I remember feeling skeptical after sitting through Orange is the New Black’s daunting theme song for the first time. Truthfully, I initially clicked on the basis that people in my life and in media were talking highly of the show, but I found myself clicking again and again (rather enthusiastically) because every character was just so captivating. In hindsight, which of us has any regrets witnessing this shows’ first episode and every brilliant episode after that? Anyone care to argue that it wasn’t worthwhile?
Arguably the most compelling of these stories is that of Sophia Bursett, who struggles as a colored, transgender woman. Being transgender herself only furthers our admiration as an audience for her character. Her costar Natasha Lyonne nods to her power as a person saying: “Laverne stands up for what she believes in and does so with grace and humility. She is one of a kind: a game changer and a maverick who not only expands closed minds but educates them. She is the living embodiment of what she believes in, and the inevitable fallout of that is she inspires others to tell their own truths”(V Magazine).
“I’m insecure about how I look…I was looking at some stills from the show that are up online. [In the past] I was like, “When I am successful, I’m going to look differently. I will have had more surgery, I will be thinner. And that will equal me being successful.” And then I was looking at myself with all the imperfections that I see, and still people are relating to this character, people are connecting to her. On social media people love Sophia. So I’m on this show that is kind of a hit now and I don’t look like Beyoncé. I haven’t had the extreme makeover to look like that, so maybe I can just be authentically myself. Maybe that’s enough.” – Laverne Cox
Laverne, who V Magazine is suitably calling a ‘tour de force’, has this past year influenced the world on a monumental scale by speaking as an LGBTQ activist across the country while simultaneously building her reputation through being on a Time Magazine cover, publicly working with Diddy, and having a spread in O Magazine. Now with a book on the way Laverne is truly a voice that’s hard to ignore and I think that gives us as the audience the privilege of learning something from her.
I encourage you to sit in on her lecture “Beyond Orange is the New Black” on September 11th at 7:00 PM in the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall on our Umass Amherst Campus! See you there!