OLD AND BUSTED: Why Oppenheimer Has Hotter Women Than Barbie.
We used to call them “cool chicks.” They were the girls who, when I was in college in the 1980s, were left-wing, wore their hair in an unorthodox or punk style, read books and didn’t take shit from anyone. They loved Sylvia Plath, Joan Didion and Anne Sexton, but could also talk to you about Henry Miller, Tom Wolfe and Naked Lunch. I still remember one, Tess. I fell for her when we met in a DC bar. A New Kids on the Block video popped up on the nearby video screen. “Twinkies,” Tess sneered, then smiled at me and lit a cigarette. She was self-confident. She wasn’t what Gen Z feminists are—hectoring, didactic, nasty.
The foremothers of the “cool chicks” of the 80s are probably the women depicted in the new film Oppenheimer. The main one that illuminated the screen for me is Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock, a communist who has an affair with Robert Oppenheimer in the 1930s. Whereas in Barbie the male characters are useless morons, Tatlock and Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb,” set off sparks through a exhilarating back-and-forth about books, art, and politics. When they first meet at a party filled with communists, she starts explaining the dogma of Marx. He retorts that it’s different when you read it in German. She marvels that his library has so many books that aren’t related to science or physics. One of them is the Bhagavad Gita—in Sanskrit. She plants herself on top of him, opens the book, and tells him to read a line: “I am become death, destroyer of worlds.” That leads to sex.
The New Hotness? Oppenheimer Star Emma Dumont Comes Out As ‘Trans Masculine Non-Binary.’
A Hollywood star with a supporting role in “Oppenheimer” has come out as “trans masculine non-binary,” according to reports.
Emma Dumont, 30, is best known for playing Robert Oppenheimer’s (Cillian Murphy) sister-in-law Jackie in the Oscar-winning film. The star also debuted “they/them” pronouns on Instagram and will use a new name, Nick, with friends and family. Dumont will continue using Emma professionally and on social media.
“They identify as a trans masculine non-binary person. Their work name is still going to be Emma Dumont, but they will go by Nick with friends and family,” a rep for the star told TMZ.
Per Healthline, the term transmasculine “is an umbrella term that refers to people who were assigned female at birth but identify with masculinity.”
The outlet noted that it may also be referred to as “transmasc.”
Dumont has not addressed the change beyond the rep’s statement and last posted on Instagram on December 3.
Social media was filled with negative reactions.
Including gay British actor James Dreyfus:
