Caroline Cossey, Transsexual Model

Caroline Cossey (also known as Tula) is a British male-to-female transsexual who had a successful career as a model and some small movie roles; Cossey also appeared in Playboy in 1981. In 1982 a tabloid broke the story that she was a transsexual, which ended her modeling career. Here is the cover (found here) of her autobiography, which she wrote soon after being outed:

Cossey was born with Klinefelter’s syndrome, a form of genetic intersexuality.

Here are some other pictures of her:

Found here.

You can watch a segment on her that aired on the TV program Hard Copy here.

These might be interesting for discussions of intersexuality, sex-reassignment surgery, and our ideas of the gender binary that everyone must fit into–as well as the outrage people often feel if they’ve been “fooled” by someone who manages to “pass” as a gender different from what they “really” (read “biologically”) are. You might compare this to the story of Brandon Teena, a female-to-male transsexual who was raped, beaten, and murdered by two men in a small town in Nebraska in 1994 after they discovered he was a transsexual (who had not had sex-reassignment surgery). Teena was, of course, the subject of the movie “Boys Don’t Cry,” but there is also a documentary about him, “The Brandon Teena Story,” which includes interviews with his girlfriend and members of the community.

Comments 16

Pitseleh — June 1, 2008

I've been working for a while (on and off) on a content analysis of America's Next Top Model (worse of all reality TV) on the construction of beauty (race, class and gender and how it applies). One of the most often compliments that is also a critique is how one of the models looks "draggish." Comments also abound about how great it is when a model looks androgynous and how great it is to be able to look like a girlish boy. I didn't know about this model, but it seems to fit well into this idea.

Gwen — June 1, 2008

That's interesting. It seems like it's ok to LOOK androgynous (at least on the runway), but from a public perspective, models still need to be unambiguously female, and transsexuals don't count.

Of course, it's also possible things have changed significantly since the early 1980s. I wonder what would happen if the same situation occurred today.

Pitseleh — June 2, 2008

I imagine much of the same thing. Even though women are praised for looking androgynous, and at times looking "draggy", a women can look too "draggy". From my analysis, I find that women are supposed to be able to pose in both "woman's" mags and "men's" mags. The first is to be the type of woman other women want to be, the second is to be the kind of woman a man wants to "get with." Since our common perceptions of sex are still binary, the perception would probably be that no "woman" would want to be Tula, and no "man" would want to be with Tula.

There may be a market for Tula today, but I wouldn't think she would grace the pages of fashion mags. Instead, she may be relegated to posing for mags that have an audience of transgendered/sexed individuals. But, I'm just guessing here.

Pop Feminist — June 3, 2008

Wow! Thanks for this!

inhabited_world — July 28, 2008

Isn't it a little silly to draw parallels between Tula and Brandon Teena, simply because both happen to be trans? Yes, both were subject to the notion hard-wired into our society of "real" gender being one's biological sex, and both were victimized by the widespread discrimination prevalent toward trans people, but...um, Brandon Teena was raped and murdered, not "outed" by mass media. They're two different situations, and it seems weird (to me, at least) to compare them in this sense, unless the conversation is focusing on the concept of "biology as destiny" as propagated today.

MidSouth Mouth — April 24, 2009

some critical analysis of public/private and class and birth-gender differences is also useful... not rank oppressions but to accurately describe lived experiences and societal patterns...

The Question Of Caster Semenya’s Sex » Sociological Images — August 22, 2009

[...] binary. Examples of “syndromes” that disrupt these trajectories abound (e.g., Klinefelter’s syndrome). And all kinds of practices, including surgeries, are sometimes used to force a binary when [...]

eddiej — August 30, 2009

binary code 12;23 Eddiej love my gurl i am her she is me, STEVE H PORTRAYED IT BEST. Hatred of the feminate side of the male.Is the true begining of predjudice, and of GODS creation.For we are all creatsed in HIS immage and likeness, food for fem men, masculine women.GENETICS is given not taken all dna originates in Etheopia. An biblical kings had many wives hardly ever the same racial make up.I support my gurl she is beautiful, in side a true woman as well as her shell. She portugese mexican, he french canadian native north american indian!

American Women Athletes Part Two: How intersex athletes are punished by the gender testing system | The Angry Black Woman — September 15, 2009

[...] aren’t binary. Examples of “syndromes” that disrupt these trajectories abound (e.g., Klinefelter’s syndrome). And all kinds of practices, including surgeries, are sometimes used to force a binary when there [...]

Gavin — October 16, 2009

In general, transsexual women are sexier and more beautiful by far than genetic women.

Zoe Brain — October 17, 2009

Actually, because she's intersexed with 47xxy chromosomes rather than 46xx(usually female) or 46xy(usually male), she is not counted as being transsexual in the UK. So she cannot have her (male) birth certificate amended, unlike transsexuals. Even ones who do not desire surgery.

It is ironic that it was the inhumanity of her treatment by the courts that caused the UK authorities to change the existing law to benefit trans people. Then they left not so much a loophole as a great gap that excluded her from benefiting as well.

I have a different Intersex syndrome (there's over a hundred of them) but I'm in the same situation. In the UK I could only marry another woman as same-sex marriage is forbidden, but my UK passport says "F" based on biological reality.

Turner — December 3, 2009

Caroline cossey is the most beautiful woman in the whole wide world. BEAUTIFUL!

Raven — February 5, 2010

I believe transsexuals make some of the most sexiest models , they seem to want to take better care of themselves and care about how they look. I think they are exotic.

Rick Johnson — February 3, 2014

Josi Paula a model currently running in the Playboy Miss Social of the Year 2014 contest is a beautiful transsexual model that is very popular. She has already won the Playboy Miss Social Miss October 2013 contest. I admire the hard work she has done. I wonder if Josi would be as popular if it were more well known that she is transsexual. Not that it matters. Josi Paula who is from Curitiba Brazil had the surgery in Brazil and was "reborn" in the Miami area of the U.S.