# The lovely Alexis Arquette: First openly trans reality TV star?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lovely-alexis-arquette-first-openly-trans-reality-tv-star/349450
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 22, 2006, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lovely-alexis-arquette-first-openly-trans-reality-tv-star/349450 "2006-03-22T17:00:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lovely-alexis-arquette-first-openly-trans-reality-tv-star/349450/1 "2006-03-22T17:00:32Z")
Arquette sister Alexis is now appearing on VH1’s The Surreal Life. I was nervous when I heard this, because I was afraid she would be used for endless tranny jokes and mistreated in editing. Well, having seen the first episode now, I can say I’m no longer so worried about that.
Alexis seems to want to educate as many people as possible about the women and men like her who have had to take steps to feel at home in their own bodies and lives. She also seems like something of an attention whore/drama queen who isn’t ashamed to admit it, and someone whose natural charm probably gets her out of a lot of the scraps her inner bitch goddess gets her into.
I don’t know for sure if she’s the first openly trans woman on reality TV, but I can’t think of any others. I do know I’ll watch just to see more of her and how the other sub-celebs react to her, and most of all how the producers and editors present her story.
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lovely-alexis-arquette-first-openly-trans-reality-tv-star/349450/2 "2006-03-22T17:03:40Z")
Wow. When did Alexis get the surgery? She had a pretty well established career as a male, although was always openly gender-bendy. I may actually have to watch that awful, awful show.
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Jones)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lovely-alexis-arquette-first-openly-trans-reality-tv-star/349450/3 "2006-03-22T17:05:51Z")
Language Question - here does “tranny” mean transvestite or transsexual ?
If the latter then the UK beat you to it - the 2004 winner of Channel Four’s Big Brother was [Nadia Almada](http://www.bigbrotheronline.co.uk/bb5/contestants/nadia.htm) a Portugueuse transsexual.
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lovely-alexis-arquette-first-openly-trans-reality-tv-star/349450/4 "2006-03-22T17:06:18Z")
. . . Alexis played the kid who empties the huge gun into the wall behind Sam Jackson in _Pulp Fiction._
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### Author:  [@Cat\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Jones)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lovely-alexis-arquette-first-openly-trans-reality-tv-star/349450/5 "2006-03-22T17:07:06Z")
guess **lissener**'s post answers my question :smack:
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### Author:  [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lovely-alexis-arquette-first-openly-trans-reality-tv-star/349450/6 "2006-03-22T17:15:27Z")
> [@lissener](#):
>
> Wow. When did Alexis get the surgery? She had a pretty well established career as a male, although was always openly gender-bendy. I may actually have to watch that awful, awful show.
She has not yet even had top surgery, I believe, but she stated that she no longer wishes any images of her in her career as a man to be shown, though they did show one anyway, of course, but it was very brief and amongst many other images of her as herself. She did indicate that she’s going for surgery soon.
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lovely-alexis-arquette-first-openly-trans-reality-tv-star/349450/7 "2006-03-22T17:16:20Z")
. . . Alexis played the kid who empties the huge gun into the wall behind Sam Jackson in _Pulp Fiction._
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### Author:  [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lovely-alexis-arquette-first-openly-trans-reality-tv-star/349450/8 "2006-03-22T17:46:55Z")
Wow… there is no one at all interesting this season.
Sherman Helmsley maybe. And Ma Brady if she makes out with him.
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### Author:  [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lovely-alexis-arquette-first-openly-trans-reality-tv-star/349450/9 "2006-03-22T18:00:29Z")
It’s hard to top Omarosa and Janice Dickinson. Won’t someone please convince Danny Bonaduce to do the Surreal Life?
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### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lovely-alexis-arquette-first-openly-trans-reality-tv-star/349450/10 "2006-03-22T18:05:57Z")
> [@lissener](#):
>
> . . . Alexis played the kid who empties the huge gun into the wall behind Sam Jackson in _Pulp Fiction._
Ah, they’re 1990’s “death scenes.”
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### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lovely-alexis-arquette-first-openly-trans-reality-tv-star/349450/11 "2006-03-22T18:44:34Z")
Let’s not forget Miriam of There’s Something About Miriam. The only people she wasn’t open with were the men competing for her on the show.
