Actress Ruby Rose opened up about the backlash she received for being cast as the title character and lesbian superhero in “Batwoman.”
Rose, who identifies as a gender-fluid woman and a lesbian, told Entertainment Weekly for the publication’s LGBTQ special issue that people have reacted negatively to her two identities.
“I came to the States to get into acting, and I couldn’t even get a manager or agent, so I made a short film based on my life because I had the time to do it. I put it online, just to say, ‘This is something I wanted to do,’ and it went viral, which I didn’t ever expect. And then I got an opportunity to audition for ‘Orange Is the New Black’ because they wanted to have a gender-neutral character,” Rose says. “But I’ve also gotten backlash. And that’s when you realize you have to keep up with the terminology. When I got cast as a lesbian in ‘Batwoman,’ I didn’t know that being a gender-fluid woman meant that I couldn’t be a lesbian because I’m not a woman not considered lesbian enough.”
Rose explains that it took her some time but she took a step back to evaluate why she was receiving backlash for her identity.
“My initial response was ‘Pfft!’ And then I was like, ‘Wait. Let me just figure this one out. How do I right this wrong, because if someone out there is upset by this, I need to know why and how to fix it.’ That’s when I sort of said, ‘I’m a woman that identifies as a woman. I’m not trans. But if being gender-fluid means that I can’t identify as a woman at any point, then I guess I can’t be that,’” Rose says. “Maybe I need to make up another term, one that doesn’t step on any toes. One where I can be fluid in my gender, but also a lesbian, because otherwise, I’m not sure what I am.”
“Batwoman” premieres on the CW this fall.
Photo by Mithoron via Wikimedia Commons.
