BOY

Watch.

Jack's Summary:

This is about as stereotypical as FTM representation gets. Emil, born Emilie, is a young trans man played by a light-skinned, slender actress. He binds his chest with bandages. He gives himself a choppy haircut at home. He endures transphobia from a female relative who randomly deigns to abandon hate and bigotry, in contrast to everything she's done prior, thereby allowing the trans man a happy ending. Isn't she generous!

The description above perfectly describes 3 Generations, funnily enough. Both of these films made me cry like a baby, when I was earlier in my transition... so, yeah, I'll admit that these tropes come from somewhere. That doesn't mean the experiences in this short film are universal, or that oft-repeated stereotypes aren't harmful in reducing trans men to one physical ideal... not to mention the harm of depicting bandage binding in an uncritical way.

When I first watched this short film, I wondered whether Emil's actress might have been trans as well, given that her middle name is Emilie; perhaps this film was expressing a personal gender non-conformity or a desire to transition. Over a decade later, Laura Emilie Hancock is still labelling herself as an actress, so (insofar as we can ever know what's happening in an actor's life) this does appear to be yet another young trans man played by a young actress. This is not always a bad thing, as Facing Mirrors proved, and sometimes allows for trans stories to be told where trans actors cannot be involved... You can make up your own mind about these casting choices, and form your own opinions.

Side note... In the 2018 film Girl, Belgian actor Victor Polster plays Laura, a trans girl whose birth name is Victor. It's curious that both BOY and Girl gave their trans protagonists deadnames based on the actors' names. I'm not sure why this choice was made in each instance, and I find it interesting.