Dame Helen Mirren really wants you to know that trans women are women
Helen Mirren walks the runway at Paris Fashion Week, 2019. (Dominique Charriau/WireImage)
Dame Helen Mirren has said she’s “not a TERF” and trans women are women in an interview with the Radio Times.
The 74-year-old actor also said that gender and sexuality are both on a spectrum.
“I came to the conclusion an awfully long time ago that there is black and there is white, and we’re all somewhere in the middle in a wonderful mix of male and female,” Mirren said.
“There is no such thing as binary sexuality, when you’re male or female. I don’t believe that at all.”
She continued: “I think I was very lucky to be in my world, the world of acting and drama, because I think an awful lot of actors have male and female in them. A lot of great actors, great masculine actors, are actually very feminine.
“Great heartthrobs have a very present feminine side to them. A lot of very strong female actors, have a very strong male side to them.”
Mirren, who previously played Queen Elizabeth II in 2006’s The Queen, added that she does possess some attributes which could be perceived as masculine.
“I hate to talk about my feelings, I never want to go to the doctor, and I’m a brilliant map-reader,” she said. “I have a lot of what people might call male qualities. But I certainly look like a woman.”
Mirren has been a vocal feminist throughout her career. When questioned on the subject of trans rights and older feminists, Mirren was very clear.
“Do you mean Germaine Greer saying women are women and men are men?” she asked.
“Well, she didn’t quite say that,” Mirren went on to clarify, “but if being a TERF [trans-exclusionary radical feminist] is not accepting that trans women are women then I’m not a TERF.”
On The Graham Norton Show on September 27, Helen Mirren talked about Drag Race UK and was given her drag name by RuPaul himself – Sir Lady Cheek Bones.
