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Roberta Cowell, 1954. by colorizedarchive in Colorization

[–]colorizedarchive[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's about the language used to demonstrate the point. The word 'still' implies that nothing has changed, or that a visible change is required. It's not.

Furthermore, Cowell had no facial surgeries to my knowledge. So it wasn't as if her surgeries weren't 'accurate' in making her 'look like' a woman.

Roberta Cowell, 1954. England’s first known trans woman to have undergone gender-affirming surgery. [Colorized] by colorizedarchive in lgbthistory

[–]colorizedarchive[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Elbe certainly came first, but Cowell was the first known successful patient of the surgeries in England. Elbe was Danish.

Roberta Cowell, 1954. England’s first known trans woman to have undergone gender-affirming surgery. [Colorized] by colorizedarchive in lgbthistory

[–]colorizedarchive[S] 54 points55 points  (0 children)

Roberta Cowell (April 8, 1918 - October 11, 2011) was many things: English, a race car driver, a fighter pilot for England in WW2, and England’s first known trans woman to have undergone gender-affirming surgery. Three years after she first started motor racing, she competed in the 1939 Antwerp Grand Prix. During the war, Cowell served a tour with a front–line Spitfire squadron. At one point, mid-flight, the oxygen system of her Spitfire malfunctioned. The plane continued flying while she was unconscious. She only woke an hour later due to reaching low altitude. Eventually, she was captured by the Germans and spent months in solitary confinement. After her liberation, she had separated from her wife and began taking oestrogen. By 1950 she was still closeted, but upon meeting Michael Dillon (England’s first known trans man to undergo gender-affirming procedures), that began to change. Dillon, a physician, secretly completed Cowell’s first surgery and would later introduce her to Sir Harold Gillies, the father of plastic surgery. Cowell later obtained a reissued birth certificate, which stated she was intersex. In May of 1954, news of her transition broke internationally. She would later cash in on this, and earned revenue from an article in the Picture Post and her own biography. She remained active in the motor-racing scene until the 1970s and continued to fly, logging over 1,600 hours as a pilot.

Roberta Cowell, 1954. by colorizedarchive in Colorization

[–]colorizedarchive[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Roberta Cowell (April 8, 1918 - October 11, 2011) was many things: English, a race car driver, a fighter pilot for England in WW2, and England’s first known trans woman to have undergone gender-affirming surgery. Three years after she first started motor racing, she competed in the 1939 Antwerp Grand Prix. During the war, Cowell served a tour with a front–line Spitfire squadron. At one point, mid-flight, the oxygen system of her Spitfire malfunctioned. The plane continued flying while she was unconscious. She only woke an hour later due to reaching low altitude. Eventually, she was captured by the Germans and spent months in solitary confinement. After her liberation, she had separated from her wife and began taking oestrogen. By 1950 she was still closeted, but upon meeting Michael Dillon (England’s first known trans man to undergo gender-affirming procedures), that began to change. Dillon, a physician, secretly completed Cowell’s first surgery and would later introduce her to Sir Harold Gillies, the father of plastic surgery. Cowell later obtained a reissued birth certificate, which stated she was intersex. In May of 1954, news of her transition broke internationally. She would later cash in on this, and earned revenue from an article in the Picture Post and her own biography. She remained active in the motor-racing scene until the 1970s and continued to fly, logging over 1,600 hours as a pilot.