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Fast and the Furious star Michelle Rodriguez blasted in transphobic storm

She was accused of poking fun at the transgender community

Oh dear. Michelle Rodriguez has upset her fans for agreeing to appear in a film, in which her character is forced to undergo gender reassignment.

The Lost and Fast And The Furious actress posted a pic of herself on Instagram with her boobs bound, a fake beard and prosthetic nose.

She was made over for a movie called Tomboy: A Revengers Tragedy.

But no sooner had she posted the pic, some offended fans expressed their outrage.

Some of the star’s 2.9 million Instagram followers felt that the premise of the film and Michelle’s ‘performance of masculinity’ was beyond the pale.

She was also accused of poking fun at the transgender community.

“This is the most transphobic s*** I have seen in years,” one user screeched.

“F*** making trans folk the punchline. F*** movies where being trans is contrived as ‘punishment’ for characters who do bad s***. This is f****** nasty.

“Your way of kicking against the status quo is transphobia, which, surprise, is part of the status quo,” another chipped in.

Another said: “Sorry Michelle, girl you gotta know I love you, but this movie sounds insensitive as f*** to the transgender community.

“Turning their very real struggle into a fun little tour for you and a cheap shock value movie.”

Michelle, who is no stranger to appearing in controversial movies, tried to explain the premise on the film in the caption that accompanied the picture,

‘”Producers are convinced the new movie title should be Re-assignment but I’ll stick to the title I signed on to shoot,” she joshed.

“It’s in the B Movie genre, a culture shock, shot like a ‘film noir’ graphic novel.

“I played a male assassin for four days in the movie, boy was that beard itchy.

“Then out of revenge, a twisted doctor played by Sigourney Weaver decides to take my character’s manhood away with a sex change to teach him a lesson.

“I never felt more like a woman than when I played a man.”

She added: “For the rest of the film I was a man stuck in a newly operated sex changed body.

“I had fake boob covers to look like man implants and I wore a fake hairy “mangina”, which you can’t really see cause they made it so hairy.”

But in spite of any hesitation, she does admit that she’s glad she’s the own herself in to the film.

“In retrospect I’m I glad took the plunge, the industry seems to be running low on edgy creativity and real ‘take a chance’ controversy, sometimes it makes me want to scream,” she said.

“I feel that my skinny build sometimes comes off hermaphroditic in the film, especially when you add the crazy male chest for the nude sequences.”


Christian Guiltenane
Freelance Writer