The Trans Man in Netflix’”The Harder They Fall” Western
So, we have had time to watch Netflix’s new Western movie, The Harder They Fall. And yes, it is a great movie. Moreover, one of the main characters is a transgender man!
The Harder They Fall changes the rules of making Westerns. All of the main characters are Black. And they are all based on real life men and women, even though the story is completely fictional.
Which brings us to the character Cuffee, played by Danielle Deadwyler.
According to Newsweek writer and director Jeymes Samuel based Cuffee on Cathay Williams, a Black soldier who enlisted in the United States Army during the Civil War under the pseudonym William Cathay. They were assigned female at birth. Williams was born into slavery in Independence, Missouri in 1842.
It is unclear whether they they thought of themselves as male, female or something else. But you probably do not join the army as a man, if you do not feel that that is a gender expression that fits your soul in some way. They presented as a woman after the war.
The Cuffee character in the movie is clearly transgender, though, no doubt about that.
MINOR SPOILER AHEAD
The scene in which Cuffee is dressing up as a woman in order to hide his identity during a bank robbery clearly show the discomfort he is feeling from having to crossdress in this way.
What makes the movie’s presentation of Cuffee so heart warming is that his friends just takes his male identity for granted. It is not an issue. Which is, of course, the way it should be.
As far as I know Danielle Deadwyler is not transgender, and some will probably object to the director not hiring a trans man to play the part. That being said, Deadwyler does an amazing job in bringing this transgender character to life.
There are many other reasons for watching the movie: The direction, the amazing sets (exterior and interior), the soundtrack and the very fact that the movie celebrates characters from Black American history.
Originally published at https://trans-express.lgbt.
