When Laverne Cox finally agreed to pose for Allure magazine’s annual nude issue, she was shedding more than just her clothing. The Orange Is The New Black star came to see the shoot as an opportunity to defy the narrative that black women and trans women aren’t beautiful.
“I said no initially, thought about it, and said no again,” Cox recalls. “But I’m a black transgender woman. I felt this could be really powerful for the communities that I represent.”
“Black women are not often told that we’re beautiful unless we align with certain standards,” she added. “Trans women certainly are not told we’re beautiful.”
“Seeing a black transgender woman embracing and loving everything about her body might be inspiring for some folks. There’s a beauty in the things we think are imperfect. It sounds very cliché, but it’s true.”
“Going through life you try to cover and hide but it doesn’t really work.”
We think you look gorgeous, Laverne.
Here’s one shot from the spread:
Since her spread in Vogue, Laverne has maintained her trajectory as a trans trailblazer in the entertainment world. Her role in Orange Is the New Black earned her an Emmy Award nomination. That made her the first transgender person nominated in an acting category!
Beyond her career in Hollywood, Cox has remained a vocal advocate for the LGBTQ+ community, using her social platforms to amplify marginalized voices. Laverne also executive produced Netflix‘s documentary series Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen, further solidifying her commitment to transgender representation on the big screen.
Laverne Cox’s star power shines as bright as ever – for more dazzling updates, subscribe to the Queerty newsletter!
AlexM
…..ok?
lauraspencer
What????
Diana Ross, Lena Horne, Oprah, Halle Berry, Kim Fields, Phylicia Rashad, Tyra Banks, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Kerry Washington, Whitney Houston, Alicia Keyes, Iman, Rhianna, Diahann Caroll, Debbie Morgan, Robin Roberts, Tamara Tunie, Deborah Roberts, etc…..
I understand wanting to do the shoot to bring attention to trans women, but to suggest African American women aren’t seen as beautiful is simply not true. African American beauty has been celebrated for years. The above is just a few examples off the top of my head.
lauraspencer
Shari Belafonte, Beverly Johnson, Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett Smith, Nyupito Lyongo….
Clark35
She’s doing it just for attention.
Bob LaBlah
@lauraspencer: A very beautiful black actress who is now mostly forgotten (thanks in large part to the blaxploitation movies of the 1970’s in which she starred) was Gloria Hendry. There was another one whose name I can’t remember for the life of me was the first black model to actually have her own show for about half a season around 1965 or so. Believe it or not, I saw her in Ebony back in the mid 1970’s and can’t recall her name nor anything about her. It is sad the article mentioned that she got jobs more or less based on her fair skin and “like white” features, but she was beautiful still. Someone please help me here. I am hell bent to get her name. It was in the mid 1960’s.
Bob LaBlah
@Clark35: She’s also being paid.
jason smeds
Laverne is doing it for attention in my view. Also, if she’s so proud of being black, why does she have hair that looks like a white woman’s?
jwtraveler
@lauraspencer: I think that last one is supposed to be Lupita Nyong’o.
I don’t find Laverne at all attractive, but it’s her body, her life and her right to do what she wants with them.
Giancarlo85
Always the same old hypocritical bigots on here bashing on trans people. And the typical Jason Smeds bullshit.
She is beautiful in my opinion!
ScottOnEarth
I’ll always be an advocate for trans people but Laverne cox annoys the HELL out of me!!!!!!
Cee
She needs to be more careful. A lot of people look up to her. I don’t think this was a good decision, but good luck to her!
Philigree
@jason smeds: Because outside your cave, there are people who alter their hair to complement their face. I’m sure that in the Betty Homemaker era where you came from (and stayed,) people did that too.
Philigree
@Giancarlo85: “jason smeds bullshit” is kind of redundant, really. It’s like saying that “bovine cow.”
jason smeds
Laverne Cox needs to realize that people are tired of her attention-seeking ways. She is subscribing to the same ridiculous, sexist stereotypes that many American women adhere to.
