Will Ferrell is funny.
He's charming and self-deprecating.
He is clearly a loyal and caring friend.
And he also lives in a bubble that deliberately misunderstands why there is tension around transgender issues.
In Netflix's new documentary Will & Harper, the actor learns that his longtime friend and former Saturday Night Live writer Andrew Steele is transitioning into life as a woman named Harper. The two embark on a friend's road trip around America to find out how Steele, a beer-drinking, sports-loving father of two, is performing in this new identity.
And how small-town America responds in kind.
For the most part, movies avoid politics and focus on the personal. It's a journey in a wood-paneled Wagoneer through decades of friendship and Steele's realization that she wanted to be a woman.
There are exceptions. In one scene, Ferrell poses for a photo with Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb and laments that he regrets not confronting him about the state's ban on so-called “gender-affirming care.”
In other words, Holcomb is against the medicalization and, in some cases, sterilization of confused children in the name of gender identity. Common sense.
and new Interview with The IndependentFerrell reveals more delusions.
“But I don't understand why transgender people would threaten me, a cis man,” Ferrell told The Independent. “I don't understand why Harper is threatening me.”
No sane person would consider Steele or a transgender person to be a threat to a 6-foot-3 man. Ferrell isn't a woman, so her space in locker rooms, prisons, rape centers, sports, etc. isn't invaded by biological men who can invade with just a few magic words.
“I identify as a woman.”
When he talks about having to compete against biological males at every level of sport, from youth to college to the Paralympic Games, he's not told to shut up or to be dropped or suspended.
Like Riley Gaines, she has never been harassed or attacked simply for advocating for fairness in women's sports.
Since he doesn't have a daughter, he may not have had to worry about this ambiguity in biological truth.
Nevertheless, Ferrell, with his high spirit, confuses actual, substantive opposition with ignorance and intolerance. Why can't everyone open up like him?
“It's so strange to me, because Harper finally… she” says Farrell. “She's finally who she's supposed to be. Why care if someone is happy, whether or not she can wrap her head around it in the end?” Why is it threatening you? I think if the trans community is a threat to you, it's because you don't feel confident or safe in yourself.
Most people don't begrudge Steele happiness. We care about whether Steele's well-being violates our rights as women.
After all, the movie itself proves that people are generally kind. In the film, the two visit a dive bar in Oklahoma decorated with pro-Trump flags, and Steele arrives alone and strikes up friendly conversations with the locals.
Then Ferrell appears, a Native American serenading a toothless man who preaches acceptance over a bottle of beer. At the racetrack, Steele speaks to a man who wants to enjoy the traditionally masculine hobbies that Andrew once loved, but who wishes to change his gender. But now as Harper.
Of course, strangers are welcoming and kind. Steele acknowledged both encounters. I'm afraid of hating myself. ”
It's hard not to like Steele, but that's clearly Ferrell's goal. He wants to protect his friends. But he is unfairly abusive.
And while the film is a compelling, graphic, and often entertaining documentary, therein lies a great irony. Neither Steele nor Ferrell, who buys diamond earrings for a friend, knows anything about being a woman.
We wish Steele a long, healthy, and fulfilling life.
But I also wish Ferrell would stop preaching from inside his ivory tower of virtue.
