By Kelsey D’Auben
The nominations for the 87th annual Academy Awards have received a great deal of backlash due to a lack of minority representation.
Despite this, many great films and great actors were nominated, and among them was Eddie Redmayne for his role as Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl.
The transgendered community has slowly begun to gain more and more of it’s rightful recognition in the media over the past year.
Actresses such as Laverne Cox and Jamie Clayton have featured roles in acclaimed Netflix series has been an amazing stride for the community, because transgendered people often receive very little representation in a very hetero/cis dominated media.
So when films such as The Danish Girl are released and widespread throughout the nation and praised as a powerful and inspirational story of the struggles of a transitioning person, it’s not hard to understand why there would be anger within the trans community over the casting of Eddie Redmayne, a cis male, as the leading role of a transgendered woman.
And Redmayne doesn’t play just any transgendered woman either, but the first trans woman to ever undergo full reconstructive surgery.
Lili Elbe is an important historical figure within the community and a movie about her is something that should ultimately be portrayed by a trans woman.
Lili Elbe is an important historical figure within the community and a movie about her is something that should ultimately be portrayed by a trans woman.
The Danish Girl is not the only project guilty of miscasting.
About Ray, which premiered at Sundance this past year casted Elle Fanning to play Ray, a young trans boy in early stages of his transition. And Transparent is a popular Emmy winning Amazon original series starring Jeffrey Tambor as an older woman in the beginnings of her transition.
Storylines featuring transgendered people are appearing more and more among television and films, and that’s a great thing.
Stories about transitioning and the struggles the trans community faces were almost non-existent until just a few years ago. However, it is not the fact that these stories are being told that is the problem. It is the way they are being told.
These stories are about trans folks and what being trans is all about, so to have it told by a cis-man not only makes it genuinely less authentic but also takes away the voice of the trans actor who is representing them. These are their stories to tell and by having cis actors portray their characters we are not letting them speak for themselves.
Many argue that the casting of a cis person is not due to cis-normativity, but because the actor is genuinely fit for the role.
Tom Hooper, the director of The Danish Girl used this same defense in an interview with Slate:
“I must admit I thought about Eddie Redmayne the very first time I read the script… I always have felt there was femininity in Eddie or his features, and I’d remarked on the fact that he’d been drawn to the feminine – he played the girl’s part in school plays,” Hooper told Slate.
Hooper did also say that he had actually cast several transgendered people in the film, giving them all cisgendered roles. But why deny them the chance to play the part of the one actual transgendered character in the film?
Simply placing a transgender actor in the background behind the cisgendered lead actor and hiding them by casting them in a cisgendered role does not count as representing the community in a film that is about them and their own history.
Miscasting is not a new problem in Hollywood. It has been happening for years, especially with characters of color.
Even recently the film Exodus received harsh criticisms for casting an nearly all white cast for a film set in ancient Egypt and Cameron Crowe, director of Aloha had to come out and apologize for casting Emma Stone as an Asian-American woman.
Miscastings of transgendered characters is no different.
“At this moment especially, I think this industry has a responsibility to put trans actors in trans roles,” Sean Baker, director of the Sundance film Tangerine told the New York Times.
“At this moment especially, I think this industry has a responsibility to put trans actors in trans roles,” Sean Baker, director of the Sundance film Tangerine told the New York Times. “To not do it seems wrong in my eyes. There is plenty of trans talent out there.”
Representation of the transgendered community is important, especially today.
By denying them the chance to represent themselves and speak for their own community even in the fictional world of television and movies we are not progressing as a society. We are only taking steps further backwards into oppression.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. Anyone can write for you us as long as you are fiercely interested in making the world a better place.
Cover Photo Credit: torbakhopper/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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Meet Daniela Núñez, The 23 Year Old Mexican Who Wants To Change The Way We Bury People
“What would happen if there were no graveyards and, instead of graveyards, we built paradises?”
That’s the question 23 year-old Mexican college student, Daniela Núñez, asked herself.
This question would become the foundation of her biodegradable urns project and company: BioEternal.
“BioEternal literally started in one of my courses,” Núñez said in an interview with RISE NEWS. “After researching, she found several companies in Spain, Colombia and Argentina that work with biodegradable urns. That’s when she decided she could make a change by bringing the seldom used concept to Mexico.”
After validating the market in Mexico, Daniela noticed that people like BioEternal, not only because of the practice, but also because of the entire experience the product offers.
With the help of partners and guided by professors from her university, she started creating the foundations for her business.
A critical moment for Núñez and BioEternal happened during her fourth semester of college, where she signed up for an I semester.
The I semester is a unique business incubation offered by the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores Monterrey (ITESM).
“While I was there, BioEternal started moving forward really fast,” Núñez said. “I also faced my biggest challenges. People liked my idea but they kept asking me how I would work with Mexican culture.”
Núñez spoke about the Mexican culture as one of her biggest challenges.
“Mexicans have deep roots in their culture, especially when it comes to death,”
Núñez said. “It’s rare to see practices that differ from what we are used to, or from the typical funerary companies. That part was very complicated and we didn’t know if it would work here in Mexico.”
Daniela Núñez, the founder of BioEternal.
Another challenge Núñez faced while working on Bioeternal was the Catholic Church’s strong presence in Mexico.
“Ad Resurgendum Cum Christo,” a document released in August 2016 signed by Pope Francis states that the ashes of deceased people may not be kept in unholy or unblessed land.
“But after validating the market in Mexico, I realized that people no longer have a strong commitment with the Church,” Núñez said regarding the challenge.
Besides BioEternal, there are five companies that sell biodegradable urns too in her market.
Núñez spoke about Limbo as one of her strongest competitors in Mexico.
“A company that’s already selling and has very good sales is Limbo,” Núñez said. “Their product is something like a sand ball, but their concept and idea is about reintegrating with nature.”
Another company named Colibrí not only work with humans, but also work with animals.
“My plans are to start with humans and then make an approach to the animal market,” Núñez said. “If I started with the animal market, people are going to relate or interpret this practice as something exclusive for animals and that’s not a good idea.”
For Núñez, working with BioEternal has been more than just a way to help the environment.
“It’s very pretty to think about becoming a tree, but that idea is not enough, especially when you’re going through such a complicated stage in your life,” she said.
That’s the reason why Núñez decided to link together her company with the concept of green thanatology.
Without exploring the meaning of life and death, thanatology studies death.
Green thanatology, which is related to liberation, focuses on helping people go through someone’s death with the help of nature.
Companies like Limbo and Colibrí only focus on helping the environment, and this provided Daniela with an area of opportunity.
BioEternal’s focus on healing and its link with thanatology are its main strength and something that puts it beyond its competitors.
Death is not an easy subject to handle.
This is the reason why Daniela not only wants to change processes, but also wants to change experiences.
“It’s no longer an experience of burying a person, but of planting a life,” Núñez said. “Let’s make it beautiful. I want people to be able to keep these memories. That’s one reason why Bioeternal is named that way, because it’s an eternal memory.”
Setting up her company has not been easy and, currently, Núñez’s bigger challenge is money.
Producing a large number of biodegradable urns and signing up for this year’s national funerary convention are big and necessary expenses for her.
“I’m out of resources and I’m going to need help from crowdfunding,” Núñez said.
Núñez said that her long term goals are about making her own funerary company and a Bioeternal park.
“I don’t want families to go to a graveyard. I want this to be a friendly concept in which people visit a forest and visit their own tree because that’s much more attractive and pretty,” Núñez said.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in the world. You can write for us.
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Pro Gun Groups Plan To Hold Fake “Mass Shooting” Near University Of Texas Campus
A college campus. The sound of gunfire. Screams. Bodies strewn about, covered in blood.
