Monday, March 2, 2009

The Boys, er, Girls in the Bandwagon


While many in the US are still trying to recover from a little bit of an Milk hangover, it appears that yet anther LGBT icon will see the light of the silver screen. Dorothy Surrenders reported today that Nicole Kidman and Charlize Theron are slotted to appear in a film about famous artist and transwoman Lili Elbe (played by Kidman) and her wife Gerda Wegener (played by Theron), who was herself a famous artist and illustrator for magazines including Vogue,  Fantasio, and others (see the image I stole from artnet.com below).

Elbe (born Einar Wegener) allegedly often posed as a (female, obviously) model for his wife's illustrations. He underwent one of the first publicized sexual reassignment surgeries in 1930. Gerda remained by his side as he transitioned to Lili even though their marriage was annulled by the king of Denmark. 

The film, titled The Danish Girl, is scheduled to be released in 2010 according to its listing on IMDB. But there don't seem to be many more details available yet. Except that it's a true story based on the novel by David Ebershoff. I just hope Mr. and Ms. Average out there don't get tired of hearing about OUR stories. At least this one promises a bit of hot lesbian action (well sort of). Straight men like that kind of thing, right? Even if one of the lesbians is a man? And even if that man is played by Nicole Kidman?

I'm really glad to see more and more transpeople appearing in film these days. (If you missed the film Transamerica you have your homework assignment for the week.) The truth is even the uber-inclusive LGBT movement tends to shove the T part under the rug all too often. The number of times I've had to edit the pronouns in this post may be some indication as to why. It's often difficult and confusing talking about trans issues. But that's no excuse. If we don't make the effort to at least try to understand, then we're as bad as those who make ads about creepy men following little girls into restrooms to scare people away from supporting rights for trans individuals. 

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