Normally I pay zero attention to any awards shows. If an artist or their work was good, they usually get the attention and recognition they deserve. Awards shows are public masturbation.
However, I am gleeful with the news that Michaela Jaé “Mj” Rodriguez (“Blanca”) has won the Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a TV drama.
Cue the racist TERF trash of the world calling this “erasure”. They’ll probably call this “rape”, too, devaluing the word.
Mj Rodriguez becomes 1st transgender actor to win a Golden Globe
And the category is…Golden Globes history.
On Sunday, Michaela Jaé “Mj” Rodriguez, 31, took home a Golden Globe for best actress in a TV drama for her role as housemother and nurse Blanca on the FX show “Pose.” It marks the first time in history a transgender actor has won a Golden Globe.
This is also the first Golden Globe win for “Pose,” which premiered in 2018.
Rodriguez made history for the first time last summer after becoming the first transgender performer to be nominated for a lead acting Emmy. Rodriguez did not end up winning that award.
While “Pose” has been hailed for the largest transgender cast in a scripted series, the show’s stars have been vocal regarding the lack of award recognition they have received.
In 2020, “Pose” co-stars Indya Moore and Angelica Ross spoke out against the Emmys for overlooking the show’s Black transgender cast in its list nominees that year.
“POSE” was groundbreaking. For the first time, Transgender people were presented not as the four most common stereotypes (serial killers or monsters; “traps” and sexual predators; comic relief; tragedies who must die) or the fifth from OITNB (criminals in prison). We were shown as normal human beings living normal lives, shown as people.
POSE was especially important for Transgender People of Colour, those most likely to suffer discrimination, violence and murder. Already in 2022, there have been two murders of Black Transgender women in the US. Showing people as normal human beings is the best way to counter hateful propaganda.
What I like about this is that unlike the rest of fandom, transgender women fans of all cultures recognize that Black transgender women are good representation for all women.
Often Black female characters struggle to be seen as female representation by white cisgender women in fandoms, who often ignore or erase them in transformative fan works, so I’m really happy to see transgender women embracing the characters from this show and not requiring that white transgender women be added because the representation is considered inadequate.
There are so many places, so many groups, where white Trans people repeat the same failures, mistakes, and wrongs as white people elsewhere. I’ve seen people only care about the death of Black Trans or Trans People of Colour when counting violence statistics (“look how oppressed we are!”), not caring about them while they’re alive and suffering job or housing discrimination. If I’m not Intersectional, then I’m a failure and haven’t learnt anything.
pose is a fantastic series and I’m thrilled to see at least one of the leading women see some much-deserved recognition for her part in it