¡°Tell them that they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffman¡¯s reps for comment.¡±

¡°Trans actors are asking why, of all roles, she would choose what, for a trans man, would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Trace Lysette of Transparent tweeted a link to the Bustle story with the captions.¡±

¡°Oh word?? So you can continue to play us but we can¡¯t play y¡¯all? Hollywood is so fucked... I wouldn¡¯t be as upset if I was getting in the same rooms as Jennifer Lawrence and Scarlett for cis roles, but we know that¡¯s not the case. A mess. [...] And not only do you play us and steal our narrative and our opportunity but you pat yourselves on the back with trophies and accolades for mimicking what we have lived... so twisted. I¡¯m so done...¡±

¡°Tambor, Leto, and Huffman are all cisgender actors who have played transgender roles; Tambor in the Amazon original series Transparent, Leto in 2013¡¯s Dallas Buyers Club, and Huffman in 2005¡¯s Transamerica. In other words, Johansson¡¯s answer is more of an excuse: ¡°If everyone else is doing it, I can do it, too.¡± This would be flawed thinking even without the added knowledge that each example she¡¯s cited is a performance that was critically acclaimed, suggesting that the idea of playing a transgender character as awards bait factored into the casting decision. (Tambor won a Golden Globe and two Emmys for his performance as Maura Pfefferman; Leto won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a SAG Award; and Huffman won a Golden Globe.) ¡±

¡°But ¡°Pose¡± sets its target on greater sights than merely entertaining with sparkling visions of queer artists on a quest to capture "realness," always pursuing some approximation of the genuine article, some sacrificing their bodies to achieve it. What each episode does naturally, and beautifully, is take us into the stories of marginalized people with plots pegged to their lives and identities, making these stories central as opposed to auxiliary. It¡¯s not giving anything away to say this week¡¯s episode, like many before it, brings viewers nose to nose with the despair of the AIDS crisis in a way that makes the past present. As much as people would like to believe that HIV is under control, it¡¯s not. Few Americans care that it¡¯s still ravaging Third World countries. But it¡¯s also hitting crisis levels in Florida. That said, ¡°Pose¡± doesn¡¯t lash itself to one distinct message or issue, choosing instead (and wisely) to connect us to how the people living with these issues cope with them or fall short.¡±

¡°Jared Leto and Eddie Redmayne were lauded for their courage in portraying trans women on film (¡°Dallas Buyers Club¡± and ¡°The Danish Girl¡±) ¡ª but not so much by transgender women themselves, many of whom found the performances mannered, studied and implausible. If you haven¡¯t walked in our shoes, you wouldn¡¯t notice the difference. But we have, and we do. Trans actors should play trans roles because we can do the best job. The freedom to live our lives out loud ought to include the chance to make art from the complex, difficult, joyful reality of our lives. When Hollywood tells us that they love us, that we belong to them, we need to resist.¡±

¡°Just a few years ago, Buffalo Bill was pretty much the only ¡°transgender¡± point of reference for straight, cisgender people. Literally the only representation of an entire community of already misunderstood people was a twisted serial killer. In a society already hostile to people living outside the ascribed confines of gender, and regardless of what was intended, this character acted to further marginalise us and make us seem like freakish and terrifying ¡°others¡±. Put simply, characters like this increase stigma, and therefore violence. Fast-forward to the present day and it¡¯s a positive relief that transgender people are represented on screen, page and stage in a much more varied and generally kinder way. But I can¡¯t pretend I¡¯m not disappointed that every time we¡¯re given space in mainstream cinema, it¡¯s through a cisgender actor.¡±