A Television First: Transgender Actress Appears Nude
Without A Gimmick, Stereotype, Or Gag
According to The Daily Beast, Alexandra Billings is showing her goods on Amazon’s Transparent. There are endless ways production could portray a groundbreaking scene such showing the first Transgender actress nude on television. Fortunately for us viewers, we will not have to see one of our favorite characters being victimized or forced to show her body. Instead, in the season four episode: “Groin Amomaly”, we are treated to an intimate, almost comical, moment captured in sincerity. Upon receiving a massage from her boyfriend, Billings’ character experiences discomfort and reacts to it with a body jolt: Revealing her bare breasts and penis.
Don’t think this was a grasp for more viewers and publicity from the brilliant crew of Transparent. Billings brought up the idea all on her own. She tells Daily Beast:
“I asked for this specifically. 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. 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 [Creator] Jill [Solloway]’s way of showing it was brilliant.”
Billings, born and raised in a north suburb near Chicago, Illinois, has been an advocate for Transgender rights, is a former showgirl at the Baton Show Lounge, and has been living with HIV since 1994.
