Southern Starlet | Aleshia Brevard (1937-2017)| Not Just Cistory
When I discovered that the first ever Trans+ history week was happening from the 6th of May to the 12, I knew that I had write another blog post in my Not Just Cistory series to celebrate. I decided to research Aleishia Brevard since she was one of the first women I painted back in 2022.
There is a burgeoning list of transgender actresses playing transgender super heroes now, and it is ‘super’ inspiring to read about women like Nicole Maines, Ivory Aquino among others, and their new roles playing some absolutely fantastic characters (Rude, 2022). Representation of this caliber is still new to myself and to many others, and not something I at all take for granted.
However, there was another actress who, in the 1970s, starred in Legends of the Superheroes as Giganta, a nemesis of Wonder Woman’s who was transgender, and her name was Aleshia Brevard (IMDB).
Trans and queer representation is something that is becoming more and more common in our media. Representation in this sense means that there are characters in the media that are a part of the LGBT+ and are a part of the story. There is, of course, ‘good’ representation and ‘bad’ representation and those labels are just as subjective as anything else in this world.
Sometimes trans people themselves are considered representation, that their experiences, and lives can be a way for others to not feel so alone. This isn’t inherently a bad thing, finding community online, and in real life is a wonderful way for people to learn and grow and feel more comfortable in their own skin, but sometimes, the people who are being the representation can feel pigeon-holed into only being known as transgender.
Brevard herself discusses this in a 2013 interview with Windy City Times, saying:
I did not go through gender reassignment to be labeled transsexual. I look at that as an awkward phase that I went through—sort of like a really painful adolescence. I don't even think of myself now in terms as transsexual. That's something I experienced and [something] I was (Brevard, Waldron, 2017).
This is not an opinion, like any shared in this blog post, that is universal to the transgender community and is one that should be approached with context and nuance.
I am aware that me featuring a biographic blog post about Aleshia Brevard as part of a series called ‘Not Just Cistory; in celebration of Trans+ History Week is… ironic, to say the least. However, as always, I will try to share the story of her entire life, not just the details relating to her being transgender.
Early Life
Brevard was born in 1937 “ in Erwin, Tennessee, although she spent much of her childhood on a farm in Hartsville” (Nashville Queer History). She was aware of her desire to exist as female from an early age, saying “I would drape a white Cannon towel over my head and pretend to be [actress] Veronica Lake. But I kept all of that to myself because I truly believed that if anyone—my parents included—knew who I really was, that I would be given away” (Brevard, Waldron, 2017). She also prayed nightly to become the girl ‘she knew herself to be’ (Brevard, Kowalska, 2013).
Those around her seemed to sense her identity, and she was described as “an effeminate and artistic child. As a young child… strangers would frequently “mistake” her for a girl, or comment that she was “too pretty to be a boy.” As a colicky three-year-old, her grandfather had dressed her in a skirt with a red ribbon in her hair, christening her ‘Rosy’” (Shephard, 2017).
In 1952, while Brevard was in her teens, Christine Jorgensen’s story of her transition made national news (Shephard, 2017), and surely had to seem like a dream come true to Brevard, even if it probably seemed impossible to her.
A Life on the Stage
Brevard didn’t remain in Tennesse for much time beyond her adolescence, moving to San Fransisco at age 20, and began her work as an actress (Nashville Queer History). Her first job was as a female impersonator at the club Finnochio’s, where she was billed as a Marilyn Monroe look-alike (Brevard, Waldron, 2017).
This job was a space for the young Brevard to explore her identity as a woman. Despite her managers, and the owners of Finnochio’s promoting her as a Monroe impersonator, she insisted that she “was not doing Monroe; [she] was just learning to be [herself], and [she] was young… (Brevard, Waldron, 2017).
Aleshia was quite successful onstage as a Marilyn look-alike, so successful in fact, that in 1961 Monroe herself came to see her perform (Brevard, Waldron, 2005).
