Thursday, August 13, 2009

The Hermaphrodite: Bobby Minton or Gladys Bentley



Jet
1953

In the late 1940’s, she starred in show business, both as Bobbie Minton the male impersonator, and as Gladys Bentley. She was once considered a sophisticated cabaret singer who specialized in risqué’ songs. In an interview, she admitted to receiving hormone injections three times a week to accelerate her return to womanhood.

It was once reported that Bobbie Minton wrote a book titled, “Twilight Zone of Sex”. This book was suppose to detail her life experience growing up as a hermaphrodite. She also revealed that following a Doctor visit, she was told that, “Your sex organs are infantile. They haven’t progressed past the stage of those of a fourteen-year-old-child”.

Prior to a sex change operation, she once wrote, “For many years, I lived in a personal hell. Like a great number of lost souls, I inhabited that half-shadow no-man’s land which exists between the boundaries of the two sexes”.

She also pointed out, “I violated the accepted code or morals that our world observes…I was a big, successful star – and a sad, lonely person – until the miracle happened and I became a woman again”.

Here's an insight into the life and times of Gladys Bentley (or Bobby Minton):



Replaceable you: engineering the body in postwar America‎
by David Harley Serlin
Limited preview - 2004

4 comments:

  1. Harpo...oppps i mean OPRAH IS THAT YOU???

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  2. Oprah

    "..taking those hormone pills...taking those hormone pills...i'd kill 'em dead if they found out my true identity...".

    lol

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  3. i dont think this is Oprah but its possible that this is Oprah's sister, which makes this person Jay-Z's great grandmother.

    this is odd, i watch making the band and there is a person who comes in to train singer on the badboy label. she was credited for providing vocal talent to Mary J. Blidge. I forgot her name well this person look just like her too. It's the black lady with the wide mouth kinda heavy.

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  4. she plays piano too

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