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SPEAKER_03: Hi, I'm Marlo Mack. And I'm Em. She's my daughter. She's my mom. Together, we make a podcast called How to Be a Girl. And we wanted to introduce a queer woman
SPEAKER_02: who has been featured on Encyclopedia Lamanica, Roberta Cowell, who was transgender, like me. But Roberta lived during a time
SPEAKER_03: when almost no one understood what it meant to be transgender. A long time ago.
SPEAKER_02: She helped blaze a trail for future generations
SPEAKER_03: of transgender people. She also drove race cars. Really fast.
SPEAKER_02: Which is very cool.
SPEAKER_03: So cool. Now, here's host Jenny Kaplan to tell you all about Roberta Cowell. Roberta Cowell.
SPEAKER_00: Hello. From Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan. And this is Encyclopedia Lamanica. Today's maverick was a war hero, race car driver, and trans pioneer. She changed the way people think about gender identity. And she was the first woman to undergo sex reassignment surgery. Let's talk about Roberta Cowell. Roberta was born in 1918 in Croydon, England. She was one of three children born into an upper middle class family. Her father was a prominent surgeon and her mother was interested in social work and the arts. Roberta later described her upbringing as strict, religious, and moral. And her family's strong convictions led Roberta to be anti-religious. Roberta struggled at school where students bullied her for her weight, but she found her place in the motor club. Roberta loved cars and dreamed of becoming a racing motorist from an early age. She was also interested in photography and filmmaking. At the age of 16, Roberta left school to work as an apprentice aircraft engineer and soon joined the Royal Air Force. Roberta was a young woman who was a young woman who was a young man who was in the Royal Air Force. In 1935, Roberta became an acting pilot officer but was discharged due to motion sickness. Roberta returned to engineering and studied at the University College London. She wanted to become an automobile engineer. She thought cars had more personality than planes. To get experience, Roberta would dress as a mechanic and sneak into racetrack service areas In 1936, Roberta fulfilled her childhood dream of motor racing and won her class at the Land's End speed trial. By 1939, she had competed in the Antwerp Grand Prix. Two years later, in 1941, Roberta married Diana Carpenter, a fellow engineering student who shared her love of racing. They would go on to have two daughters. But World War II was looming, and shortly before her marriage, Roberta was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the army. In 1942, she was transferred to the Royal Air Force and became a frontline Spitfire pilot performing aerial recon. In her autobiography, Roberta wrote about the dangers of flying during the war. She said, "'Narrow escapes were a daily event. Several of my closest friends were killed and I regarded it as just a matter of time.' On one occasion, Roberta lost all radio contact and had to find her way home through thick clouds. She almost crashed into the sea, but landed on cliffs right before her fuel tank hit empty. On another occasion, she survived a crash and was taken to a German POW camp where, due to limited food, she said prisoners were forced to eat raw cats. After the war, Roberta started racing again and even founded a motor racing team, but she suffered from depression and later described this period of her life as pointless and empty. By 1948, Roberta had separated from Diana and her depression worsened. She later said, "'It was an attempt to make up for what I knew deep down inside me consciously. My nature was essentially feminine and in some way my world out of joint.' During this time, Roberta met a woman named Lisa who would be her companion and friend for the next 30 years. After an illegal surgery by physician Michael Dillon, the first trans man to undergo valoplasty, Roberta was able to be diagnosed as intersex, which allowed her to change the sex on her birth certificate to female. In 1954, Roberta sold the story of her gender reassignment surgery to newspapers. The public was fascinated, though the concept of changing one's gender was new and often misunderstood. News reports confused sexuality with gender identity and transgender women were assumed to be homosexual men. Roberta's story broke that narrative as she had previously been married to a woman and they had two children. Plus, her experience with combat service and motor racing were considered very masculine accomplishments and perceived to be unusual for transgender women. Roberta continued to race and in 1957, she won the Shellsley Walsh Speed Hill Climb.
SPEAKER_06: But Roberta's determined to get back into top line driving, which she calls the only way of life I know.
SPEAKER_00: In 1958, Roberta acquired a combat aircraft and intended to perform a record-breaking flight across the South Atlantic. But the project was never completed and later that year, Roberta was declared bankrupt. Roberta struggled to find employment and her financial issues worsened. While she continued to race cars well into the 1970s, she largely remained out of the public eye. In the 1990s, Roberta moved into a London nursing home. In 2011, at the age of 93, she died. She instructed that her death not be publicized and only six people attended her funeral. In lieu of flowers, her friends hung a sign that said, Roberta Cowell Racing over her coffin. Roberta's courage is notable not just for her bravery in the face of war, but also for her extraordinary fight against societal norms to have her gender identity recognized. All May, we're talking about mavericks and legends. We're highlighting women who went against prescribed gender norms to make a name for themselves for better or for worse. Some of these women did incredible things for society and should be celebrated. Others had an impact that was not so rosy. The collection of women we're featuring this month is complex and nuanced, much like all women are. Tune in tomorrow to hear the story of another maverick or legend. If you haven't heard the news, I'm really excited to share that we launched an Encyclopedia Womanica membership program. As a Womaniac, you'll have access to weekly events and more. Join our first live event this Thursday where I'll be doing a Q&A all about what goes on behind the scenes and what's coming next. Become a Womaniac at glow.fm slash Womanica. That's GLOW.FM slash Womanica. You can also find the link in our episode notes. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow.
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