Hey guys (and girls), are you attracted to this woman?

Photo by James Hamilton, The New York Observer
If you said "yes," then you wouldn't be alone. Adorable little hipster darling Jamie Clayton has been getting a lot of attention in the press lately, and while most of it centers around how gosh darn hot she is, it's also due to the fact that there's one teensy detail about her that makes her stand out from all the other pretty young things in Manhattan: She used to be a man.

A sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania
That's right, home girl is a tranny. But here's why people are so interested: Most male-to-female transgenders and transsexuals in the media have been portrayed as well, hot tranny messes, starting with the tragic blond glamour puss Candy Darling of the Warhol era, the unforgettable 70s Rocky Horror Picture Show icon Dr. Frankenfurter, (Speaking of which, when are they gonna remake that fu*ker? I hope that won't happen, but I'm sure it will...), over-the-top club kids Lady Bunny, Sophia Lamar, Amanda Lepore and perhaps the most famous of them all, RuPaul, who also happens to be the first transsexual to sign a very lucrative cosmetics contract thanks to the always progressive company, M.A.C. But what do all of these women have in common? Well, on the most superficial level anyway, they all look like drag queens.


Maybe that's why people are freaking out about Clayton, who looks as fresh as a daisy and who's model-esque figure is described in a recent New York Observer article like this: "She is 5-foot-10, has long, wavy red hair, porcelain skin and big blue eyes. She sat upright in her stool, long bare legs draped on top of each other exposing upper reaches of thigh under a gray cloth miniskirt." Indeed, the piece begins with author Spencer Morgan claiming he found her via a straight male bachelor friend known for always having a hot chick on his arm. "Now he was dating a tranny, and talking about it as casually as if he'd recently begun incorporating onions in his scrambled eggs. He went on and on about how she was 'totally ----- hot, man. Probably one of the hottest transsexuals in the world; it's probably between her and some Thai boy.'" Um, wow, he sounds charming.

How could anyone forget RuPaul?
To be fair to Clayton, she sounds like a wonderful, intelligent young woman with a keen amount of self-awareness, which I would imagine is the kind of trait that helped her realize her gender transformation with the confidence such a transition must surely demand. And heck, I think she's pretty damn courageous for getting her photo taken and speaking out about her experience so candidly in a public forum. Hers is a righteous cause: The more we as a society begin to recognize transsexual and transgendered citizens not as outrageous performers or even "freaks" but as normal, if not somewhat extraordinary people (think Thomas Beatie on "Oprah"), the better it is for everyone in terms of evolving into the accepting, equal opportunity country some folks claim we are. Still, I can't help but think that in this situation anyway, it reminds me of the fact that thousands of children go missing per year, yet you usually only hear about it when it's a really cute, fair-headed white kid. As long as you're beautiful, people care!

Do you feel like this is a good thing in that we are moving away from the standard perception of male-to-females as stereotypically glittery and flamboyant, or is this just another example of the fact that if you're drop dead gorgeous, the world is your oyster? (Or within this context, does it even matter? I mean, positive press in this case probably represents a valid exception, but still...) Let's talk.