The Amazon show Transparent has made history by featuring the first ever full-frontal nude scene with a transgender person.
The Daily Beast reports that transgender “actress” — a man presenting himself as a woman — Alexandra Billings did the full monty during season 4 of the Left’s beloved show after he pitched the idea to producers as the season began production. According to Billings, his request came at the behest of his co-star Trace Lysette, who hoped the presence of trans nudity would somehow enlighten the audience about the transgender experience.
“It was Alexandra’s idea,” Transparent creator Jill Soloway told The Daily Beast. “She was like, ‘I’m ready to show my body.’”
The nudity occurs during the second episode of season 4, entitled Groin Anomaly, when Billings’ character is getting massaged by his boyfriend. “When he tweaks her back, she rolls over, exposing her breasts and, for the first time for a transgender actress on television, her penis,” described The Daily Beast.
Billings thought the way Jill Soloway’s idea of incorporating it into the show was “brilliant.”
“I don’t think it’s ever been done before, where you see someone who’s a trans body that was pre-op, especially of a certain age, who looks a certain way,” Billings says. “I wanted to show everything, but I said I don’t want to be objectified. I don’t want to be sexualized. And I don’t want to be fetishized. I thought Jill’s way of showing it was brilliant.”
Soloway said she deliberately wanted to present it in a casual way: “It’s just life, living it, hanging out in your bed, getting a massage from your partner, turning over — just like life.”
Billings became the first openly trans actor to play a trans character on television in 2005 for the TV movie Romy and Michelle: In the Beginning. The actor has also appeared on Grey’s Anatomy, Eli Stone, and How to Get Away With Murder. In the promotion of transgenderism, Billings wants people to embrace Laverne Cox and reject Caitlyn Jenner.
“I feel like this new trans generation that’s coming in the movement, you’ve gotta do two things: You’ve gotta love Laverne Cox and hate Caitlyn Jenner,” he said. “And if you don’t do those two things they take away your trans card. Both things are ridiculous. We don’t have to like each other. We don’t even have to get along! But we do have to honor each other.”
Transparent has won several Emmy Awards and Golden Globes.
