Laverne Cox: Actress, Advocate, Needle-Mover

Whether you know her from Orange is the New Black or from the cover of your favorite magazine, you know that Laverne Cox is a needle-mover in every way that counts. She’s a shining example of humanity at its finest: an advocate, a witness, a storyteller, an upholder, a truth teller. She’s got a damn good stylist, too.

I have a confession to make: my TV preferences are in direct opposition to any of my political (read: feminist + liberal) beliefs. Basically, I like to watch shows where white men blow things up and/or kill people, and then get praised for it — in one way or another.

Whenever I analyze this about myself, I come back to the feeling that I just don’t watch TV in order to think. TV goes on; brain goes off. For this reason, a storyline that I’m uber-familiar with is the best way to go.

According to everything I’m reading about Laverne Cox and the enormous influence she’s had and is having on our society via her mainstream media roles, I’m in the minority when it comes to my reasons for watching TV — or the benefit I get from it. (Or maybe I’m not…maybe I’m just watching these shows to remind myself that the Patriarchy hasn’t yet been destroyed.)

You see, Laverne Cox, the first black transgender woman to have a leading role on a major US television show, has come into a sort of power. And that power stems from the fact that people who watch her on TV are being indoctrinated (reverse doctrinated?) into the *new* storyline that is America: the storyline where everyone has a right to be here; everyone has a backstory and everyone gets the chance to move on from, or cling to, that backstory.

Or to put it bluntly, as Cox so often does, “…representation and having everyone’s story told in our media” is critical in the naming and “forming ]of] a more perfect union.” Union, as in nation. As in, one nation indivisible — but very, very imperfect.

Representation of trans lives in our media being important seems obvious. Sort of like how the lives of black people should matter as much as the lives of white people. Sort of like how kids should be able to use whatever bathroom and locker room makes them feel most comfortable without being bullied. Sort of like how the President of our nation should be made to pay for his crimes against humanity.

Apparently not, because all of these are things we continue to fight for. Or, to paraphrase Cox, we’re working to write into the constitution all of the people that were left out when it was created (read: everyone who isn’t white and male). The ways in which we are doing this are myriad and to tell Cox’s story is to highlight the role media can and does play in forming this new country: an equal world, an equitable world, and a nonbinary world.

Whoops. Did that last one catch you up? From what I know, we do-gooders are pretty adept at discussing equal rights and equitable fortunes. However, we have (historically) been ignorant as to the people we’re leaving out of these equations. To use Katie Couric’s term for it, we’ve been buffoons.

Ignorance is just that. It’s not knowing that what we’re doing is exclusionary and harmful. And the way out of ignorance is through education. Since the majority of us don’t know any people who are transgender (over 80% according to some sources), and a lot of us received a liberal education that was more patriarchal than not, mainstream media has stepped in to save the day.

In other words, seeing Laverne Cox as Sophia week in and week out (or all in one day if you binge watch like me) is an act of education. We’ve been so caught up in defining what it means to be born a woman, we’ve neglected the fact that you don’t have to be born with a vagina to be a woman. So we watch Sophia, who is trans on the show and who is played by a trans actress, and we learn — which helps us to unlearn.

Not that the two — academia and media — don’t intersect. Of course they do! Academics have been studying popular culture for a long time, and their work, which is often studied by privileged people who have the power to effect change, also leads to the education of the masses, if you will. Also, as Cox herself has noted, having discussions about media representation is important to have in elite spaces so that “those with privilege [can] critically interrogate that privilege.”.

And speaking of intersection, Cox’s eloquent diatribes on everything from race to transphobia to the experience of being black and female in America to having an abundant mindset and learning to love yourself are so poignant because of the many, many facets of her life that decry her as an “Other.” (Again, any part of her that isn’t white & male, which is every part of her.)

Cox’s inherent intersectionality makes her the exact right person for our time. She’s a gorgeous, well-spoken, authentic, and kind woman. She’s also black — the majority we continue to call the minority. She’s also a part of the .5% of our population that rarely sees themselves represented, and hardly ever meets someone else like themself in real life. Cox has lived the truth of these disparate parts coming together abd she’s also willing to stand in that truth.

This willingness is what Cox has referred to as a “coming into voice” — a phrase I adore on so many levels. Of her realization that she needed to show up in this way, Cox said, “Black people watch shows the whole time wondering where the black people are, and I did that, but I also watched shows as a trans person wondering where all the trans people are. Then I thought: maybe instead of wondering [about it], you should be that person.”

She has gone one to point out that the fact that there’s such a small percentage of trans people in our country means they need representation even more — something I honestly hadn’t thought about either. Also, she has led the movement to ensure that trans characters are portrayed as real people living real lives — not just victims likely to get killed off before the show’s end.

One of the different things about the character of Sophia, who Cox played on the wildly popular Orange is the New Black is that her transition was her back story; that allowed her storyline to be written in a non-stereotypical way, which is to say that she was a human being, an individual with ups & downs, a woman just like the rest of the characters.

As much as I hate the word normal, normalizing the idea of being trans in our society seems to be the vital next step in freeing transgender people from discrimination, misrepresentation, and a disproportionate amount of societal abuse. (As if any abuse from society is okay!) I love the way Cox phrases this idea on the homepage of her website as “full humanity.” Doesn’t everyone deserve that?

Yet another complexity of our mishandling of transpeople that Cox and many of her fellow transgender actors in Hollywood have shone the light on is that trans characters should be played by trans actors. Though some would say that “acting” — as a rule — means being outside of one’s own experience, Cox argues that hiring cisgender actors to play trans characters means missing out on the very unique, very emotional, and all-too-often very painful experience a transgender can bring to the role.

Further, since the actors most consistently chosen to play trans women are males, we (the receivers of mainstream media) are constantly being reminded that trans women are actually just men wearing dresses and makeup and getting shots. That this disparity is something trans women may feel more than trans men just shows how infinitely dangerous it is to be a trans woman in our heteronormative world.

All of this sounds very, very serious. And it is. We’re talking about HUMAN LIVES, after all. But what’s captivating about Laverne Cox — as herself the celebrity, herself the spokesperson, or onscreen as a director, interviewer, or character — is her obvious enjoyment of all that life has to offer. She radiates pleasure. She beams with light and love. She laughs, large and often. She’s playful, alluring, and funny.

This aspect of her personality, which in no way contrasts or overshadows the absolute intelligence she exudes, isn’t just start quality — though I’m sure it helped her get her start acting; it’s humanity, plain and simple. She is one of the best examples of a Full Human I’ve come across so far. So why do we care so much which toilet she prefers? What pitiful pettiness are those less-than-full humans among us who deem themselves worthy to make this call.

As I watch someone with Cox’s allure, poise, education, and beauty use her platform to help all transgender people come to voices of their own, my hope for humanity as a whole perks up. How unfair that she has to lead the way for those of us who don’t know any better — that she has to redirect nosy interviewers who just want to hear about her private body parts and educate the general public about how to treat trans people with respect. (Hint: the same way you treat all other humans!)

And yet, she does. Why? Because she loves herself. She believes in herself, in those who are like her, and in those who look up to her. And I’m willing to bet she believes in those who aren’t like her as well. She’s a “Goddess of Justice” as bell hooks once remarked: a beautiful person with a beautiful soul. May humanity not squander the gift that is Laverne Cox.