Monday, November 4, 2024 - Dr Ronnie Gladden, a US-based speaker, actor, tenured professor and author, says he now identifies as a white woman though he was born a black male.
Dr Ronnie said he grew up wanting to be like Snow White,
fantasised about a Pride & Prejudice lifestyle and wanted to
emulate Elle Fanning's fashion.
He dreamed of lying out in the sun getting a tan and of
having blonde hair that grew lighter in the summer.
However, being a black boy growing up in Cincinnati's West
Side meant his ambitions were not realistic.
Now, middle aged, Ronnie is a tenured professor of English
at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, a public speaker, and
actor, and uses this platform to promote what he calls a
"transgracial" identity.
Ronnie - who uses the pronoun they - now identifies as a
white woman, regardless of outward appearances. According to him, there is a
"repressed White female identity" inside him begging to be released.
Ronnie is part of a little-known community of people
who are 'transgracial' - meaning they are both transgender and
identify as transracial.
People who are transracial believe that race is a social
construct and therefore a "choice", but the idea of
"changing" race is highly controversial.
Dr Ronnie, who holds a doctorate in Educational
Leadership from Northern Kentucky University, subscribes to the
idea that there is no innate or biological difference between races.
He claims race is a social construct which is based on how
people see and treat others, and how people treat themselves.
"I know race is not real," Ronnie writes in his
book. "It's only so because society says it is."
Ronnie underwent surgery, with a first nose job at 19,
combined with "some work on the lips".
He also wears foundation in a lighter shade but acknowledges
that his outward appearance does not relay to the world their inner feeling of
being a white woman.
"My skin is pretty brown in terms of complexion,"
Ronnie recently told BBC Radio 4. "My hair is thick. It's got
twists and waves. Is doing a lot of different things, but I see that as an
expression of my mind."
In the same interview, Ronnie described how feeling
like a white female dates back to a very young age.
As far back as pre-school, aged four, he wanted to be
like their white girl peers.
The academic explained: "I remember [...] being outside
in the playground and wanting to animate in the same way that I saw my
classmates - in the way that their hair would respond to the wind and would
flap around. I wanted to have the rosy cheeks."
Describing the feeling further during a TedX talk, Ronnie explained: "I present as black and male, yet internally, I possess a white girl within."
He continued: "Back then, I knew [...] that I was
drawn to the white female aesthetic. I magnetically connected with the hair
texture, the skin complexion, the bone structure, the social cues and the
mathematics of that all."
According to Ronnie, people may argue that as a young child surrounded
by mainly white children, it would "make sense that you would feel like
that's how you should look".
However, the feeling has carried through to adult life.
According to Ronnie, while growing up, he saw himself
"reflected" in a number of women, including Full House
character Kimmy Gibler, rock star Joan Jett, and actress Anne
Hathaway, describing the sensation as being "insistent, consistent and
persistent throughout the years".
Despite first having the feelings of being a white female at
just four, by middle-age, Dr Ronnie has written about how he was still facing
"unfinished business" when it came to working on holding these
distinct identities.
But despite these struggles, Ronnie wrote: “Through all the
noir, I know the light of my White femaleness swirls and lurks about. I thought
it would always just have to be this way.”
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