LBS Opinion: Is It Time for Transgender Models?

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It was a remarkable feat when Isis King – a former contestant on America’s Next Top Model – became the first transgender participant on the series. Though she didn’t earn the top prize on the show, King’s presence on television and in subsequent glossies (like Seventeen) was nothing short of incredible because it was rare for transgender models to achieve mainstream success. A focus on their bodies and genitalia instead of their stories, their beauty and their resilient spirits often exile transgender individuals from the modeling world.

Isis King was a representation of possibility. In recent months, we’ve had an explosion of other possibility models pushed into our consciousness. There’s Laverne Cox, an actress, writer and trans woman of color who’s currently starring in Orange is the New Black. We’re also hearing fabulous stories from the amazing Janet Mock whose memoir, Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More, is a New York Times bestseller. We’re being exposed to the injustices transgender individuals face, including higher rates of homelessness, suicide and job discrimination, especially after the world witnessed the incarceration of trans woman CeCe McDonald in a men’s correctional institution.

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Now, Barneys New York has offered another possibility model with their decision to hire all transgender models for their spring 2014 campaign. Photographer Bruce Weber chose 17 transgender models for the “Brothers, Sisters, Sons and Daughters” campaign, which aims to highlight “both the struggles and triumphs a trans person may face in relation to their gender identity.” The models range in background, races and ethnicities, and Weber makes sure their stories are told.

On the Barneys New York Window blog, the models personal stories are included beside their photos. Additionally, the photos feature the models with their support systems, like their parents, siblings and pets. According to Weber, the stories “address a range of issues from bullying, discrimination and abandonment to empowerment, self-confidence and unconditional love.” How beautiful is that? Telling stories of triumph open a window into a world that we often choose to ignore. Dennis Freedman, Barneys’ Creative Director, is invested in highlighting the transgender community in this specific advertising campaign because they’re often ignored in struggles for equality.

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“I was exquisitely aware that in the last decade, the L.G.B. communities have made extraordinary advances, and the transgender community has not shared in that progress,” Freedman told the New York Times.

I have one sentence to offer: It’s about time.

Though our cultural beauty ideal often shifts, the default is often thin, white, heterosexual and cisgender (meaning gender identity aligns with genitalia). These standards harm all those who fit outside the perimeters, including transgender individuals. Excluding the trans* community from the fashion world tells us that they’re unworthy of inclusion.

Barneys New York’s incorporation of all transgender models sends a clear message: Transgender bodies are beautiful and praiseworthy. Representation matters. Seeing transgender models in a mainstream advertising campaign is affirmation that Isis King wasn’t an exception to the beauty standard. She is the rule.

What are your thoughts on this new shift in the industry? Do you agree?

Images courtesy of Barneys New York