What has all too frequently come flashing across our Twitter streams and TV screens in this case is not another actual campus shooting, but a planned demonstration at the University of Texas, Austin.
This Saturday at noon local time, two gun rights groups, Come and Take It Texas and DontComply.com plan to conduct a “crisis performance” after marching through Austin openly carrying loaded rifles and other weapons according to Matthew Short, a spokesman for the organizations.
Once near the university, “crisis actors” will use props made of cardboard and fake blood while the sound of gunfire rings out from bullhorns to perform a mock mass shooting incident, complete with pretend armed heroes who will apparently end the fake carnage with cardboard weapons of their own.
The groups intend to highlight their positions regarding “gun free zones”, like the UT Austin campus.
“Gun free zones are killing us,”A statement on the event’s Facebook page reads. “These target rich environments are letting our children be murdered by evil people. Now is the time to stand up, take a walk, and put pressure on politicians to ban Gun Free Zones.”
UT Austin is the site of two campus shootings, the Tower shooting in 1966, in which 14 people were killed and 32 wounded by student Charles Whitman. Whitman was killed by police, ending his siege.
In 1990, student Colton Tooley fired shots on campus from an AK-47, before ending his own life in the main library.
Initially, organizers endeavored to hold the event on campus, however this was met by threats of criminal charges by the Board of Regents. Organizers now intend to hold the event on a public right of way, using the university as a backdrop.
June 1, 2015 marked the passage of S.B. 11, the so called ‘campus carry law’, which Governor Greg Abbott signed in to law.
The law gives concealed carry permit holders legal authority to carry their weapons on campus beginning August 1, 2016.
In response to this, UT Texas has set up an advisory board, will hold two public forums and has also set up a survey to explore how the University intends to comply with the statute, while maintaining public safety.
Given the recent terror attack in San Bernardino and the shooting at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado, some feel that this event is in bad taste, and could be potentially dangerous.
Ralph Fisk, the CEO of Fisk Consultants in Hutto, TX, and a published Emergency Management professional with expertise in Active Shooters, Counter-Terrorism and Physical Security, has heard a great deal about this event from his local law enforcement and other campus contacts.
“I understand the right to exercise your first and second amendment rights, as in this case, however that planned demonstration in my opinion is over the top,” Fisk said. “Having a mock ‘active shooter’ incident is better saved for those that exercise these incidents in preparation for an actual attack. As an Open Carry Supporter, I feel this is not something that I personally could support.”
Joan Neuberger, a UT Austin Professor and advocate with the campus organization Gun Free UT, told the Statesman that staging, “a mass shooting during an anxious time for students – finals week – not only breaks rules but shows real disrespect for the feelings of students, faculty and staff who don’t want to have guns around them in the first place, but will be forced to put up with guns in public places in 2016.”
Cover Photo Credit: Derek Key/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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Being A Second Generation Haitian-American Is Really Damn Hard
By Nick Moncy
For RISE NEWSThe term second-generation, as shown by a quick Google search, is an adjective “denoting the offspring of parents who have immigrated to a particular country”.
What factors drive people to move to another country? For a variety of reasons: to earn money for family battling poverty and sickness, for better opportunities for their children and themselves, to escape war and persecution. There are many other motives as well, but what most actions share are the selfless and brave motives behind them.
My own parents immigrated to South Florida from Haiti in their thirties to expand their horizons, graciously happening to find each other, fall in love and marry, and have my older sister and me.
Their hard work and sacrifice has carried us through school, my sister through graduating college as last May, and through endless extracurricular activities and personal ventures.
However, with that unconditional love comes unconditional expectations from their culture, many of which clash with those of prosperous countries like the United States that we also strive to embody. This leaves second-gen individuals feeling trapped between two insistent worlds, yet assuming this spot has allowed me to admire both sides.
In a traditional household, the rituals carried over create a rigid atmosphere. The parent’s native language is usually primarily spoken and heard in media outlets, cuisine revolves around their native tastes, and their expectations reflect those they were issued growing up.
