Nonfiction | Bad Stories and Writing Good Ones

It's hard to be what you can't see

Marian White Elderman

I have just watched Disclosure, a film executively produced by Time cover-girl Laverne Cox, star of Orange is The New Black. It is about trans lives.

I watched it because an article came up on my phone. So thank you aggressive news machine in my pocket.

It is sobering and brilliant. It shows how the portrayal of trans people on TV, in film and media has, on the whole, been ghoulish and at best comedic. Take Ace Ventura, one of my all time favourite movies. The 'Lois Einhorn is a man' moment tells a very specific story, that to kiss a trans person is disgusting. Did you notice? The montage of Ace brushing his teeth, burning his clothes and crying in the foetal position in the shower because he kissed Lois are a few pointers. I watched that as a kid and absorbed that story.

The movie also addresses the accusation that trans women are performing femininity in often exaggerated, over-sexualised ways.

To which, I now see that it is possible to respond with the question:

Does it matter how someone chooses to perform their gender? OR Why are we living a story where trans people have to win permission to exist as they wish? OR What purpose does it serve to harbour resentment over the fact that someone else likes high heels and hair extensions and I don't?

It is an inspiring documentary because it offers words for a new story!

One woman says in the documentary: "I cannot be in the world until I see that I am in the world."

I loved that.

But most importantly I loved this:

There is something funny about the magic trick of creating something out of thin air and then using that thing as a handhold to pull yourself forward.

Lilly Wachowski said this about writing a trans character, Nomi, for the Netflix series Sense8.

Do you see? We can pull ourselves forward at the speed of our own inspiration. Sometimes that is the only way forward. How cool is that?

Laverne Cox and other inspiring women on Disclosure