Dallas Buyers Club and Defamation of the Trans Community

Hope you're not too upset about it. This movie is a travesty on numerous levels. You're absolutely right about how DBC continues the cliche, especially because "Rayon" is a completely fictional character. In fact, in a "based on a true story" story there are absolutely NO characters who actually existed in real life...except that of the completely distorted, slanderous version of Ron which the DBC presents.
Don't get me started on MM! He's currently the voice of an energy provider's commercial which actually hawks "free" weekends....PLEASE! I want to vomit every time it comes on. MM is a total shill.
On a side-note, it's sad how many times "true" stories get twisted and turned around in order to make for a more interesting (and marketable) story. For years now, I've known of a transgendered woman who's a pilot for a major US airline. I met her prior to her final operation one day while she was on-duty, in uniform, going about her normal daily routine with the full support of her company and co-workers. If someone would ever make a movie about her, I shutter to imagine what sort of changes to her background, character, and professionalism would take place in order to make for (in the eyes of a stupid and irresponsible writer/director) a more marketable story.

A transgender female is still a genetic male, no different than Jared Leto.

Please explain why he is less suited to play that role than anyone else.... I see you just went off on a PC rant, but didn't really offer any substance to make your case. I'm giving you that opportunity.

I'll have you know, Marlon Brando wasn't really a mobster godfather in true life, and nor is Jack Nicholson, in fact, Satan, as Witches of Eastwick would have you believe.

This isn't a case of hiring a white person to play a black person, or even hiring a person who can walk as a parapalegic. Physiologically, Jared Leto is as equipped to portray a transgender person just as good as someone who actually considers themselves transgender.

also transgenders make up the highest by far statistics of new hiv cases, so not sure you can call this just a stereotype.... Its more close to reality than it not being reality.

Yeah. And I can't beleive they had Matthew McConaughey in this movie. I mean, there are plenty of people out there who actually have AIDS that could have played that role. Typical Holleywood to get an actor to do it.

And you say it was a stereotype to give Rayon AIDS? The story really wouldn't have worked if he was heathy. The only reason he meets Woodruff is that they both have AIDS.

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I don't believe that anyone not involved in the casting process of this movie should take issue with Jared Leto's having been cast as Rayon. Maybe somebody knows something I don't - were transgenders considered for the role of Rayon? Do we know for a fact that none were? In any case, nothing succeeds like success.

I knew nothing of this movie except who the two lead actors were, and the basic plot, before renting it. I hadn't watched, or read about, the Academy Awards. I became so enamored of Rayon that I came here to find the name of the actress (or actor) playing her, and to find out what character Leto would be playing. It seemed pretty late in the movie for him not to have appeared. To say I was surprised by what I learned is an understatement.

After a couple more scenes I "forgot" that it was Leto playing Rayon - I tried, but couldn't "see" him, so again simply looked forward to her every scene, her every line.

BTW, tipoff, I never had the impression that she was a "sex worker." Maybe I missed something, or failed to stereotype. Later in the movie when she gives Ron the money and he yells, "You been sellin' your ass?!" I took this to confirm that she had not been doing so previously.

tyrexden, I'm not so sure about nurture over nature (to misquote you, I know - but you get the gist) when it comes to sexuality. I grew up in a neighborhood of boys, playing "their" games, gutting fish we caught, getting in fistfights . . . Yes, I wore dresses to school, as it was required, but couldn't wait to get home to change, despite my mother's best efforts to "feminize" me. I have a strong memory of playing with Barbie dolls with the visiting female cousin of a friend; I had no idea what to do with them, or what the attraction was. It was boring! Yet we moved, I acquired girls as friends, and my tastes and interests changed to more feminine ones. I suppose if I'd stayed in that heavily male environment into puberty, it might have been a different story.

For the record, if I could hang out for a day, have dinner, or go out clubbing with any one fictional movie character, it would be Rayon.

Hey tipoff, Planet 146XZ from dimension 96 called and it wants its opinions back

Gender orientation is genetic. No one makes a "choice" as to his or her gender. I grew up in a heterosexual home. I played all of the games that the other boys played. I socialized with the other boys. I played with toys that boys play with. Yet from my birth I have been a gay man. I am masculine, and I am a gay man. I have always been attracted to other men. I am 65 years old, and I am a proud gay man.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

You make absolutely no sense. These are individual characters in an individual story. The only stereotypes I witnessed in the movie were brought up by you.