In an interview, Brevard, described this job as imperfect, stating that “the problem with Finocchio’s was that to me it did not feel like ‘impersonation'. At long last, I was presenting myself as the woman who had secretly lived sequestered away for far too many years” (Shephard). This is a theme I see in my research over and over again, spaces where traditional gender expression is not required, and it allows for freedom and personal understanding, a form of self-representation.
Transition
Brevard was introduced to Dr. Harry Benjamin, who was responsible for the gender-affirming surgery of Christine Jorgensen, through a mutual friend and Benjamin approved her for a sex-reassignment surgery, which she then underwent in 1962 (Nashville Public Library, 2019).
After her surgery,”[s]he returned to Hartsville to recover from surgery with help from her family, who were loving and accepting of her transition” (Nashville Queer History). She also took this time to transition into being a woman in all of her life beyond the stage, before venturing out into the world again (Brevard, Kowalska, 2013).
Becoming a Star
Having completed this medical component of her Transition that she had started socially years before, she decided to pursue acting as a career, once again. She initially “attended East Tennessee State University for art,” but eventually went on to “attend Middle Tennessee State University and earn a degree in theater, where she was named ‘Best Actress’ in 1967” (Nashville Queer History).
Brevard would continue to move back and forth between Appalachia, the eastern US, and California, working as a model, a stage actress, a star of the movie and television screens, even a Playboy Bunny, and in her later life, a professor (Shephard, 2017). Brevard was a woman of many talents and was able to utilize her acting skills in many mediums.
She performed in eight movies throughout this second career; The Love God, Big Foot, Hitched, The Female Bunch, Smokey and the Judge, The Man With Bogart’s Face, Hard Country, and “American Pop (Brevard, Kowalska, 2013). Brevard also acted in many television shows during her career, The Partridge Family, Night Gallery, and Legends of the Superheroes being some of them (IMDB).
When asked which of her roles were most satisfying for the actress, she mentions her theatrical roles, even noting that, in a full circle moment, she played Marilyn Monroe’s role in the stage version of The Seven Year Itch (Kowlska, 2013).
She evolved her career from acting to directing and teaching theater at East Tennessee State University, this was not an entirely planned transition, but one that came naturally to her after all of her time on stage (Brevard, Waldron, 2017). Directing was not a lesser profession for Brevard, she says that she “truly love[s] directing, perhaps more than [she] adore[d] being on stage…” (Brevard, Kowalska, 2013). This career evolution from actress to director and teacher mirrors her choice to step from being stealth to publishing two different memoirs about her transition and life as a transgender woman, which in a way, turned her into a mentor for generations of future transgender individuals.
Coming Out
Aleshia lived most of her life in stealth, meaning that she did not advertise that she was transgender. She explained that this was for multiple reasons, one being that there was no real transgender community in Hollywood at the time (Brevard, Waldron, 2017). Having a support network and community is such an important part of not just survival for Trans people, but also thriving and living within a society that is oftentimes hostile to us.
She also had concerns about her professional life that encouraged discretion and her choice to be ‘stealth’ she explained that she “just wanted to compete on equal footing with other women…. I just wanted to act without labels” (Brevard, Waldron, 2017). Choosing to not disclose her transgender identity (Though I am not sure she would have phrased it exactly like that) allowed her to be seen for her merits and skills at a time when she would not have otherwise been.
She described the common thinking for trans women of the time as “to move forward, as seamlessly as possible, easing into mainstream society to live as our authentic selves… to live among, work alongside, and compete on an equal footing with other women, including those who had been born female (Brevard, Kowalska, 2013). While it is far more common now for transgender individuals to be open about their ‘transness’ (for lack of a better term), this is a sentiment shared by many transgender individuals still today and is an intensely personal one to make regardless of the decision made.
