OK, so FutureFace is fangirling: Chelsea Manning, my new fave Wonder Woman.
After her trial and sentencing in 2013 to a term of 35 years for whistleblowing, no new photos of Chelsea Manning were published. She declared herself transgender on her first day in Fort Leavenworth and underwent hormone therapy during her years in prison.
After her trial and sentencing in 2013 to a term of 35 years for whistleblowing, no new photos of Chelsea Manning were published. She declared herself transgender on her first day in Fort Leavenworth and underwent hormone therapy during her years in prison.
The two last media pictures were a selfie in a blond wig and in US Military uniform and buzz cut at her trial, her eyes full of anguish at the prospect of a powerless future. How would she fare in an all male prison? Her eyes struck me then as very yin - the feminine, hidden, inward, in darkness, locked away in the subconscious, passive. As a woman in a man’s body, a small figure surrounded by burly guards, her eyes capture her unresolved identity issues which she described as ‘a giant, cosmic toothache’ since age of 5. Her mouth shows she’s only just holding it together.
Fast forward to May 2017, post pardon from former President Obama, release from prison and her first photo on Instagram with the tag line “OK, so here I am everyone!”. The yin and yang has switched. She’s now becoming herself and her eyes have become yang, the masculine, active, conscious energy of the binary. The energy of her eyes comes to meet you: bold, confident, assertive. Since then she’s been rocking a neo-cyberpunk look in Vogue, elegant in The Washington Post, and upfront in TV interviews. The damp puffiness around the jawline caused by held-in emotion has been replaced by sharp definition and chevron cheekbones.
She’s out in every sense of the word.
In the park, in Manhattan and in her authentic self.
Stay classy, Chelsea Manning.