Bitch.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lovely-alexis-arquette-first-openly-trans-reality-tv-star/349450/12 "2006-03-22T19:13:54Z")
I hear Alexis played the kid who emptied some sort of firearm at Sam Jackson in that famous movie…Pulp Fiction, maybe?
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### Author:  [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lovely-alexis-arquette-first-openly-trans-reality-tv-star/349450/13 "2006-03-22T19:24:20Z")
Hey, who played the guy emptying a clip in Pulp Fiction!!!
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### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lovely-alexis-arquette-first-openly-trans-reality-tv-star/349450/14 "2006-03-22T19:29:03Z")
Never heard of him til now. Never knew he was the Pulp Fiction gun-unloader kid. Never knew there was another Arquette (though I should have suspected). Where the hell have I been?
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### Author:  [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lovely-alexis-arquette-first-openly-trans-reality-tv-star/349450/15 "2006-03-22T19:50:26Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#):
>
> Where the hell have I been?
In [Jersey](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=363909)?
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### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lovely-alexis-arquette-first-openly-trans-reality-tv-star/349450/16 "2006-03-22T20:00:26Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#):
>
> Hey, who played the guy emptying a clip in Pulp Fiction!!!
Duran Duran?
Everything about Alexis on the show says “drag queen” to me, not “woman.” She behaves as a woman pretty much exactly how she behaved as a drag queen (c.f. _Wigstock_). It must be exhausting to live with her performing 24 hours a day.
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### Author:  [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lovely-alexis-arquette-first-openly-trans-reality-tv-star/349450/17 "2006-03-22T20:08:39Z")
> [@Otto](#):
>
> Duran Duran?
>
> Everything about Alexis on the show says “drag queen” to me, not “woman.” She behaves as a woman pretty much exactly how she behaved as a drag queen (c.f. _Wigstock_). It must be exhausting to live with her performing 24 hours a day.
Everything except the woman’s own words. Sorry she’s not living up to your standards for femaleness, but for one, I don’t think we’ve seen enough to know she’s constantly “on”, and for another, of course she’s behaving the same. She’s the same person. It’s not like there’s some “girl” switch that gets flipped when a transwoman transitions, giving her a whole new personality.
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### Author:  [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lovely-alexis-arquette-first-openly-trans-reality-tv-star/349450/18 "2006-03-22T20:31:30Z")
I’m not saying she’s not a woman. I’m saying that the way she’s presenting herself as a woman is remarkably identical to how she presented herself as a drag queen. And generally speaking, the drag queens I’ve known in and out of drag don’t act like drag queens when they’re not in drag. They have separate personae. Alexis, based on not only what we’ve seen on the show but what I’ve seen of her in other settings, seems only to have the one. It has nothing to do with my standards of femaleness.
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### Author:  [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lovely-alexis-arquette-first-openly-trans-reality-tv-star/349450/19 "2006-03-22T20:35:14Z")
> [@Otto](#):
>
> I’m not saying she’s not a woman. I’m saying that the way she’s presenting herself as a woman is remarkably identical to how she presented herself as a drag queen. And generally speaking, the drag queens I’ve known in and out of drag don’t act like drag queens when they’re not in drag. They have separate personae. Alexis, based on not only what we’ve seen on the show but what I’ve seen of her in other settings, seems only to have the one. It has nothing to do with my standards of femaleness.
You’re confusing me, then. What does “I’m saying that the way she’s presenting herself as a woman is remarkably identical to how she presented herself as a drag queen.” mean? What’s remarkable about it? She’s the same person she always was. She has, as I noted in my OP, a hell of a personality, it’s true, but so what?
I guess you must have only known one kind of drag queen, then. I’ve known many different kinds, and some are definitely divas all the time.
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### Author:  [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2006, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-lovely-alexis-arquette-first-openly-trans-reality-tv-star/349450/20 "2006-03-22T20:35:52Z")
I actually watch the Surreal Life and enjoy it :o
She doesn’t interest me at all. The playboy model is all sorts of hot though. The guy they had compete to get on seems utterly pointless. Obviously they didn’t think the current cast were ridiculous enough as is. I’d still throw one into Tanwy Kitaen though.
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