2023 movies like Barbie and Across the Spider-Verse give me trans joy

It’s hard for mainstream films to address trans characters without turning them into symbols. Studio executives are afraid of expressing an opinion on trans people in 2023. They have chosen to exclude us out of fear that we will start a discussion about the way they view us. You can wake up by waking yourself.They are. And yet, in 2023, I’m seeing myself in more movies than ever, even if those portrayals are unintentional and sometimes messy.

Arcee, for example, is often relegated to a minor role in most studio films that feature gender nonconforming characters. Transformers Rise of the BeastsBrianna Collier in Escape Room Tournament of Champions. The studios are slipping back to their decades-old practice of casting men as trans (included) women, such as Jared Leto and Eddie Redmayne. The Danish GirlThe following are some examples of how to get started: Dallas Buyers ClubEven that represents a significant step forward compared to just 10 years ago when the transgender people were usually the target of bigoted jokes. It’s a big step up from 10 years ago when movies about trans people were often the subject of bigoted jokes. So it’s a little strange that movies in 2023 have brought me a considerable amount of trans joy.

The recent movies that sparked this happiness aren’t overtly trans. Some of them don’t even feature trans characters. That’s a familiar situation in mainstream movies: In 2022, Billy Eichner’s commercial flop Bros accounted for 80% of the transgender characters shown on screen in the year’s 100 top-grossing movies. In plain numbers, out of 4,169 speaking characters in the biggest movies of the year, five were trans, one was nonbinary — and four of those six were in Bros. Contrary to what weirdos on Facebook might claim, we aren’t exactly infiltrating the media and turning up everywhere now.

Photo: Christos Kalohoridis/Netflix

Trans actors are very talented. Everyone knows Elliot Page’s bona fides, from JunoAll the way The Umbrella Academy. Indya has quietly been building up an IMDB profile full of memorable roles in genre movies, such as her character from Escape Room, Angel in PoseHari Nef is brilliant in Aquaman. Hari Nef was brilliant in Barbie, where she brings joy to some of the funniest moments, and was stunning enough to lock Ryan Gosling’s Ken in a daze for hours.

Morgan Davies’ career has been a success, thanks in part to his bloody Evil Dead RiseAnd the great or horrible (depending upon who you are asking) One Piece live-action adaptation. And then there are Laverne Cox, Hunter Schafer, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, and Elliot Fletcher, alongside nonbinary actors like Bella Ramsey, Emma D’Arcy, Janelle Monáe, Emma Corrin, and Misha Osherovich, all putting in great performances.

But while there are more notable trans actors working at the moment than ever, there just aren’t many films, mainstream or otherwise, that depict trans people just living ordinary lives, facing their own unique challenges without their identities being the whole story. Only in TV do we see trans actors in important, yet true-to-trans experience roles. The Billions, The OA, Supergirl, The Queen’s Gambit,The following are some examples of how to get started: The Umbrella Academy.

Even when we star in movies, filmmakers haven’t really figured out how to portray us as people, rather than obsessing over our gender identities. The entire defining characteristic of a trans character in a movie tends to be “trans.” In reality, trans people do the same things and live the same lives everyone else does. There are some differences: we have to invest time, effort, and resources in seeking gender affirming healthcare, and many of us face daily harassment that is more severe than what you would see on screen. Our transness weaves into our daily lives at almost every intersection, but there’s still more to us than that one characteristic.

Image: Netflix/Everett Collection

The one 2023 film that does overtly depict a trans character who’s much more than just a labeled minority is Nimona, Netflix’s animated film about a shape-changing wannabe villain sidekick. NimonaDisney abandoned the film at 80% of its completion because it was not satisfied with its main queer romance. I can’t overstate how much NimonaTo me, it’s a movie.

Nimona tells the story of a shape-shifter who’s lived for a long time, but still feels stuck as a child, never getting an opportunity to grow up. She’s an outcast who’s been vilified as a monster for so long that she wants to play the part. Ballister Boldheart is a knight accused of regicide. Over the course of the movie, he learns that some of the things he’s been told to fear aren’t as scary as they appear, while Nimona sees she can live her life her own way.

It’s easy to see why this story of a The monsters are among us It would resonate with those who lived in fear for retribution. The message resonates also with older trans members of the community who’ve seen how the media has slowly shifted away from portraying transgender people as something to be laughed at and towards us being portrayed as a threat to society. You can also read more about the traditional way of doing things.Way of Life

NimonaOne of my favourite contemporary accounts of gender fluidity in young people. Nimona transforms at one stage into a child boy to fight a threat. She has already been an elephant and dancing shark. Ballister sighs and says, “Now you’re a boy.” Nimona responds, “Today I am.” It’s a little moment, and it reads like a casual prompt, akin to one I’d give someone if they messed up my pronouns. But Boldheart takes Nimona’s changes aboard as the two of them go forward.

NimonaThe film depicts an easily identifiable trans character, demonstrating how beautiful and vibrant we are as individuals, in spite of the ignorance of those who would reject us. What’s more, it shows how the world can grow and come to see that beauty too. Still, I’ve recently also found myself finding optimistic trans readings of several less overtly trans movies in 2023, in a way that makes me feel hopeful about how the media and society are coming to view trans people.

Image: CoMix Wave Films/Crunchyroll

Makoto Shinkai’s anime movie Suzume is a love story between a young woman and a man who’s trapped in the wrong body. This wooden cell that isolates him from his friends and family was a real concern for me, even though the three-legged stool is not an actual body. Maybe it’s because I learned that an original version of the script focused on a lesbian relationship before studio interference demanded the queer aspect be removed in favor of a male lead. Or maybe it’s because that male lead, Souta, has long hair and a quiet, contemplative demeanor that still echoes a more traditional femme-presenting character.

