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Indya Moore, 22 year-old actor Debunks Myths About Normative Beauty and Body Hair
WMAGAZINE · BROOKE MARINE · 16TH JULY 2018 · 6 MIN READ
Netflix's Pose breakout star Indya Moore
Being a part of the largest transgender cast on television is a huge moment. I think Pose is definitely teaching a lot of people about an underrepresented community, but are there other roles that are a bit lighter that you feel you would want to take on?
Oh! I definitely want to show other trans people, and also myself, that I can tell stories and that we’re capable of telling stories that have nothing to do with exploring what the experiences of trans people are. I think that’s what trans people are constantly used for, you know, just telling trans stories. I think Pose is unique in that it’s not just a trans story—it’s about family, it’s about love, it’s about friendship and acceptance and really deconstructing humanity, and the ethical side of that, with how we treat people who are different than us. This is the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, so this is really a big thing that we’re using a gender-variant person to explore what it is to be human. Because this person is learning how to be a human being without any knowledge of gender performance and what they’re supposed to be as a woman. Like, are they a woman? Are they male? As an adult being, they don’t know anything about themselves as far as what binary they’re a part of, so it’s interesting seeing them exploring how to be human before they even get to performing a gender. It’s really deep, and I feel really blessed to be able to help put that together.


When I watch Angel on Pose, there’s a lot of her that feels organic to you. Does your own personality inform how you play the character?
There are a lot of tendencies that I carry that are cultural. Like, I’m from the Bronx, and my mom is Puerto Rican, and my dad is from the Caribbean, so there’s that attitude in there that I can feed on, like, when it comes to the way my mom expresses herself and the way she kind of unapologetically exists. I relate with that even on levels that maybe my mom is not ready for. [Laughs] She was just telling me the other day, “Oh, my gosh, what are you doing! Shave your underarms!” I’m like, "Why?" And she’s like, “Because it looks cleaner.” I just remembered that reminded me of, like, for some reason, skin bleaching. The way we’re expected to shave our bodies almost reminds me of skin bleaching, or the way trans women are expected to want to have surgery or need to have surgery—even though I chose to go for a gender-confirming surgery. But yeah, I think there are so many ways that Angel is very true to herself, and I feel the same way. I know what that’s like, to stand your own ground, to know what you want. Even if I didn’t, I think I would still be able to portray that because there’s enough information about the character for me to empathize and understand what that looks like.


I saw your tweet about “pressuring women and femmes” to remove body hair, and unpacking why people would find that desirable in the first place. What made you want to start that conversation online?
I thought about whether my underarm hair would still be policed or judged if it wasn't sexualized. It's also weird because the only people who don't have hair growth patterns on their bodies are children. In our language, how we even refer to children as young men and young women, that’s really problematic because children are children. Children are not men or women. I think associating children with adult categories can kind of appropriate the way people see children, and I think it makes space for pedophiliac tendencies. Deconstructing all of these things about the way human beings exist and the way we see each other, a lot of it has to do with sexualization. That’s another layer, down the line, that I think people need to be more open to deconstructing so that we can see less of the issues that we are seeing that are repugnant in our society today.


You mentioned that your mom commented on your body hair and the way you present yourself to the world. Did your parents ever give you beauty advice that you do like to follow?
Yeah! “Don’t follow what people think.” There’s so many layers to that because I think my mom was referring to that within her paradigm of understanding how we are supposed to look in general. But, oh, “If that dress don’t fit you right, or the dress you’re supposed to wear as a woman don’t fit you right or you feel like it doesn’t fit you right because of how other people try to make you feel about how you’re dressing, don’t worry about that.” So it’s within those paradigms, but I want to take it further and say you shouldn’t have to wear a dress. You know what I mean? Don’t worry about how people feel you should present yourself as far as not caring how people think. I’m saying this to myself as I say it to you, also. Because this is also a journey that I’m on! Not paying too much mind to how people expect me to show up and express myself.
"There’s so much! A person on Instagram commented a photo of me in a tea bath and said it was disgusting that I had hair under my underarms.
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Zed - 2020
WMAGAZINE · BROOKE MARINE · 16TH JULY 2018 · 6 MIN READ
Netflix's Pose breakout star Indya Moore
Indya Moore, 22 year-old actor Debunks Myths About Normative Beauty and Body Hair


