SCARLETT JOHANSSON SLATED FOR TAKING A ROLE AS A TRANSGENDER MAN

The social justice warriors are on a mission to seek equity for the transgender community.

Social media was in a state of chaos... again... after Scarlett Johansson was cast as a transgender man in a movie called Rub & Tug. Johansson will play the part of real-life 1970s Pittsburgh crime boss, Dante "Tex" Gill, who was born Jean Gill. 

Gill died in 2003 and identified as a man, insisting that people call him Mr Gill. He opened up several massage parlours as a disguise for his brothels. Reports suggest that Gill might have begun the first steps toward a sex change to make himself look more masculine. He was eventually found guilty of tax evasion in 1984 and spent seven years in prison.

The problem is not the movie but the fact that Scarlet Johansson was cast as the lead as opposed to an actual transgender actor. People spoke out on Twitter saying: "There are literally so many transactors that could have been cast in this role. Why do we keep casting Scarlette Johansson in roles where she doesn't fit the criteria?", referring to the outcry that followed her role of an Asian character in the movie Ghost in a Shell.

Many Twitter users complained that Johansson was taking away acting roles from marginalised groups. Rupert Sanders, who directed Ghost In The Shell, is set to direct the biopic and some people see this as a pattern of Johansson taking roles that she shouldn't.

Johansson responded to the criticism by releasing a statement saying: “Tell them that they can be directed to Jeffrey Tambor, Jared Leto, and Felicity Huffman’s reps for comment,” all three actors who were criticised for being cast into roles as transgender or homosexual characters. However, despite accepting these roles, the actors have admitted that criticism around these roles is valid. In 2014 Huffman looked back on the role saying, “I certainly understand the sentiment that a trans actor should play a trans role. And I support it.”

But there are also always two sides to any Twitter war and many Tweets conveyed that many people don't understand why everyone is so up in arms over the role. Many simply argued that an actor's job is to take on roles that are different from who they are in real life.

Which side of the Twitter war do you stand on?