After her career as a director, Brevard moved to California, began teaching as a high school art teacher (Can you imagine having a movie star as an art teacher?), and began to work on her first memoir (Brevard, Waldron, 2017). This first book was titled ‘Woman I Was Not Born To Be: A Transsexual Journey’* and focused on “the early years and ends with the death of [her] mother in 1982. It was [her] mother’s death, and the absence of her ongoing support, that forced [Brevard] to find [her] own footing in life. (Brevard, Kowalska, 2013)
Upon publication, Brevard was stepping away from living her life in stealth, into the early 2000s online transgender community. She described the experience, saying “because I had lived in stealth, I had no idea about transgender becoming the umbrella term. When I published the book, I was absolutely shocked that I was spread all over the internet” (Brevard, Waldron, 2017).
On the the sequel, ‘The Woman I WAS Born to Be’, Brevard explained that she “had no intention of writing a sequel. [She] soon realized, however, that life had indeed gone on; the second half of [her] life had allowed many of Mozelle’s dreams for my future to come true. That struck me as much more important than the angst and early trauma that had gotten [her] there” (Brevard, Kowalska, 2013).
In the end “[t]he sequel, ‘WAS Born To Be’ [was her] favorite book, in that it chronicles a much happier and more fulfilling aspect of [her] life (Brevard, Kowalska, 2013), which is a wonderful example of how it does get better, even if it isn’t exactly the way we expected it to be.
Conclusion
Brevard passed away on July first, 2017, at the age of 79, from pulmonary fibrosis (Whiting, 2017) leaving behind a long list of film, television, and theatre credits, as well as many students whom she guided, as a theater professor, director, and art teacher. Not to mention all of the trans individuals who were, are, and will be inspired by her memoirs, and her story.
She is a wonderful example that anyone can be a superhero and that we all deserve to see ourselves in the world, and the media we consume. A talented actress, and devoted mother and teacher, Aleshia was able to create a space for herself in the world where she was valued and respected for her talents, not seen for the anatomy she had at any given point in her life.
Transgender individuals are able more now to exist openly and still be regarded for their skills and actions, but it is still so common for society to see the label ‘trans’ and just stop perceiving us, substituting stereotypes and preconceived notions for our personalities and skills.
This is a big part of why I live openly as a transgender individual, and create these biographic blog posts. It’s important to me that I share our history, curate and create that representation so that everyone, from widely openly transgender to completely stealth can have a form of representation in their lives that they may not have had otherwise.
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Bibliography
Aleshia Brevard. Nashville Queer History. (2021, November 3). https://nashvillequeerhistory.org/glossary-main/aleshia-brevard/
Brevard, A., & Kowalska, M. (2013, January 25). Interview with Aleshia Brevard. The Heroines of My Life. other. Retrieved May 10, 2024,. Parts 1, 1 continued, and 5
Brevard, A., & Waldron, T.-L. (2017, April 5). Actress reflects on transitioning, Marilyn Monroe connection. Windy City Times. other. Retrieved May 10, 2024,.
IMDb.com. (n.d.). Aleshia Brevard | Actress, additional crew. IMDb. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0108087/
Other hidden figures: Aleshia Brevard. Nashville Public Library. (2019, April 13). https://library.nashville.org/blog/2019/04/other-hidden-figures-aleshia-brevard
Rude, M. (2022, March 30). 6 trans & nonbinary characters in DC TV shows & movies. Out Magazine. https://www.out.com/television/2022/3/09/trans-and-nonbinary-characters-dc-comics-dceu-tv-shows-and-movies#rebelltitem1
Shepard, N. (2017, November 19). A Tennessee trans icon comes home: Remembering Aleshia Brevard. Spectrum South - The Voice of the Queer South. https://www.spectrumsouth.com/tennessee-trans-icon-comes-home-remembering-aleshia-brevard/
Whiting, S. (2017, July 24). Aleshia Brevard, SF drag star and transgender pioneer, dies at 79. SFGate. https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Aleshia-Brevard-SF-drag-star-and-transgender-11344975.php
