As the Oscars race heats up, we’re facing even more controversy surrounding the French trans cartel musical Emilia Pérez.
When clips of one of the film’s more absurd musical sequences went viral last year, trans viewers and critics called out Emilia Pérez‘s extremely simplified understanding of trans-affirming surgery, as well as its many other problematic elements, racism not least among them. Still, the film magically went on to earn acclaim and awards nods, scooping up 13 Academy Award nominations while legitimate trans masterpieces got completely snubbed.
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Emilia Pérez doesn’t seem to know how it wants to define transness, much less what it wants to say about it.
Now there’s even more controversy afoot as a series of old racist and Islamophobic tweets by Emilia Pérez’s trans star Karla Sofía Gascón recently resurfaced.
Gascón, a Spanish actress whose performance in Emilia Pérez has garnered acclaim, seems to have been sounding off in this concerning way for a number of years.
Now, people are rightfully questioning Gascón’s Oscar nomination.
In a year when trans rights are under especially vicious attack, trans stories on film are more important than ever. But Emilia Pérez is not the trans story that anyone asked for or wanted, and Gascón’s views don’t represent the broader trans community in the slightest.
As the old adage goes: when someone tells you who they are, believe them.