Here’s some advice, Laverne: put some clothes on. We are not even minimally interested in your wannabe-woman body.
Giancarlo85
@jason smeds: You are just so clueless. Seriously what decade are you from and stuck in? Not everyone believes in your antiquated world views. And I suspect you would rather see women covered up from head to toe like they do in Muslim countries? You are a hypocrite and a misogynist.
jason smeds
To me, Diana Ross is THE most gorgeous black woman who has ever walked the planet. Gorgeous singer, gorgeous voice, gorgeous face, gorgeous personality…and yes, a friend of homosexual men.
How many of today’s popular female pop performers had all these qualities? I see none.
Giancarlo85
@jason smeds: You are so blind… You are claiming most female pop musicians today aren’t friends of gay men? I just don’t get how someone could be so full of shit.
IvanPH
Many black women are beautiful. This photoshoot is not necessary.
I also don’t know anyone who finds this sexy. Certainly not gay men. Straight men would probably vomit. Lesbians, especially the butch ones, like cis women.
And Laverne is annoying. Transwomen, please choose a different role model.
Realitycheck
@Giancarlo85:
Absolutely, for one is part of the entertainment industry, what ever you are
a singer, musician, actor, dancer or anything else related, you will be in
contact with lots and lots of gay people, that alone will create friendships
and sympathy.
There is also the perception that gays buy more records, and can make or
break a singer career……………
More importantly having met several people in the industry in NYC and LA,
most people embracing that kind of art/job/lifestyle have a unique and
accepting mind set.
Arcamenel
@jason smeds: There are black women with naturally blond and straight hair. Black hair and people are extremely varied.
blasted
Clearly several of the people here do not understand the struggles of black women’s beauty, what Laverne said is true. Lupita was fetishize for her skin tone, and fashion sense, but was not above criticism or reproach. Before Lupita several magazines had the Stigma still and to this day that black faces do not sell. Even after the Tyra Bank Sport Illustrated, and countless other scenarios where black faces especially Black Women’s faces on magazines were instantly devalued while selling high numbers.
Then there is the lightening of their skin to look whiter, from Viola, to Beyonce, To Lupita, and countless other famous black women even Most recently Kerry Washington, there was serious backlash for changing the tone of their skin to be lighter aka more socially acceptable.
Laverne is a great ambassador for trans women of color, there are very few to none in media so, having the rest of the world recognize her as the woman she is a step in the right direction. You know of the way Gays Marriage became two white guys or girls and poster children for the Gay marriage movement, or show casing gay parents to opposition to laws trying to take rights away for gay family via adoption.
As far as her hair, I have coverage White standard of beauty in our culture on a previous post. Not even white women hold up to that standard, they get weaves, plastic surgery, go on extreme diet to try to obtain something that only photoshop can achieve. There is a reason eating disorder exist buddy. So let’s not go there with judging black women trying to fit in to that same ideal. They are human too.
Bob LaBlah
Forgive my ignorance but if something is still bouncing around down there then aren’t you technically still a man with tits? Does anyone know if she actually had the “chop”?
aliengod
@Bob LaBlah: LOL! Exactly what I was thinking.
blasted
@Bob LaBlah: Bob you’re confusing sex, with gender, do your homework. Aliengod way to co-sign on ignorance.
aliengod
@blasted: They’re one in the same. Or are you saying the sex is male but the gender is female? That seems odd.
dave lopes
@Arcamenel: HEIN?????
Black women with naturally blond hair????
You mean Mixed race women.
