Since her VJ days on Australian MTV back in 07, Ruby Rose has long been the celebrity crush of lesbians the world over. But now that she’s a part of Litchfield Penitentiary’s loveable squad of lady convicts, the rest of the Netflix-watching world is finally getting hip to why the Aussie model, actress, and DJ rules. Speaking to Elle about her Ninja Turtle tatt’d character Stella, Rose gave the magazine a seriously insightful primer about gender fluidity and why that whole binary business isn’t her (Rose is on record stating a preference for she/her pronouns) bag.
“Gender fluidity is not really feeling like you’re at one end of the spectrum or the other. For the most part, I definitely don’t identify as any gender,” Rose said. “I’m not a guy; I don’t really feel like a woman, but obviously I was born one. So, I’m somewhere in the middle, which – in my perfect imagination – is like having the best of both sexes.”
When Rose came out as gender fluid last year, she wrote, produced, and starred in a five-minute short film about what it’s like to have an identity that deviates from the status quo. “As a little kid, I was convinced that I was a guy. I used to bind with ACE bandages, which is really, really bad for you…Then in my teens, I tried to be quite feminine…And after a little bit, chopped everything off and am kind of back where I started,” she told The Guardian upon the film’s release.
Rose’s candid advocacy comes as cultural conversations shift towards a reconception of what gender means today. In her Paper cover story, Miley Cyrus elaborated on her own gender fluidity, while more and more trans experiences are finding representation in mainstream media outlets. Rose recognizes these transformative times, and rallies support for the pioneers pushing us forward: “Between Orange with Laverne, the show Transparent, and Caitlyn Jenner, obviously we’re in the middle of something enormous – a transgender movement. I’m just proud to be alive during this massive shift in the world.”
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Text Emily Manning
Image via YouTube