Scarlett Johansson Drops Out of 'Rub & Tug' Trans Film Following Backlash

Scarlett Johansson dropped out of Rub and Tug, a movie that would have her portray a transgender man. "In light of recent ethical questions raised surrounding my casting as Dante Tex Gill, I have decided to respectfully withdraw my participation in the project," said Johansson in a statement.

The attempt of Hollywood casting a heterosexual cisgender woman to play the role of a transgender man is problematic. Although the media sometimes makes an attempt to have representation of LGBT communities, often times they do not cast the actual member of the community they are trying to portray. This is contradictory in that the media still refuses to recognize these communities as valid when they can’t even cast people with the same identities as the character. The media de-legitimizes marginalized groups such as transgenders when they fail to have true representation. It is fair to say that symbolic annihilation of transgenders may still exist even when there are characters that represent a transgender person. When the actual actor or actress does not identify as transgender, it sends the wrong message to society.