Franklin
Some of ya’ll don’t get it. Yes there are the Beyonces and Tyras of the world, but in general when it come to beauty, black women are often an afterthought. They are routinely othered of generations, and during the few periods their beauty was in vogue it was always considered something exotic. I seem to remember ok cupid doing survey a few years ago that said that when it comes to replies to profiles, after controlling for income, education, and level of attractivenesss level, they found that black women replied the most profiles, but would often receive the least replies back across the board with all races. Tinder did the same thing as well and came up with the same results. Look at any article on the internet that features a black woman darker than Hallie Berry and talks about how beautiful she is. You will almost always see numerous comments putting her down, as well as people who feel it’s their obligation to state how even though people say she’s beautiful, they are not attracted to her. Even our first lady Michele Obama is called ugly, when that is clearly not the case. So yeah, I understand why Laverne felt the need to do this shoot, and I don’t blame her one bit.
jayj150
@blasted: Gender non-conforming women, particularly butch lesbians are way more underrepresented than transwomen(of any color), be it in mainstream media, in so-called gay media and even in LGBT organizations like GLAAD. They are the real underdogs of the LGBT movement. You can see it right here on Queerty, for every lesbian-related story(particularly butch lesbians) you have dozens of stories about “heterosexual” transpeople like Cox and that Health Men’s person. It’s a disgrace that we have relegated and abandoned our lesbians sisters to favor transpeople who have done, and still do nothing for gay people’s rights.
And also, if gender and sex are different things, are you saying people like Cox are sexually male?. And if so, are men attracted to non-operative people like Cox, really homosexual?.
jayj150
@Franklin: Stop pretending black women are the only victims here. Asians, Latinas, butch women, short women, overweight women, how often do you see them on a magazine cover?. And if you think Cox did this for anything other than publicity, you are naive beyond hope.
Giancarlo85
@jayj150: You seem to make things up as you go along. Butch lesbians are not underrepresented when in contrast to transwomen. Do you even follow anything or pay attention to the facts? And not all transpeople are heterosexual. You’re spouting off about something you know nothing about.
blasted
@jayj150: Don’t deflect from the subject stay on topic. Before Transition, Media figures such as Chaz Bono, Rosie O’Donnell, Ellen Degenerate (the new Oprah), Queen Latifah (Yes Queen Latifah is a lesbian) represented the non-gender conforming Lesbians. How many trans women of color were highlighted in the media before Orange is the New and Laverne Cox? The Answer to that question is none. Janet Mock was not highlighted on any media stations before the exposure of trans people in 2014 on major new outlets. Why because Gays in the LGBTQI community told trans people to wait their turns. Their time is now and Gayboys need to get over it.
Aliengod Sex and Gender are not the same, like I said before do your research. Or are you going to try to exert your privilege over me and want me to teach you??? You clearly have access to the internet, i’m sure you can google the difference between sex and gender.
aliengod
@blasted: Your inability to explain the difference is understandable, because there isn’t one. Deflecting that point by using my “privilege” over you is about as nonsensical as your comment to @jayj150.
@Giancarlo85: You constantly use the word “facts” but never present any. Perhaps it’s because you’re full of BS!.
Giancarlo85
@blasted: Ellen “Degenerate”? I hope that’s an autocorrect error…
Giancarlo85
@aliengod: Speak for yourself, kiddo. You have to constantly post on here about how manly you are and how everyone is inferior to you. You’re the one full of shit. You have never presented a coherent and logical argument… ever.
jayj150
@Giancarlo85: Señorita Restrepo, you need to cut down on the marijuana, it’s making you about as violent as your country of origin. You have serious anger issues; I feel really sorry for you. And I never said all transpeople were heterosexual, please work on your reading skills.
And @blasted, let me repeat the question: if,as your state, gender and sex are different things, are you saying Cox and non-operative transgenders are sexually male?. Please, stay on topic.
Jacob23
Why didn’t Cox do full frontal? Either Cox still has a cox and is embarrassed or (s)he didn’t want to display whatever it is that the physicians sculpted down there.
In any event, this stunt is probably intended to get people to forget about Cox’s recent embarrassing scandal. Cox starred in a video celebrating a “transwoman” who is serving a life sentence for participating in the rape and murder of a 13-year old African American girl. When it came out that the crime involved both rape and a child victim, there was a huge backlash and Cox dropped the project and had the video taken down. But the taint remains and dropping trou is a way to move people on to another subject.