Whichever it was, seeing someone have to live in a body they know is not their own, while still fighting every day to uphold their duties as the protector of reality — that really struck a chord with me. It reminded me that I have felt more helpless when my body wasn’t right.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is undoubtedly one of 2023’s best movies so far, but amid its financial and critical success, the question of whether Gwen Stacy is trans turned into a sideshow in the fandom. Endless theories. Easter eggs. tweet threadsReddit threads and posts have been cited to prove or disprove her status. Secretly, it doesn’t matter what the explanation is in the movie.

Image: Sony Pictures/Everett Collection

Leaving aside the “Protect Trans Kids” poster that appears in her bedroom in one trailer, or what looks like a trans flag pin on her father’s police uniform, Gwen’s story is heartbreakingly relatable for lots of trans people. She’s a young kid who loves her extremely pro-establishment father, but cannot bring herself to open up about who she truly is. The story is still relatable to trans people, even though the lighting of the confrontation between Gwen (the young girl) and her father was trans-flag colored. Like many young trans folks, Gwen doesn’t even know how to articulate who she truly is without pushing those she loves further away.

And then there’s Greta Gerwig’s box-office-conquering hit Barbie. Gerwig’s movie tackles everything from explaining the dangers of The Patriarchy to young children to highlighting the ineffectualness of corporate feminism. Even Zack Snyder DC movie fans will be angry after watching this film. In less than two minutes, it manages to do all of this. For trans viewers, though, it’s been divisive. It’s a movie about bodily autonomy and self-determinism that ends with a woman who earlier told a group of men “I do not have a vagina” proudly taking a big first step into her new life as a “real woman” by visiting a gynecologist.

The point of contention for some trans viewers is that Barbie claiming her personhood by acquiring a vagina can be interpreted as tying womanhood to female genitalia, which leaves anyone who doesn’t pursue that form of gender-affirming care as a lesser woman.

Warner Bros. Pictures

As someone who only recently decided to embark on the arduous process of receiving HRT treatment, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of kinship with Margot Robbie’s Barbie. It was a story that reflected my decision to stop denying myself and to become who I truly am. Barbie chooses to live as a human being, embracing all of the joy, pain and suffering that comes with it, to achieve more than what she was made to do. Just like her, I finally decided to be more than I was told I was — I took control of my life, of my body, my future. Vagina jokes aside, I see Barbie’s choice to take control of her body as a mirror of my own choice.

Ultimately, the reasons these movies all sparked a bit of joy in me — and the reason I love highlighting them to cisgender people — is because they aren’t just stories about a trans person’s issues, or yet another coming-out story that ends just as the person’s life begins. Boys Don’t Cry was an important milestone in telling the story of someone realising their true gender identity back in 1999, but there’s more to trans people than just that moment of revelation. These 2023 movies are human stories, ones I can point to and say, “Hey, here’s what it means for you, here’s what it means for me. Look how similar our struggles and life experiences are.”

Maybe I’m giving these movies too much credit. Do I give Hollywood credit that it hasn’t earned because I am a young and naive woman transsexual who needs some good media to hold onto during these hard times? Maybe. But that’s what the trans community has always had to do.

As with the broader LGBTQ community, we transgender people are known to claim any art that we feel is ours. Trans people have spent years reinterpreting predetermined art and making it our own. Gundam or cyberpunk anime are examples. Ghost in the ShellBionicles and other toys that can be modified have come to symbolize body modification and individuality.

Games like New Vegas, FalloutThe following are some examples of how to get started: Bloodborne allow us to live as our true selves, whether it’s someone who hasn’t come out yet playing as a character that better represents how they’ve always felt on the inside, or an out person exploring new personalities they finally find within themselves, all while often fighting in stories about having control over our future. The MatrixIt was an important piece of trans media even before any of the Wachowskis announced that they were trans. This is because characters such as Switch, and themes like self-determination or changing your body with will power alone are key.

Image: TIFF

Maybe that’s the lesson here for me and other trans people. Gay people took decades to begin seeing themselves depicted as real three-dimensional characters in movies. People who are consistently more than mere caricatures. Until trans people get more than a handful of projects from the largest studios or game publishers telling our stories, we’ll instead do what we’ve done for decades: We’ll reclaim what we can from uncaring megacorps that currently don’t seek to cater to us in any meaningful way. On top of that, we’ll make our own art.

Movies like The People’s JokerThe following are some examples of how to get started: TangerineYou can also check out upcoming films such as Once AgainThe following are some examples of how to get started: The girlsAnd indie games like are still created outside the studio system. They tell our stories, and fight against growing political narratives which seek to demonise and dehumanise. And indie games like Celeste, Find itThen, Read Only MemoriesWill put the mechanics in our lives, and we will let other people live like us.

Indie films tell our stories authentically and in a real way, with the help of creatives who are expressing themselves. While mainstream films might not directly represent us, we still have the power to take them on. Each person has their own interpretation of art. For trans people, mainstream movies can be a useful way to demonstrate our struggles to anyone who still doesn’t understand what we face every day. 2023’s movies still aren’t representing us enough, and when the film industry does include us, it rarely does it well. But that doesn’t mean we can’t find nuggets of meaning and hope in these pieces of art, even as we’re creating our own, providing a foundation for the next generation of creators to build on.