Have you ever dreamt of being on TV? The show buisness empowers people, both actors and viewers. One of the issues that has been most vocally advocated against in the entertainment industry recently is the pay disparity between men and women. It’s a very important debate and equality in pay is essential. But what people miss out on is in this discussion is the absence of transgender people all together. Transgender people are hardly ever even employed as actors. Furthermore, transgender characters in a story line are often played by cisgender actors, which leads to misrepresentation and lack of job opportunities for actual transgender people. Recently, Scarlett Johansson received a lot of backlash for being cast to play a trans male role in the movie Rub and Tug. She backed away from taking that role, but the controversy shows how transgender people are overlooked in Hollywood. Trans-women actors are often excluded from the conversation of equal pay. GLAAD (a non-profit organization rallying for LGBT+ rights) has found that in the year 2017–2018, there were 329 characters in broadcast, cable and streaming programs, only 17 (5%) were transgender characters.
But this was before the arrival of Pose. Pose is a drama series that circles around a ‘house’ , a self selected family for LGBTQ+ persons who have been rejected from their birth families. In this show, many of the LGBTQ+ characters are trans and are played by trans people. Pose was created by Brad Falchuk, Ryan Murphy and Steven Canals. The cast features Mj Rodriguez, James Venderbeek, Ryan Jamal Swain, Dominique Jackson and many other talented actors. The show has three central trans-women characters who are portrayed by trans-women actors. As society is progressing, trans actors are being included more in the show business. But we still have some way to go.
Recently, I was watching a video in which transgender actors were talking about how hard it was for them to land a job. When I scrolled down to the comments section, I saw horrifying comments degrading the transgender community. People were claiming there were bigger problems and equality in pay for transgender actors was not important. Others in the comments claimed that the issue wasn’t even a real one. This just displays that society is ignorant to the inequality in pay and opportunities when it comes to transgender actors, especially trans-women. Society needs to be made aware of this undermined issue so that equality can be truly obtained. The entertainment industry exists for people to be able to express themselves and who they truly are. Accurate trans representation in media is crucial.
