Guys and girls, have you seen this?

[LG]

Has anyone else seen a movie called 'Stage Beauty'?

It is set in in England in the late 1600s, at a time when women were not allowed to act in plays and Billy Crudup plays a gender-dysphoric actor who has only ever played female parts in Shakespearean in his life.

• What follows in the paragraph below could spoil the movie for you if you haven't seen it and plan to:
  
  His lover, an aristocrat finds he can only make love to him when the actor wears a wig, becoming a woman in his eyes, whilst the actor himself seems unsure of both his sexuality and his gender. He acts more comfortably in women's roles and is devastated when a royal decree is passed outlawing the playing of women by men. The actor finds he is unable to play masculine roles and his career seems over until he helps a young actress who has always admired him, played by Claire Danes, to grow into the role of Desdemona in Othello, a role that used to be his. In a dramatic turn of events, he decides to play the part of the Moor. The production is hugely successful, and the actor now is even more confused than he was before. When his costar steals a kiss and he reciprocates, she asks him if he is now playing the part of the man or the woman. 'I don't know' he answers.

It's a great film and pehaps gives an insight into gender dysphoria and also into the mind of the admirer (his lover, who covets him, but only when he appears as a woman). All the characters have their flaws and I think one shouldn't draw any conclusions about how gender dysphoric people or transgenders think (or how their admirers think) from this film. But I found it an interesting exploration into both the gender and sexuality and also the idiosyncrasies of English life and English aristocracy at that time. There are certainly parallels to be drawn with modern day life. Good acting too.

What do you think?

[suckseed]

I'll be interested to see it. Thanks LS.