‘The Bold and the Beautiful’ Maya’s Transgender Storyline: Fictional Reality Versus The Facts – Can They Coexist?

Soap operas have come a long way since Marlena’s demonic possession in Days of Our Lives. The histrionic plots and quirky twists draw inspiration from current world trends, whether we’re cognizant of it or not. Soaps allow us to disappear into a fictional world with troubled characters and an impossible storyline. We can “switch off” without feeling guilty. This quasi-transcendental experience creates a beautiful paradox: we find ourselves vis-à-vis serious issues, but we’re unable to experience the fictional reality without the factual reality.

In 2006, All My Children created the first transgender character in opera history. The controversial decision had a far-reaching impact on the future of soap opera television. According to a report at the time, “In a story unusual even for a soap opera and believed to be a television first, ABC’s ‘All My Children’ this week [12/05/2006] will introduce a transgender character who is beginning to make the transition from a man into a woman. The character, a flamboyant rock star known as Zarf, kisses the lesbian character Bianca and much drama ensues. The storyline begins with Thursday’s episode of the daytime drama.”

Nine years later The Bold and the Beautiful took a leaf from All My Children’s book and presented its first transgender plot: Maya Avant – played by the beautiful Karla Mosley – used to be a man named Myron. CBS injected the show with real events, not wish-wash histrionics of another love child fostered by another love child of a love child’s sister.

During an interview with CBS This Morning, Mosley called it a “brave” decision. “It’s brave of CBS. We’re excited, and we’re standing behind it, and we feel that it’s important. This is the kind of opportunity that I’ve prayed for – to be able to make change in the world through my art in a big way.”

But change is always met with resistance.

As one viewer wrote, “The show sucks and the one black woman who is intelligent and very pretty is being turned into a man. So they feel that black women can not [sic] just be a nomal [sic] woman with out [sic] having all of this going on. I will never watch this crap again.”

Keyboard warriors and armchair critics will always have an opinion about everything – they instigate belligerent flame-wars without paying mind to the consequences. Should we ignore these opinions? No. Definitely not. We have to solve our own moral paradoxes.

Fictional reality versus factual reality: can it co-exist?

Only time will tell for sure.

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