What It’s Like To Watch Trans Movies As A Trans Teenager

Hollywood is struggling to authentically depict the transgender experience, despite breakthrough hits like The Danish Girl and Orange is the New Black.

Trans man Miles, a 19-year-old Melbourne student, understands this well after coming out as bisexual at age 14 and then realising he was trans a few years afterwards.

“I was always a lot more into the ‘guy’ things than the ‘girl’ things,” he told Student Edge.

“I wasn’t like ‘I’m out of place’. I don’t really know how to explain it. I didn’t know being trans existed until I watched a video of somebody who was, and I was like ‘oh my God, that makes sense’.”

Considering his coming-out experience, you have to consider the value of increased trans representation in movies and media, particularly for young people trying to understand their gender identity.

Unlike many people Miles knows, his coming out experience was “really positive”.

“There was no ‘in the closet’ part for me; I was like ‘this is what I am’, so I just told everybody,” he said.

“I told my mum as soon as I knew.

“Mum was like ‘I love you no matter what’, because mum is all up with the LGBT community. It wasn’t completely new to me.

“My sister was very apprehensive. It took a lot of interfering in her life. I was friends with some of her friends at school; people she was around consistently, so I would be like ‘use these pronouns’ [when referring to me]. If everybody around her is doing it, she doesn’t want to be the odd one out. She took her time. I think that’s ‘cause she was trying to come to terms with it, being like, ‘this is my brother, and this is how it is’.”

Again, might it have been a bit less difficult for others if the culture at large was more familiar with the trans experience, perhaps through cinema?

We asked Miles about how he felt about the way in which the trans experience was presented in film. Many critics noted of The Danish Girl that Eddie Redmayne’s character, Lili, didn’t feel as fleshed out or as central to the picture as her wife, Gerta (played by Alicia Vikander) did. Miles shook his head, saying “the media doesn’t really understand the [trans] community very much."

"[Cis actors] who play trans characters aren’t trans, and people have issues with the fact that they’re not giving the transgender community an opportunity to represent the community.”

Nonetheless, Miles thought The Danish Girl was “really good”, and was simply happy that the trans community was getting representation in any form.

“I’m like, this is the start of forever for our community. It’s getting represented, and they’re doing a pretty decent job,” he said.

“That’s all we can expect at the moment. It’s a start, and it’ll hopefully get better in the future.”

We then compared The Danish Girl, featuring cis actors, to 2015's festival favourite Tangerine, in which the lead actresses were trans women.

Miles found the film “hilarious”, and went on to comment that “the difference between Tangerine and The Danish Girl is that they’re set in different time periods, based on different life experiences and people.”

“No transition is the same, so seeing both those different transitions, you can see the variations. It’s a representation of how wide the community is,” he said.

In closing, he offered the best piece of advice he was given during his transition, chuckling the entire time: “You do you, boo."

“Cheesy, I know. I do me, you do you, and we’ll just chill out. If we don’t agree with each other and if we don’t like each other, that’s just how life goes."

In terms of advice for other trans kids, or those questioning their gender or sexuality, Miles noted that his experience may not apply to other trans kids, due to the great variations in individual transitions.

So, in general, he said, “there’s a very big community that would welcome you with open arms. But, if you’re not ready, then don’t do anything. Just chill out until you’re ready."

"You’ll know when you’re ready, and you’ll know how to handle the situation. Because coming out and going through the process of telling everybody and experiencing a new life because of those choices, it changes who you are as a person. And if you’re not ready to do that, and you come out when you’re not ready, it’s may not end well.”

For more information on counselling and treatment plans you can contact your school’s health services as well as Reach Out.

Kyle Uglow-Turpin is one of Student Edge’s student contributors. Learn more about the contributors program.

Photo: Universal / Netflix / Magnolia.