Holly woodlawn autobiography of a face
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Today Mediático presents another Oscars-themed reflection by regular contributor Roberto Ortiz, independent scholar, on the career of Holly Woodlawn, Puerto Rican transgender actor, pioneer, and Warhol superstar, mythicized in the opening lines of Lou Reed&#;s &#;Walk on the Wild Side&#; and included in the &#;In Memoriam&#; section of the 88th Academy Award&#;s ceremony. Ortiz explores the significance of Woodlawn&#;s career and the terms on which she was memorialized at the Oscars suggesting that although it reflects the U.S. mainstream&#;s attempts at inclusivity with respect to trans people there&#;s a continuing exclusion of performers who, like Woodlawn, defy fixed identity categories and are still not welcome among the predominantly white, wealthy, hetero and homonormative Oscars ceremony audience.
I’m not afraid of playing a man; I was born a man.
And I’m not afraid of being a woman. I love women.
Too much is made of gender. I want people to say of me,
‘Here is
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&#;I&#;m a Woman, Darling&#;: The Life and Times of Warhol Superstar Holly Woodlawn
Promotional poster for Holly Woodlawn&#;s cabaret show.
Holly Woodlawn was Andy Warhol’s spiciest superstar, the Factory’s own Anna Magnani. Following her volcanic breakthrough performance in the Warhol-produced, Paul Morrissey-directed Trash (), the Puerto Rico-born transgender trailblazer would be immortalized by Lou Reed in the lyrics to his hit “Walk on the Wild Side,” dressed by Halston, photographed by Richard Avedon and feted by Truman Capote as “the face of the seventies” (although rumor has it the writer may have said those exact words to Woodlawn’s peer, Candy Darling, too). By the time the naïve aspiring screenwriter Jeff Copeland encountered Woodlawn in Los Angeles in , the diva’s fortunes had taken a downturn. The odd couple would collaborate on Woodlawn’s autobiography A Low Life in High Heels and now, almost a decade after Woodlawn’s death, Copeland reflects on their friends
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“Dear Dorothy, there’s no place like home!” opens Holly Woodlawn’s biography, A Low Life in High Heels: The Holly Woodlawn Story (), a book devoted to her parents and to all “those who have known the struggle of being different, endured the fear of rejection, and mustered the courage to survive.”1 The Puerto Rico-born trans superstar and countercultural icon, known for her scene-stealing performances in Paul Morrissey’s Trash () and Women in Revolt! (), shot to prominence in the downtown Warhol Factory en plats där en händelse inträffar ofta inom teater eller film along with Jackie Curtis and Candy Darling, and has since endured as a captivating mainstay of queer misfit culture of the s New York avant-garde. Known also as Lou Reed’s muse, she features centrally in his ballad ‘Walk on the Wide Side.’ “Holly came from Miami F-L-A / Hitch-hiked her way across the USA,” he croons, “Plucked her eyebrows on the way / Shaved her legs and then he was a she / She says, ‘Hey babe, take a walk on the wide side…’”
Woodlawn, who adopted he