Some basic ones are common – putting school and family first, learning your native tongue (Creole for me), and looking presentable to exude a sense of composure. There is, in fact, a barbershop on every block in just about every Haitian town, at least it seems that way.
When all you have is yourself, you must be your best self according to that logic.
Nick Moncy in Haiti, June 2015. Photo Credit: Nick Moncy/RISE NEWS
But there are some cultural themes that do not carry over so smoothly. Emotions show weakness, immaturity and lack of self-control. You are your gender and sex and you will not deviate.
Your complaints pale to the immense pains your ancestors endured, so it’s no use. Mental illness is an illusion – you’re just afraid to try hard. You will wear what your parents tell you to wear, and think what they want you to think, or you are disobedient. You might even get compared to your friends who conform and feel ashamed. You lose the ability to believe in your own convictions.
When all you have is yourself, you must be your worst self is the sad reality.
The grand, overlying difference I have observed is others versus self. In rural parts of Haiti, where the heart of Haitian culture beats loudest, individualism simply does not exist. Family members put others before themselves – using free time to aid parents with laborious tasks, plowing fields, mentoring the young, caring for the old. There’s no “paying you back”. Or “chasing your dream” – that is perceived as a luxury.
Here in the United States though, being yourself is highly encouraged. Saying what’s on your mind, free speech, self-actualization. We have technology to provide access to an infinite amount of information and exposure to many ways of life around the world, which enriches our perspective and increases our tolerance for exploration.
Even in college, most students have the freedom to choose the field that resonates with them. When your family remains in the back of your mind, and you feel the gnawing conviction to return the favor, to bring honor, and your friends back home did what they were told and brought that honor, doesn’t it feel like an unseen power is forcing your hand the other way?
Ultimately you may feel guilty for following your heart, even though no beaten path –doctor, engineer, lawyer – worked out for you.
“Although tradition seems to control us like puppets, a predetermined course, it is truly up to us to steer our fates.”- Nick Moncy
“Being successful, you ponder, is the “paying you back” that I’m missing”.
Even your peers who’ve assimilated into American culture will look down on you at times for not keeping up with milestones – not being caught up with the latest episodes of American Idol (R.I.P) or sports, not being manly enough (which is an issue on both fronts), not flowing with the crowd.
And guess what? Other second-gens from your ethnic group will mock you too, for not repping your roots or knowing your language or not visiting your motherland yet. Oh boy! The pursuit of perfection, unfortunately, is widespread.
Haiti. Photo Credit: Nick Moncy/RISE NEWS
All reasonable people will ask for, like my parents, is to perform the best you can at whatever you are doing. Although tradition seems to control us like puppets, a predetermined course, it is truly up to us to steer our fates. However, our heritages compose a significant part of who we are today and explain how our circumstances came to be.
As I grew older, I saw the other side of the gourde (Haitian currency): parents usually aren’t narcissistic or obsessed – they just don’t want their cultures to dissipate, to be lost, and that is why they clench so dearly to what they know.
To what they are.
And I’ve been able to understand, or at least try to, just what that is. For two weeks this June I trekked all over Haiti with my family to see both family and our motherland. I dove into the core of the island and despite facing the unknown, the links between this world and the one back home became crystal clear.
I finally feel at peace in this gray area, and for that I am grateful. I now believe in my potential to uphold my family’s future legacy by being there for them –plus, I personally want to help Haiti at a future point – but the only way to accomplish that goal is to settle into the person I’ve envisioned myself to be. And that person, I hope, will be as courageous and righteous as my family members.
If you’re a second-generation person like me, I encourage you to discover your past and find your own balance in the present – the experience has proven to be fulfilling. And for goodness’s sake, don’t wipe your hands on the fancy towels. They’re there for decoration.
Cover Photo Credit: Nick Moncy/RISE NEWS
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