I wouldn't say his acting/roles were disrespectful, either. Considering this was 1994, the Chris character was well-handled.
He is good at injecting humor when needed. Incidentally, have you seen Goon? Very funny film and he has some great scenes in there with Sean William Scott.

He recently revived his trans persona on Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock. I thought he was the funniest thing about that movie since, come on, Schreiber is a huge dude.
Just to be clear, I don't mean in any way to offend trans people, or rather to imply that huge dudes can only be cisgendered. I don't think his acting in either movie was disrespectful to trans people. Humorous yes, but not disrespectful. I hope he keeps doing comedies, because he's surprisingly good at it.

Let's all agree to keep signatures apart from text body?

Greetings, from a real, live transgender woman! Transexual and transvestite are both outdated terms/concepts from the too-long-standing history of hiding trans/non-binary people deep in the social/economic/political/so on closet. I don't have the time to go into at length presently, so here's some very helpful info-graphics:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/b2/15/a1/b215a1f2e65aebf582b1a707c8304907.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/01/36/f7/0136f70696766a9d62edf858c7da2b5e.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/f1/ef/75/f1ef75c6eed00bfc135cc136343b1343.jpg

So to be clear in these happy PC days is this character a "transvestite" or a "transsexual" ??
I'm thinking that if the persona has had the surgery, or is seriously preparing for it, they would be a "transsexual".
Where as, if someone is merely living as the other sex, they would be a "transvestite".

As a trans woman myself, I assure you this character is basically an early 90s' Hollywood presentation of a newly transitioning trans woman.

He is clearly a tranny or more likely a cross dresser - that is why he is so depressed. The family calls him Arnold to ridicule his cross dressing. And he does a fantastic job in the role too. First time I saw this I truly laughed out loud !

I think the term "transvestite" being used is more a sign of the time in which it was produced, before trans* rights. I believe Chris is supposed to be transgendered (please note not all transgendered people have had sexual reassignment surgery). The reason I think this is because when Chris answers the phone somebody says to her "can I talk to a woman" and she replies "I am a woman", suggesting that Chris has a female gender identity. As an aside, most trans* people I'm friends with consider the term "tranny" to be incredibly offensive as these days it is most frequently used as a slur.

When Steve Martin throws the box of bandaids to Chris it hits him in the groin, and he immediately reacts as any man would react. Chris is clearly a transvestite.

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There's no accounting for taste, however, to each his own !

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Er, I don't think Chris's character is a "manly woman", but a man dressed AS a woman. As in, he's a cross dresser, or a transvestite.
And sorry, but even in drag, Liev is HOT!!!

I have to agree they call him "arnold schwartzenegger" I think to mock the fact that he is a man in woman's clothes. Never thought for a minute he was a "manly woman".

The original tagline, and dvd case description refer to Chris as a transvestite.
"Living our maggot lives, dreaming of becomming flies."

If the character is supposed to be a "manly woman", they did a terrible job portraying that. He was obviously in drag.
Tomorrow's just your future yesterday!

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Is it specifically stated in the film that he/she is an androgynous woman or is this an inference you are drawing?
I have this on DVD and am waiting to get time to watch this again.
Fiery the angels fell, deep thunder rolled around their shores, burning with the fires of Orc

the character is not a tranny. chris is a manly woman. that's why her family calls her arnold. if chris were a man who dresses like a woman the family would probably use a feminine nickname to make fun instead of a manly nickname. i would if i were in that family and very cruel like them. it would just make more sense. liev is very funny though. i love how he bounces when adam is playing the ukulele.

Does he play the big tranny?
"Be careful of what you look for Taylor, you just might find it!"

yea its arnold(his family chant it when he walks out of there house)

Hey Lost trivia cheater! I'm trying to cheat too!