We knew it was a lost cause the instant we saw Akshay Kumar portraying a trans woman in his latest film Laxmii’s trailer. The reasons? Number one, the fact that a man was playing a trans woman on screen. Number two, we sadly still don’t have enough awareness about trans lives to narrate their stories on screen without messing it up bad.
It’s sad that we don’t give trans people, trans roles to date despite the fact that there exist a plethora of trans artists and actors. But what’s worse is that even when these films and shows are made with a man or woman playing a trans character, almost no research is done. After Akshay’s Laxmii, it’s Adah Sharma starrer web-series, Pati, Patni aur Panga that’s on our scanner now. The show trailer released just recently and everything about it reeks of transphobia.
YouTube
Based on what we could understand from the trailer, the series is based on a trans woman who marries a man without telling him anything about her past. Now, to begin with, it is a comedy series and the makers obviously have no idea about how problematic it is when the trans woman is repeatedly addressed as a “launda” and “ladka” in the film. Also, in the trailer, Adah can be seen talking about how she underwent a “sex change operation” (an outdated term which has been now replaced with gender reaffirming surgery). However, soon after that Adah is showing standing and peeing like a man.
Seriously guys it doesn’t take a genius to guess that transwomen don’t stand up and pee like men after their gender reaffirming surgery. Also, the fact that a trans woman is constantly called a man in the show and then shown peeing while standing can be really triggering for some of the real trans folks out there. To add to it, it is a comedy show and we are sure a lot of creative licenses would be taken as apparent in the trailer. Of course, all of this is downright wrong and inhuman to treat their gender dysphoria as entertainment.
Sadly like every cis-actor who has ever played a trans role in India, Adah too is absolutely clueless about what she has signed up for. She recently took to Twitter and shared “I’m playing a man in Pati Patni aur Panga.” But that’s not it, she has been reiterating the same in various interviews and talking about how she never thought that she will end up playing a man in a show.
Can someone please explain to her that she is playing a trans woman and not a man in the film? But before that, can someone please tell her that a transwoman is as much a woman as her?
“I hope we make the LGBTQIA community proud with this,” she wrote in another tweet. No Adah, you are just making the LGBTQIA community cringe right now. Here’s how trans folks and allies are reacting to the trailer:
Playing a trans character as a cis person, doing zero research work for the role, and then acting like you are doing the LGBTQIA community a favour? Gross Adah, gross!
Featured Image: YouTube