Giancarlo85
@jayj150: You need to cut down on the cocaine. It’s not doing you any good. But that’s so funny… I don’t smoke marijuana… marijuana though doesn’t make someone violent (typically not). Your reading and logic skills are atrocious… almost borderline mentally deficient (perhaps you have a learning disability).
You’re the one with serious anger management issues (and the marijuana reference just shows to me you’re seething with anger).
@Jacob23: Why are you so concerned what she has down there?
And anybody can make a mistake. She took the video down and realized her mistake.
aliengod
@Giancarlo85: Every time you try and make a counter point, you repeat what’s just been said about you. It’s like arguing with a child… “You’re stupid”, “No, you’re stupid!”; “You’re ugly”, “No, You’re ugly”. You’re very immature. As far as your response to @Jacob23, it makes a difference “what she has down there” as to what pronoun we use to describe his/her sex(gender).
Giancarlo85
@aliengod: Speak for yourself, kiddo. You’ve been beating your chest like a gorilla for several weeks now… you have never posted anything backing yourself up. I have posted links with my arguments. You have some serious insecurities and major attitude problems. I’m immature? Have you looked inthe mirror lately?
Um, SHE. You don’t base a gender label based on whether one has a dick or not. You’re an immature little tween most likely. Your parents shouldn’t allow you to access this site. Fuck… how old are you? 13?
Giancarlo85
So you’re going to use a pronoun based on whether SHE has a dick or not? Yeah, that’s real mature. You’re about as stupid as it gets.
csports286
@jason smeds: You completely overlooked the Queen, Mariah Carey…
teagusa
I like trailblazers and Ms. Cox is definitely one.
Saint Law
Blob La Bah, Jason Smeg and AlienTard.
It’s like a roll call of morons.
Bob LaBlah
@aliengod: I think I get it now. What is translates to is a man who decided to put on panties, get some tit/ass injections and put on a bra, try to constantly speak with an alto voice and get angry at society as they decide they do not want to share a bathroom, gym locker room with someone who more or less looks “unnatural, shall we say.
Now I get it. And not only that, I can’t wait for this things past to start flashing before her eyes. If she willingly took up the cause for a child murder wearing a dress that means she supports “certain” lines of thinking.
Giancarlo85
@Bob LaBlah: You are an ignorant sad person. Why do you try to talk about subjects you have no clue about what? You really don’t get anything. You make a lot of assumptions about other people. And no, not a man.. She is a transwoman. Learn the difference.
She retracted that and took down the video. End of story.
aliengod
@Bob LaBlah: That truly is what people like @Saint Law and @Giancarlo85 believe. It’s pretty crazy. How dare we call someone with a penis a man!
jeffsmith60
Song of Songs _ “I am black an I am beautiful”. Even God digs black chicks!
Giancarlo85
@aliengod: Oh that’s just so mature you tell someone’s gender by their gentials. You are so intelligent… *rolleyes*
Seriously how old are you? 13 or 14?
Gender is a fucking label. I am genderqueer. And I don’t like labels or what-not.
Jacob23
I give Cox some credit for asking the Sylvia Rivera Law Project to take down the video. The SLRP, for its part, did not apologize and in fact dug in its heels, issuing a statement of full support for the child murderer, Synthia China Blast.
But while Cox gets some credit for dropping the project after the sh!t hit the fan, it doesn’t deal with the question of how (s)he could have agreed to do the video in the first place. Any normal person would have said – “Wait a minute! Synthia China Blast is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison. I want to know what this person did and who was hurt. I won’t support a killer just because she’s trans.” But Cox lacked the moral judgment to ask these questions. Or, more likely, (s)he did get all the information on the murderer (all of which is easily accessible via a google search), and just didn’t care.
