Transgender Politics & Halle Berry: The Mob Wins, Again

Actress Halle Berry has apologized for having the audacity to tell her hairstylist on Instagram Live that she was considering taking on the role of a transgender character. Berry, the Los Angeles Times reports, “revealed that she would probably lop off her hair to play the character in her next project and repeatedly misgendered the character during the interview.” Berry said that in playing “a woman that transitions to a man,” she would better “experience” and “understand” the transgender world. “Who this woman was is so interesting to me,” she said. “It’s really important to me to tell stories.” And even though the character is a transgender man, she added, “And that’s a woman. That’s a female story. A woman who transitions into a man, but I want to know the why and how of that.”

Inadvertently (and with the wokest of intentions) Berry committed two cardinal sins of transgender orthodoxy. First, she saw the character as essentially female, despite transitioning. Second, and more ridiculously, she was accused of appropriating the trans experience as well as depriving trans actors of the chance to play themselves. Efforts to reeducate Berry began immediately. “Trans people are so very tired of cis actors taking up roles that so many trans people would give anything to play,” one commentator wrote. “Your language is damaging. A woman doesn’t transition into a man. He is and always was a man.” But if he was always a man, what did he transition from and to? Another actor, Jordan Gonzalez wrote: “There are plenty of us trans actors who are more than capable of telling our stories, myself included.”

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Madeleine Kearns

Madeleine Kearns is a former staff writer at National Review.

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Actress Halle Berry has apologized for having the audacity to tell her hairstylist on Instagram Live that she was considering taking on the role of a transgender character. Berry, the Los Angeles Times reports, “revealed that she would probably lop off her hair to play the character in her next project and repeatedly misgendered the character during the interview.” Berry said that in playing “a woman that transitions to a man,” she would better “experience” and “understand” the transgender world. “Who this woman was is so interesting to me,” she said. “It’s really important to me to tell stories.” And even though the character is a transgender man, she added, “And that’s a woman. That’s a female story. A woman who transitions into a man, but I want to know the why and how of that.”

Inadvertently (and with the wokest of intentions) Berry committed two cardinal sins of transgender orthodoxy. First, she saw the character as essentially female, despite transitioning. Second, and more ridiculously, she was accused of appropriating the trans experience as well as depriving trans actors of the chance to play themselves. Efforts to reeducate Berry began immediately. “Trans people are so very tired of cis actors taking up roles that so many trans people would give anything to play,” one commentator wrote. “Your language is damaging. A woman doesn’t transition into a man. He is and always was a man.” But if he was always a man, what did he transition from and to? Another actor, Jordan Gonzalez wrote: “There are plenty of us trans actors who are more than capable of telling our stories, myself included.”