A model pronoun
Transmissions
Published 07/14/2011
by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
http://ebar.com/columns/column.php?sec=transmissions&id=168In its June 12 issue, Newsweek magazine ran a profile on Brazilian model Lea T. Good in places and bad in others, the piece tells of Lea's early years growing up with a Brazilian soccer star, Toninho Cerezo, for a father, her early years as a model, and onto her current life as she prepares for male-to-female genital reassignment surgery. It's not that uncommon of a dialogue given the scores of transsexual narratives that have graced the printed page as far back as at least 1931, when Lili Elbe's transition story, Man Into Woman , was published.
Yet like so many others, this one runs into trouble right in the subhead.
The piece, titled "Lea T.'s Runway Revolution," carries a subhead that reads, "Brazil's hottest new model is tall, dark, and glamorous. She's also a he. Meet high fashion's newest gender-bending muse."