And Cox is also working on a film celebrating yet another killer, “CeCe” McDonald. CeCe stabbed a man in the chest and left him to bleed to death in the street. (S)he then lied to the police about what happened. Eventually, the police were able to prove CeCe was lying and (s)he plead guilty to a 2d degree manslaughter charge. With all of the causes in the world that could use a boost from a celebrity – from Syrian refugees to animal abuse to climate change to the rights of ordinary, non-homicidal transgenders – why does Laverne Cox keep picking up the banner for killers?
Captain Obvious
@aliengod: I think he, Saint Law, Cam, etc are all the same person. They all post the same, always agree with each other, and do nothing but insult people “they” don’t agree with.
Seems like someone at Queerty is trolling to drum up more replies and clicks. That or it’s a really REALLY sad person with the most pathetic life imaginable. I can’t fathom why anyone would be this angry with random anonymous people for no reason… especially over having differing opinions.
They try to lock you into refuting your stance and defending your opinion repeatedly which just supports the click bait theory. A normal person, even a sad one, would get bored of this after a while. A person looking to bait for clicks at least has a monetary motivation… even if they need help for their multiple personalities and dissociative nature.
Bauhaus
@Bob LaBlah:
Try to be a better human being. Really.
Bauhaus
@Captain Obvious:
Aw, you’re all butt hurt because the smart guys with decency outnumber you (and the rest of the self-loathing trolls). Too bad.
aliengod
@Captain Obvious: They probably are. I’d never considered that but it makes sense.
@Giancarlo85: “Oh that’s just so mature you tell someone’s gender by their gentials. You are so intelligent… *rolleyes*”
Really? Did you miss sex ed class when you were in school? Some of the BS that spews out of your mouth is laughable. It’s beyond ignorant.
Giancarlo85
@Captain Obvious: You can’t fathom why anyone would be this angry? Why are you so angry with everyone then? You seem to be seething with anger in every post. I feel pity for you. You’re such a hypocrite you don’t even realize it.
@aliengod: Gentials don’t equal gender labels. I am genderqueer. I don’t subscribe to gender labels. And you have no right to put any gender label on me. So you’re the one full of BS. Get over your fake masculine crap too. Nobody is buying it anymore.
Giancarlo85
@aliengod: And you’re a little child who is supremely ignorant. You are such a fraud in every respect. It’s almost as hilarious as your fake masculine crap you keep drumming up all the time.
aliengod
@Giancarlo85: Ahh. It makes perfect sense to me now why you’re so angry all the time. You poor thing. You needn’t say any more.
Giancarlo85
@aliengod: Says the boy with masculinity issues and anger management problems. What a quick little thing replying… has no life really.
Bob LaBlah
@Captain Obvious: I think he, Saint Law, Cam, etc are all the same person. They all post the same, always agree with each other, and do nothing but insult people “they” don’t agree with.”
Back in early March I noticed an “error” in the name during a response. I had personally believed this little ignoramus had “issues” but would have never figure it went so far as to posting another name and then ANSWERING what was clearly their own response. It was the same person but “it” forgot to change the name before the response. This individual lives for nothing else but an argument and that is why I now refuse to respond to anything said to me from “it”.
It’s really sad people grew up with no friends or felt close to anyone, even a family member. Beaten up everyday after school…………in a society that is just outright murderous and filled with religious hypocrisy, poverty and despair. I really could see this person doing extensive searches to try to find an address, telephone nbr………this is a deranged individual. Silence is the only thing that is going to make “it” realize just how stupid they sound.
Giancarlo85
@Bob LaBlah: LOL. I think you, Aliengod and Captain are the same person. You all parrot each other and you’re doing that again.
You’re the only ignoramus here and you have an unusual fixation on porn. I guess that is what happens when you have no one in your life. Nobody likes someone who gave up on themselves decades ago. You’re the only deranged thing here.
Captain Obvious
@Bob LaBlah: Yeah it’s kinda scary, especially since I really believe they are a Queerty author trying to drive hits by creating arguments.
