MarieClaire.com today features a new interview with Billions star Asia Kate Dillon, the first openly gender-fluid actor on TV. In their work as an actor and activist, Dillon has been confronting ignorance and bias in many forms, including publicly challenging the existence of separate "actor" and "actress" categories at award shows earlier this year.
Dillon opens up to MarieClaire.com about pushing the boundaries in Hollywood and beyond, and helping usher in a more inclusivity.
On Hollywood's progress with gender representation
"Even if Taylor Mason was the only character outside the expected gender binary we usually see on TV, that would be progress in and of itself. But they're not the only one. We have characters on Orange Is the New Black, Transparent—there are all of these shows and films out there that are at the forefront of giving representation and visibility to marginalized and historically disenfranchised people. And we still have a long way to go. People who are light-skinned, white, assigned female at birth like myself—we certainly have privileges that my friends who were assigned male at birth and are people of color don't have. Those people are still ostracized and living on the margins in ways that we need to be having conversations about as a nation."
On the importance of the terminology
"I do use the term 'trans.' A trans person is someone whose gender identity does not conform to the sex they were assigned at birth. And although I was assigned female at birth and we use the terms 'girl,' 'woman,' and 'female' synonymously, they are not, in fact, the same thing. 'Girl' and 'woman' are identity words and 'female' is a sex word. That's why I use the term 'non-binary.'
“One of the exciting things I'm seeing—especially on social media—is growing understanding and visibility of the 'non-transition' people like myself, who aren't undergoing any physical or surgical transformation in order to express gender identity outwardly.
“For a long time I thought 'trans' meant 'transition,' or someone who had transitioned from one sex to the other. I'm happy to see a growing visibility and acceptance for all different kinds of expression and all different kinds of body types. Body hair has no gender; makeup has no gender; clothes have no gender: It's all stuff that's out there for any of us to try on and see whether it feels like us."
On what gender identity means in 2017
"I think one of the biggest misconceptions is that only gender non-conforming, non-binary, or trans people have a gender identity. But the truth is, everyone has a gender identity. Some people's gender identity conforms to the one they were assigned at birth, and some people's identity doesn't. That realization was certainly very freeing for me—and could be very freeing for other people."
