This week’s Entertainment Weekly —billed as the magazines first LGBT issue in 15 years — features a profile of transgender activist and “Orange is the New Black” star Laverne Cox, along with an incredible cover image of the actress posed as the Statue of Liberty, along with the headline “America’s Transformation.”
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Within the piece itself, Cox spoke out about Caitlyn Jenner, who recently came out as transgender, as well as discussing the difficulties of being viewed as the public face of the entire transgender community. “I just wonder, am I allowed to be a human being?” Cox wondered, acknowledging that she does "have those cranky moments where I really don’t want to answer stuff or I’m annoyed by what people say, but I am cognizant of the fact that if I’m bitchy, that’s gonna be the story.”
Discussing Jenner’s transition, Cox added “this is why I’m so grateful that I had the luxury of transitioning in private. Because when you transition in the public eye, the transition becomes the story. I’m always disturbed when I see conversations about trans people that focus on surgery. But I believe Caitlyn will transcend this moment.”
In a recent Tumblr piece discussing Jenner’s transition, Cox implored the media not to focus solely on Jenner's appearance, as well as articulating the need for diverse media representations of trans women in order "to multiply trans narratives in the media and depict our beautiful diversities.” And in the EW piece, Cox spoke further about the pressures on trans women to conform to conventional beauty standards, relating Jenner's Vanity Fair cover to her own experiences as a magazine cover star. Asked if she thinks the media would have been less supportive if Jenner weren’t so conventionally attractive, Cox said “For me, this isn’t about trans women. This is about being a woman. We are evaluated by the way we look constantly.”
Still, she acknowledges that it’s a fine line to walk. As she put it, "it’s tricky. When I pose for the cover of a magazine, we’re in hair and makeup for hours, so it would be hypocritical of me to say we shouldn’t be focusing on the way women look. Let’s pull back the curtain and acknowledge that yes, I’m on the cover of ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, and makeup has been done, there’s a lot of fake hair. But then, that is not why I’m on the cover. I’d like to think I’m on the cover because I’m a talented actress and I have a lot of things to say.”
You can read an excerpt of the piece over at Entertainment Weekly, or the full piece is out on newsstands today.
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