Once you pay attention to “them” it’s hard not to notice how they always come in hot with insults ready for no reason despite the fact that no one actually said anything to “them”. All you have to do is state your opinion… on a blog, and it’s insult time.
You’re right though, there are tons of stories about people like this who have tracked people down over their own deranged straw man arguments, and killed them. Probably best to ignore it’s little ignorant posts.
Honestly the fact that Queerty has never banned or even warned them makes it pretty obvious that they are the alt accounts of the person who’s making money off this site.
I used to know a guy who ran a very successful site and he told me how he had about 50 accounts on the site which were all him posting back and forth amongst each other to drive traffic. I guess that’s why I thought about it in the first place. There are many sites that do this. I had actually stopped talking to him shortly after that because it creeped me out how good he was at it. I really thought they were different people when it was really all him posting under 50 different accounts(and he was quickly adding more accounts).
With this being the internet it’s really not even surprising that this person is posting under so many accounts agreeing with himself and spamming insults(no normal person would come in to agree with something that is nothing more than an insult). I’d wager every single account posting insults(without provocation) to random people are this person posting under various accounts.
This person has literally never been provoked one time by anyone yet every account he posts on flies off the handle insulting people all day long hoping to click bait people into a huge argument. It’s pathetic. Even if he’s making money off of it it’s really pathetic and scary.
That’s no way to live a life. Negativity and bad karma come right back around and smack you in the face harder than the person or people you smacked first.
Bob LaBlah
@Captain Obvious: Have you also noticed that whenever the comment count is above fifty at least fifteen or twenty can be attributed to “it” alone? The rules of commenting are simple: no matter how ignorant it counts as a “hit”, so there will be no banning “it”.
McShane
@Giancarlo85:
“Gender is a fucking label. I am genderqueer. And I don’t like labels or what-not.”
Sorry, Genderqueer is a label. Self-description is still labeling.
The label may also be used by individuals wishing to identify as holding queer or non-normative gender without being any more specific about the nature of their gender.
http://nonbinary.org/wiki/Genderqueer
YouGoGurl
This form of Cox is insufferable . . . ugh.
Giancarlo85
@McShane: Incorrect, republican. The statement “genderqueer” infers the lack of gender labels. You’re a stupid ignorant thing for sure.
@Captain Obvious: Wow you go on and on… do you actually say anything of content?
I wonder how a troll like Bob McBlah (LOL that sounds more catchy) can control so many accounts on here. I think they need to start IP checking this and ban some IP addresses.
The troll calls for me to be banned? Why is that? Because I challenge the silly one dimensional world view of an obese man (Bob, Aka Captain Obvious) that has no job and no life?
Funny how these trolls accuse other people of being trolls and then proceed to engage in bullying behavior. It’s the sad description of a man with no life, no love, and no friends. And often these types of trolls are the saddest of them all (Bob AKA Captain Obvious).
This little runt has no proof and no evidence that I control no more than one account. I don’t have the time for that type of stupid shit. I leave that to sad pathetic internet keyboard warriors like Bob AKA Captain Obvious.
I’m just kind of kicking myself for not noticing the striking similiarites between the posting styles of Bob and Captain Obvious. Should have picked it up earlier. If Bob and Captain are the same person, this person never disappears. Also notice how Bob and Captain are on at the same time.
Giancarlo85
Oh and Wikicrapia is not a source. Anyone can go on there and make edits, including you McShane. Try again. And I know this because I used to be an editor on that crapshoot of a site.
Xzamilio
Okay, Laverne is like 4 shades lighter than she used to be… I had to do a double take when I saw her in an old episode of Law and Order: SVU… she was obviously still transitioning then and I didn’t even realize it was her as I had watched that episode multiple times. Seriously, go look at it. Season 9 Episode 16, “Closet”.She bleached the fuck out of her skin.
McShane
@Giancarlo85: It wasn’t even from Wikipedia. If you think that I took the time to sign up to nonbinary .org, just so I could edit the term Genderqueer, you’re a lunatic.