Virginia Prince
| Virginia Prince | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 23, 1913 Los Angeles, California (USA) |
| Died | May 2, 2009 |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | grooming products retailer |
| Known for | Transgender activist, publisher of Tranvestia, founder of Society for the Second Self |
Virginia Prince (November 23, 1913 - May 2, 2009) was an American transgender activist, who published Transvestia magazine and started Society for the Second Self for male heterosexual cross-dressers. She later adopted the pseudonym "Virginia Charles Prince" and preferred female pronouns.
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[edit] Early life
Born Arnold Lowman in Los Angeles, California, Prince began crossdressing during her late teenage years.
[edit] Trans terminology and crossdresser identity
Prince seems to have been the first to use the term transgender, which she used to mean a person who lives full time in a gender other than the one identified at birth but without surgical body modification, even though she herself underwent surgical body modification, took female hormones, changed her legal name to Virginia and lived full-time as a woman. This is substantially different than what the word would come to mean later, there currently being sometimes very distinct meanings assigned to the expression. She also made many claims about non-fetishistic nature of most crossdressing, asserting instead that it was a display of identity. In discussions with Robert Stoller of UCLA, however, she affirmed that cross-dressing had erotic aspects.
Prince is also well known for her adamant criticism of the transsexual strategy and Gender Identity disorder, believing that sex reassignment surgery was unnecessary.
Prince died aged 96 on 2 May 2009.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ "Controversial Trans Pioneer Prince Dies at 96" Advocate. Retrieved 6 May 2009.
[edit] Further reading
- Bullough, Vern, and Bonnie Bullough. Cross Dressing, Sex, and Gender. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993: chapter 12.
- Prince, Virginia. Understanding Cross-Dressing. Los Angeles: Chevalier Publications, 1976.
- _____. The Transvestite and His Wife. Los Angeles: Argyle Books, 1967.
- Richard F Docter. From Man to Woman: The Transgender Journey of Virginia Prince. Docter Press xiv, 149 pp 2004.
- Richard Ekins & Dave King (eds). Virginia Prince: Pioneer of Transgendering. Haworth Press Inc., Paperback: 65 pages 2006. Essays about and by Virginia Prince.
[edit] External links
- Prince, Virginia Charles (1913-2009) via GLBTQ
- Virginia Prince. A Gender Variance Who's Who. 23 April 2008.
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