choose not to seek any medical/hormonal interventions for their gender presentation at all and are fine with that, though presumably not applicable in this scenario in Squid Game. But I can always respect the "Venus Barbata"-representing folks out there.