First I didn’t see anything strange, but then, when I had to think about making that call … I felt I was not doing the right thing.

As a production assistant for a new audiovisual production company, one of the tasks I must do is to contact the talents (actresses, actors, etc.) that will participate in the short films.

One of the characters is a transsexual woman, who offered sexual services. First I did not see anything strange, but when I had to think about making that call, It came to mind the now popular Netflix Mexican series: La Casa de Las Flores in which, one of the characters is María José (before José María), a successful lawyer who is a trans woman in this story . This detail seemed great because it helps to break classical stereotypes as trans or transsexual people (because they explained it to me is not the same) they only have the option of engaging in prostitution. But in our case … What were we doing?

I imagined myself calling the applicant and sending her lines, and I put myself in her shoes, excited because we were looking for someone like her to act in a short film … and zaz! she gets the surprise that she would play a prostitute role. “Chispas …” I thought. I felt that I was not doing the right thing.

As a friend told me, if she is a professional actress, she will not have any problem interpreting the role. I think he’s right, but then I kept thinking if, we didn’t have a prostitute in the story, would it have occurred to the director and scriptwriters to include an actor or actress from the LGBTI community, specifically a trans woman? Or is it that it was only necessary to contact someone with these characteristics because the character exercised that activity.

My conclusion is that it is our duty to evaluate ourselves as creators, to know how much we are contributing to break the paradigms of the industry or to perpetuate inisghts that perhaps we could help change little by little to look for a fairer world for everyone.

Elizabeth Mariscal — Luz Propia

Written by

Business Administrator with a vocation as a Communicator. Learning filmaking and marketing. Singer in spare time. http://stanatleymariscal.wixsite.com/luzpropia

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