Being a part of the largest transgender cast on television is a huge moment. I think Pose is definitely teaching a lot of people about an underrepresented community, but are there other roles that are a bit lighter that you feel you would want to take on?
Oh! I definitely want to show other trans people, and also myself, that I can tell stories and that we’re capable of telling stories that have nothing to do with exploring what the experiences of trans people are. I think that’s what trans people are constantly used for, you know, just telling trans stories. I think Pose is unique in that it’s not just a trans story—it’s about family, it’s about love, it’s about friendship and acceptance and really deconstructing humanity, and the ethical side of that, with how we treat people who are different than us. This is the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, so this is really a big thing that we’re using a gender-variant person to explore what it is to be human. Because this person is learning how to be a human being without any knowledge of gender performance and what they’re supposed to be as a woman. Like, are they a woman? Are they male? As an adult being, they don’t know anything about themselves as far as what binary they’re a part of, so it’s interesting seeing them exploring how to be human before they even get to performing a gender. It’s really deep, and I feel really blessed to be able to help put that together.


When I watch Angel on Pose, there’s a lot of her that feels organic to you. Does your own personality inform how you play the character?
There are a lot of tendencies that I carry that are cultural. Like, I’m from the Bronx, and my mom is Puerto Rican, and my dad is from the Caribbean, so there’s that attitude in there that I can feed on, like, when it comes to the way my mom expresses herself and the way she kind of unapologetically exists. I relate with that even on levels that maybe my mom is not ready for. [Laughs] She was just telling me the other day, “Oh, my gosh, what are you doing! Shave your underarms!” I’m like, "Why?" And she’s like, “Because it looks cleaner.” I just remembered that reminded me of, like, for some reason, skin bleaching. The way we’re expected to shave our bodies almost reminds me of skin bleaching, or the way trans women are expected to want to have surgery or need to have surgery—even though I chose to go for a gender-confirming surgery. But yeah, I think there are so many ways that Angel is very true to herself, and I feel the same way. I know what that’s like, to stand your own ground, to know what you want. Even if I didn’t, I think I would still be able to portray that because there’s enough information about the character for me to empathize and understand what that looks like.


I saw your tweet about “pressuring women and femmes” to remove body hair, and unpacking why people would find that desirable in the first place. What made you want to start that conversation online?


"There’s so much! A person on Instagram commented a photo of me in a tea bath and said it was disgusting that I had hair under my underarms.


I thought about whether my underarm hair would still be policed or judged if it wasn't sexualized. It's also weird because the only people who don't have hair growth patterns on their bodies are children. In our language, how we even refer to children as young men and young women, that’s really problematic because children are children. Children are not men or women. I think associating children with adult categories can kind of appropriate the way people see children, and I think it makes space for pedophiliac tendencies. Deconstructing all of these things about the way human beings exist and the way we see each other, a lot of it has to do with sexualization. That’s another layer, down the line, that I think people need to be more open to deconstructing so that we can see less of the issues that we are seeing that are repugnant in our society today.


You mentioned that your mom commented on your body hair and the way you present yourself to the world. Did your parents ever give you beauty advice that you do like to follow?
Yeah! “Don’t follow what people think.” There’s so many layers to that because I think my mom was referring to that within her paradigm of understanding how we are supposed to look in general. But, oh, “If that dress don’t fit you right, or the dress you’re supposed to wear as a woman don’t fit you right or you feel like it doesn’t fit you right because of how other people try to make you feel about how you’re dressing, don’t worry about that.” So it’s within those paradigms, but I want to take it further and say you shouldn’t have to wear a dress. You know what I mean? Don’t worry about how people feel you should present yourself as far as not caring how people think. I’m saying this to myself as I say it to you, also. Because this is also a journey that I’m on! Not paying too much mind to how people expect me to show up and express myself.
Zed - 2020