Since the release of season 2 of Squid Game, there have been a lot of discussions around Park Sung-hoon, a cisgender male actor, playing Hyun-ju, a trans woman. As a staunch supporter of representation all things media, this was an especially interesting story for us.
Internally and externally at our agency, we’ve always emphasized “progress over perfection” with all the brands we work with, and we feel this story with Squid Game is a perfect example of it.
Would we have liked a trans woman to play the character? Yes.
Do we also understand director Hwang Dong-hyuk’s explanation that “there are close to no actors that are openly trans” in Korean society where the 2SLGBTQIA+ community is extremely marginalized? Also yes.
The most important thing through all of this is that they included a transgender character who:
a) brought a complete and complex backstory with realistic motivations
c) wasn’t solely defined by the fact that they were trans
That is exactly was “progress over perfection” is all about. Too often, we encounter brands who won’t take that first step towards inclusion in fear it isn’t perfect, without realizing that taking no steps at all is even worse.
Learn more about what we do and who we do it for on our services page.
Sign up for our newsletter here for more insights on marketing, advertising, communications, and how the industry intersects with inclusion.
