when scarlett finally collects all the stolen minority roles she will succeed in wiping out half the diversity in hollywood pic.twitter.com/2c9eUHBiqC
— julia (@julesonfilm) July 4, 2018
Scarlett Johansson is Scarlett Johansson-ing again. After being the focus of ire (and cheeky memes) for playing a character who was Japanese in the source material in Ghost In The Shell (though, to be fair, the rights-holders of the story were enthusiastic about her casting), Johansson is back in the doghouse after New Regency announced she’ll be reteaming with Ghost In The Shell director Rupert Sanders to play a transgender character in Rub and Tug, the biopic of Dante “Tex” Gill, whose real life story is so wild that some of my fellow transpeople are mad they didn’t know about him already.
https://twitter.com/raystoeve/status/1014392760453877760
Gill owned massage parlors in 1970s and ’80s Pittsburgh and used the parlors as a front for a prostitution ring, using contacts within the gay community to help circumvent the mafia. So who do you get to play a transmasculine crime kingpin from the ’70s and ’80s who is pushing 250 pounds, grizzled, gruff, and looks like this? Scarlett Johansson, of course. The casting led to plenty of jokes and critiques, which we’ll get to in a moment.
Johansson responded to the initial criticisms by fanning the flames, issuing this statement to Bustle:
“Tell them that they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffman’s reps for comment.”
Yeah, that’s… not good. Especially considering Tambor was fired from Transparent after multiple allegations of sexually harassing transwomen on set. Maybe don’t evoke him as a defense? And transgender actors are rarely if ever allowed to audition for cisgender roles, so saying other cisgender people have taken the only roles Hollywood lets transpeople audition for isn’t so much a defense as it is a reminder to be even more ticked off because this just keeps happening.
So, as a transman, it behooves me to say a few words before we get to the jokes, which are the only silver lining to this cumulus cloud of bullsh*t. I almost never see myself represented in any form of media. (I mean, do you know how many times I watched Just One Of The Guys as a kid?) When I do see a transgender character, they’re almost always a woman (either a transwoman, or — on extremely rare occasions — a transman being played by a woman), and they’re almost always either being murdered, murdering other people, or “deceiving” people by just existing all sexy-like.
And here’s another story of a transgender person being a criminal. I get it. Gill was interesting; it’s an interesting story. But is this all we are? Criminals or victims? And you can’t even cast a transman to play him? And, if you insist on casting a cisgender person, you cast a cisgender woman instead of a cisgender man? And you cast someone who is at least 150 pounds lighter than Gill was? You can’t even look for an actor who could maybe sort of resemble the guy? I mean, Lea DeLaria was right there.
Look, I get it. You can’t get funding without casting an A-lister. That’s the constant refrain in Hollywood. And if that’s the case, cast Johansson as the cisgender girlfriend of Gill’s, not as Gill. Better yet, just scrap the transman biopic, rewrite all the characters played by cisgender actors as cisgender characters, and re-title this Scarlett Johanssen Makes Out With Alexandra Daddario For 90 Minutes And Also They Do Crimes.
Better movie.
Anyway, I’m not the only one responding to this news with sarcasm. Folks on Twitter also weighed in. Some asked for help picking out a new headshot. Others feared what roles she’d take next:
*through tears*
Scarlet please just play a white woman
*Scarlet slowly begins placing the sombrero on her head*
— Shin Megan Thee Tensei (@BraveArcanine) July 3, 2018
BREAKING: Scarlet Johansson secures title role in Stuart Little reboot
— Fred Delicious 🍆 (@Fred_Delicious) July 5, 2018
https://twitter.com/ehjovan/status/1014544180201259009
*jazz hands* pic.twitter.com/AbCGAjypcC
— Mrs. Detective Pikajew, Esq. (@clapifyoulikeme) July 3, 2018
https://twitter.com/ayacharlatan/status/1014623756009033734
https://twitter.com/blueherring32/status/1014615347775922182
at this rate scarlett johansson might play me in my biopic
— Desus MF Nice💯 (@desusnice) July 4, 2018
Others expressed confusion about who Scarlett Johansson is:
is this scarlett johansson pic.twitter.com/zpPb8ZMRMC
— gui (@taleofcinema) July 4, 2018
is this scarlett johansson pic.twitter.com/xVnvpWnxOx
— yosh (@wormysoup) July 5, 2018
Did Scarlett Johansson agree to play Black Widow because she thought it was an African American character?
— Erik Tanouye (@toyns) July 4, 2018
future historian: scarlett johansson was an asian woman who uhh.. *checks notes*… scarlett johansson was a trans man… *fumbles* ladies and gentleman scarlett johansson was clearly humankind's first shapeshifter
— hattie (@haticebot) July 3, 2018
Others pointed out or made jokes about how transgender people aren’t offered cisgender roles, either.
https://twitter.com/tracelysette/status/1014313678441668608
https://twitter.com/tracelysette/status/1014316884844396548
https://twitter.com/MsJamieClayton/status/1014355850159259649
https://twitter.com/sovietblobfish/status/1014286298956345344
https://twitter.com/thatdangdingus/status/1014541208599687169
https://twitter.com/thatdangdingus/status/1014547795628290049
Hey trans twitter, a favor please, don't ignore that this ScarJo thing is also fat erasure. Love, a fat trans man
— kivan (@KivanBay) July 4, 2018
The main reason it’s wrong in 2018 to cast cis actors as trans characters, in two sentences:
“He plays a transwoman.”
“She plays a transman.”Perpetuates the “confusion” around trans identity which leads to violence against trans and gender nonconforming people.
Ok, thanks.
— river buddy butcher 🤠 (@rivbutcher) July 4, 2018
We could recast ScarJo with a trans man and rename the character Black Widower.
Just a thought.
— jack (@vesaldi) July 4, 2018
https://twitter.com/IjeomaOluo/status/1014627857295859712
https://twitter.com/ChrisLaker/status/1014546729641959424
When a cisgender actor plays a trans figure, that's like admitting that cis people don't live exciting lives worth dramatizing. Huge self-own
— the federalist stinks!!!! (@rajandelman) July 3, 2018
trans men aren't allowed to live or speak on nuanced lives/issues or have their unique, overlapping scope/experiences catalogued because they're posthumously rewritten as lesbians, and in modern discourse as cis men, all depending on what's convenient for someone else's argument
— joe dáire ✴︎ 🇮🇪🖤🇵🇸 ✴︎ (@saint_vagrant) July 3, 2018
Some people snarked about her official statement or her career:
https://twitter.com/SmartAssJen/status/1014265312764547072
https://twitter.com/dubsteppenwolf/status/1014391845223305216
https://twitter.com/TheMikeLawrence/status/1014588339595501571
Others blamed the industry:
https://twitter.com/PS4andCATS/status/1014559694411755523
https://twitter.com/Party_Harderson/status/1014584032422592512
https://twitter.com/raystoeve/status/1014516410049912833
"If the casting director couldn't find a trans man, they should at least cast a cis man!"
If the casting director can't find a trans man actor to play a trans man part, fire them & get a proper casting director.
— jack (@vesaldi) July 4, 2018
https://twitter.com/SmartAssJen/status/1014273434962952192
y’all ain’t slick with this “how about we let actors freaking act!” shit re: scarlett johannson. the same folks who get huffy when they DEIGN to make female spinoffs in male-led franchises are suddenly down for a woman playing a trans man? just admit you hate trans people and go
— demi adejuyigbe (@electrolemon) July 4, 2018
https://twitter.com/Party_Harderson/status/1014583530024648704
The sarcasm continued over the July 4th holiday:
*Scarlett Johansson unhinges her jaw and swallows 74 trans men in the room*
"So weird how I was the only one to show up for the audition, right?"— Ray (@SirEviscerate) July 4, 2018
clearly it’s time to write my graphic novel about historical trans figures traveling in time (a la legends of tomorrow) to beat up the cis celebrities playing them in movies
— Zabé/Z. R. Ellor (@ZREllor) July 4, 2018
Yesterday Scarlett Johansson truly became Colin Jost's girlfriend,
— Courtney Enlow (@courtenlow) July 4, 2018