As A Woman by Barry Kay
Alternatively titled The Other Woman
This book marked a pivotal moment in my life. A sweeping statement as I was only 11 year old when it was published in 1976.
Barry Kay was an Australian photographer who was based in London. During 1974 and 1975 he returned to Australia to document the growing transgender scene that existed in the King's Cross area of Sydney. It showed transvestite and transsexuals in a series of black and white photos. Some of the photos were posed or staged, others were candid captures. It was a very gritty but wonderful portrayal of the life for these girls.
Of course as an 11 year old gender confused kid growing up in a middle class family in the South West of England, I wasn't going to have access to a book like this. It shouldn't even have registered on my radar. Except it did.
My Stepfather used to take a Sunday newspaper. His paper of choice was The Observer. A broadsheet Sunday only newspaper that was centre left in it's political outlook. Most of the Sunday broadsheet papers had a magazine as part of the package, known as the colour supplement. Usually featuring art,culture and travel these magazines were always an interesting read. And the Observer had a renowned colour supplement.
And so it was just an ordinary Sunday late in 1976 when I was thumbing through the colour supplement, that I discovered something that shook up my world. I discovered that I wasn't the only male in the big wide world, who wanted to dress like a girl.
This copy of the Observer supplement featured an article about a new photo documentary book. The book was called As A Woman. It has been titled The Other Woman in some markets. As I said previously it was a set of photos of the transgender scene in Sydney, Australia. The narrative written about the book mentioned the words transsexual and transvestite. And it explained the differences between them. I read the narrative and looked at the pictures. Most were quite gritty depictions of the trans girls. Important to me, because they were living proof that I was not alone. Other boys felt like I did. Other boys liked girl's clothes and feminine things. Other boys wished they were girls. However I didn't identity with some of the photos because they were not how I envisioned myself as a girl, if I could become one. That was until I came across one particular image in the book.
Lenore Leans On A Couch
This image featured a beautiful transvestite called Lenore. Everything in this image was so beautiful and feminine. It was everything I dreamed of being. I knew in that moment that I was a transvestite and I would make it my mission to fulfill my destiny and dress as the girl I wished I was. And so began the slow but sure journey towards my aim of dressing as a girl. And ambition that I would fulfill some 14 months later, as I have written about in a previous post, The First Time.
I managed to keep hold of this copy of the Observer supplement for another 3 years, before it got lost in the move from Cornwall to Southampton that my family made in 1979. During that time I would often read this article and gaze at the photos. I never forgot about these photos and their place in my personal trans history, and I am forever grateful to Barry Kay and the Observer for making me realise that I was not alone.
Below are a selection of images from this wonderful publication.
Wow, Dee, these posts about your development and influences resonate a lot. I didn't know about this book but it's good to add it to my list. For me, it was an early-80s Sunday supplement article on Madame JoJos in Soho, with pics, that convinced me that not only were there other people like me out there but I could even get a job as one! Sue x
ReplyDeleteWe have always had so much in common, which is why we gravitated towards each other on the Angels forum and became such good friends.
DeleteThe King's Cross area of Sydney is very similar to Soho in many ways. With sex clubs and revue bars and drag clubs and shows. Also with prostitution being the shadier aspect of the locale. Nearly all of the girls featured in the book were working as show girls or hostesses and waiting staff in the drag clubs, or else they were prostitutes or escort girls. These were the only ways of earning a living for these girls which were marginalised by Australian society. So in many ways there were parallels with the UK and London. Thank you so much for your comment.
I have 'The Other Women'! I've no idea when I bought it, it was probably eBay back in the 2000's.
ReplyDeleteMy first encounter with the trans underworld was probably 1970 when I was driving into central London one evening and stopped to pick up a rather overdressed girl hitching on St Johns Wood Road. She asked if I could drop her at (I think) a Wimpy bar on/near the Marylebone Road, about 5 minutes away, where she was meeting 'friends'. Perhaps that was the line she used when encountering obvious non-clients/police, even? I would have come across as a hippy at the time. Her voice was a little husky and I started putting two and two together. When we stopped, before she got out, she gave me a big peck on the cheek ... my one and only meeting with 'Lola'!
xxx
Who knows, perhaps she was the Lola that Ray Davies wrote about? By the time I got out on the scene in 2009, things were more accepted and the trans scene was less underworld and more mainstream. As to the book, it's a wonderful piece of work. I bought a copy a few years ago. It's an important part of my trans history.
Delete