Transitional: In One Way or Another, We All Transition

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In July 2019, Bergdorf was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Brighton in recognition of her campaigning for transgender rights. [25] The one thing Bergdorf does talk about in detail is facial feminisation surgery. In 2018, she underwent a series of procedures, including re-contouring of the chin and brow bone. For most trans women, she says this matters so much more than what they do or don’t do downstairs. “It’s my priority, because I show it to the world. But the ins and outs of what I’ve had done, I don’t talk about.” She hopes the book is more about interiors than exteriors. People can see for themselves what she looks like. She wants to show us what it feels like to be her; what it has taken to get where she is today.

While dealing with the L’Oréal fallout, Bergdorf also found herself fighting on another front. The issue of trans women had become the surprising battleground on which the culture war was being fought in Britain. Younger generations have been pitted against older; Westminster against the Scottish parliament. While Bergdorf and her allies argue that trans rights are on a par with previous battles for racial and sexual equality, gender-critical activists argue that trans women threaten the safety of biological women, and the sanctity of single-sex spaces. There is a war on trans people. And we are fighting literally for our lives The book will explore the history of gender throughout the world, including Polynesian, Indian and Native American cultures that recognised more than two genders before the colonial era. “I’ve gone into the depths of where gender came from, because it hasn’t always existed in [the way] we think about gender today,” said Bergdorf. “What it’s like to be a cisgender woman today is not what it was in the middle ages, or the 1950s, or even the 1980s.”

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Is this an example of the other kinds of transition she refers to in the book? “I think so. It was transitioning out of an experience that didn’t benefit anybody. I don’t want to be at odds with the biggest beauty brand in the world for the rest of my life, and they obviously don’t want to be seen in a bad light. They have offered me a way to move forward, to understand where they went wrong, and to better improve the practices of their company, and I can be part of that. That’s a positive thing all round. Where cancel culture goes wrong is when people don’t really want to find a resolve, they just want to cast people out of the kingdom or demonise people continually even when they have shown they want to make amends.” In Transitional, she says the first functional, loving relationship she has had was with Ava, a trans woman she dated for three years. Bergdorf has a tiny cross tattooed on her right wrist. She got it on a day trip to Brighton with Ava, who got a matching one. Transitional is dedicated to Ava’s memory. I ask Bergdorf what happened to her, fearing the worst. She seems thrown by the question, and edges her way to an answer. “Erm … erm … she passed away in summer.” How old was she? “She was 33.” Was she ill or did she take her life? Bergdorf looks distraught. She tries to answer, but an anguished noise comes out of her mouth, part groan, part wail. “She took her own life,” she says eventually.

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Then, as she settles into her story, you come to realise the extraordinary intelligence, insight and power of this tenacious woman. Then, not long after moving to London to pursue a career as a DJ, she meets the man who would stalk and rape her. I’m looking forward to sharing a piece of work where people can actually read what I’m about firsthand, instead of seeing me when I pop up in the papers every now and again,” she said. “If I can change people’s minds about how they view people who aren’t like them, and how they view human difference, than that is a job done.” Not surprisingly, this period of her life was particularly tough to write about. Transitional has helped put it in context, she says. “I do feel proud of myself for getting through it and for taking something positive from it. For a long time, I struggled to see the upside.”

a b c Husna Rizvi (30 August 2017). "Transgender model becomes face of L'Oréal". Pink News . Retrieved 27 February 2018. Bergdorf has spoken out recently about fellow Bloomsbury author JK Rowling, whose recent comments about transgender rights Bergdorf described as transphobic. She also referred the UK peer Emma Nicholson to the Parliamentary Standards Conduct Commissioner, for her posts on social media about the trans community. Dress by Richard Quinn. Jewellery by Bulgari. Stylist: Thomas George Wulbern. Photograph: Hollie Fernando/The Guardian As of April 2019, she has made frequent appearances as a guest commentator on ITV's Good Morning Britain and This Morning.Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (8 September 2017). "Munroe Bergdorf is abused while Jacob Rees-Mogg is lauded - only straight white men have free speech". International Business Times . Retrieved 27 February 2018. This is hands down one of the most important books that everyone should read. At least once. Without question this book is so timely with what's going on here in the UK and elsewhere. For me Munroe Bergdorf is up there with the best of humanity. She's as she always has been - essential. It’s often said that it isn’t being trans that is especially difficult; it’s other people’s perceptions of our transness and the way that these feelings are projected onto us that for many makes life feel unliveable, that makes us feel unlovable. If I had had the opportunity to transition within a society that prioritised supporting trans folk, that cared about our safety, our health, our inclusion or employment, then it would have been a very different experience indeed. But we live in a society where the trans community is still treated as an inconvenience, an anomaly, an afterthought, an agenda or an issue. We are a community too small for governments to pander to, but big enough to exploit as a political pawn in the weaponisation of fear in the pursuit of potential votes. If we can’t rely on the government to have progressive conversations about how transgender people can be safe, functioning and thriving members of society, then we should take it upon ourselves to be the change we want to see. Bergdorf is a proud ambassador for gender variant and transgender youth charity Mermaids and a founding consultant of L’Oreal Paris’ UK Diversity and Inclusion Board. She has also spoken at international institutions from Oxford to the UN General Assembly.

In 2019, Bergdorf was awarded an honorary doctorate for campaigning for transgender rights by the University of Brighton, and appointed as a National Advocate for UN Women UK. To reach this entrance, enter the Royal Festival Hall via the Southbank Centre Square Doors. Take the JCB Glass Lift to Level 2 and exit to the Riverside Terrace. Turn right to find the Queen Elizabeth Hall main entrance. It feels appropriate that the book is coming out now – the debate about transgender rights has never been so high profile or heated. In the latest census for England and Wales, only 0.2% of the population identified as transgender (equally split between men and women), but the issue has caused a mighty schism between Scotland and the rest of Britain. While arguments rage in Westminster and the Scottish parliament over the Scottish government’s gender recognition reform bill, drafted to make it easier for people to transition, we’ve heard remarkably little from trans people themselves. Which, Bergdorf tells me, is a huge part of the problem.

She nibbles at a pain aux raisins and tells me that the joy of her student years didn’t last. She spent much of her 20s in chaos. Transition brought new challenges. There were so many dysfunctional relationships with men who fetishised her as a trans woman and despised themselves for doing so, she says. Invariably, their self-loathing ended up expressing itself in acts of violence towards Bergdorf.