Laverne Cox: Influencing the World, but not the Editors of TIME Magazine
“Some days I wake up and I’m that kid in Mobile, Alabama who was bullied. Some days I wake up and I’m that kid who’s being chased home from school practically every day by groups of kids who wanted to beat me up because I did not act the way that people who are assigned male at birth are supposed to act. Some days I wake up and I’m that sixth grader who swallowed a bottle of pills because I did not want to be myself anymore because I did not know how to be anybody else. And who I was, I was told was a sin, a problem, and I didn’t want to exist.”
These are the words of Laverne Cox, a black transgender female activist, and actress on the new hit TV series Orange is the New Black. In the past year, she has virtually bulldozed the walls of stereotypes that surround the transgender community. She has traveled the country to give speeches, produced and directed two documentaries, and effortlessly stood her ground against invasive interviewers who “simply don’t get it.” She has given a face and a voice to a group of people about whom the public needs to be educated. Most of all, she has redirected the attention that transgender people receive. Instead of repetitively discussing their genitalia and transition process, she brings up compelling statistics of the abuse, violence, and psychological torment transgender people ceaselessly face—oftentimes, alone. These are only a few ingredients to the monumental, multi-tiered cake that Cox is baking up alongside her LGBT colleagues.
And do you know what would be the perfect final touch? Getting some recognition.
TIME Magazine recently released their List of the Top 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2014. Prior to its publication, the editors stated that, “though the [list] is ultimately chosen by the editors, TIME [would seek] the input of readers in an online poll.” Well, ladies and gentlemen, Ms. Cox placed fifth in the online reader’s poll: 91.5% of over 88,000 people polled declared that Cox should be included on the TIME Top 100.
So, why was she denied a place on the list? While the public, as evidenced by the ratio of support to opposition, is ready to hear the voices of transgender people, TIME—a representative of the white, patriarchal establishment—apparently is not. Cox’s ratio, after all, was better than those of Beyoncé and Benedict Cumberbatch, both of whom earned a spot. I know the editors of TIME believe voicing an animated dragon is the bee’s knees, but perhaps if they came back to reality for a moment, they would have understood that Cox’s work in revealing the disgusting prejudices against trans people is far more influential than Cumberbatch’s acting skills. Also, let us not forget that even the twerkaholic, foam-finger obsessed, “inspiring” Miley Cyrus graced the list with all of her bleached eyebrow glory.
Trust that my concern is not solely based on Laverne Cox’s lack of recognition; she tweeted herself that her fans’ “love and support means so much more to [her] than making the list.” However, the flaky and inexplicable manner in which TIME has handled the situation only reinforces one thing: the ever-present oppression of black, transgender voices.
By Brooke Greene