Fearless Firsts

Misty Copeland is American Ballet Theatre’s First Black Principal Dancer

Misty Copeland in ‘Swan Lake’ (Vanity Fair)

Last week, the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) in New York City promoted dancer Misty Copeland to principal. Copeland is the first Black woman to attain the level of principal (the highest level possible for a dancer) in ABT’s 75-year history. (ABT has previously had one Black man reach principal: Desmond Richardson, who achieved the level in 1997.) Since she’s considered a classical ballet dancer, this is all the more rare.

Copeland is considered to be a ballet prodigy since she began studying at age 13, and began dancing in pointe shoes a mere three months (!) later. She came to the larger public’s attention when she starred in the now-famous UnderArmour 2014 ad spot “I Will What I Want,” which featured her dancing. Since then, Copeland has written a biography and a children’s book, appeared on the cover of “Time” for their 2015 Top 100 list, and was the subject of a documentery, “A Ballerina’s Tale,” that premiered at the Tribeca 2015 Film Festival.

Copeland’s notable roles include the titular role in “The Firebird,” Swanhilda in “Coppélia,” and the dual roles of Odette/Odile in “Swan Lake.” The “Swan Lake” roles were significant for Copeland, and the rest of the ballet world:

It was a symbolically significant moment in American arts, in which a black woman danced the role of ballet’s famed white swan—and sold out all of her performances from the moment tickets went on sale months earlier.

Copeland became a member of ABT’s corps de ballet in 2001, and was promoted to soloist in 2007. She’ll start as principal dancer on August 1st.

Joan Smalls is “Porter” Magazine’s First Woman of Color Cover Model

Joan Smalls for ‘Porter’ Magazine (Fashion Week Daily)

Supermodel Joan Smalls covers the summer edition of “Porter” magazine. She’s a model, she’s gorgeous; no big deal, right? Except, this time, it is: Smalls is the first woman of color to grace the cover.

The Puerto Rican beauty joins fellow supermodels Gisele Bundchen and Karlie Kloss in the “Porter” cover girl pantheon.

This isn’t the first time Smalls has made history, even in this decade: She became the first Latina model for Estée Lauder cosmetics in 2011.

Fashion companies and publications are finally recognizing to the fact that white isn’t the only skin tone that exists (“Vogue” has had a particular problem with this), and realizing that customers want to see models that resemble themselves. I just hope it’s not a trend but a step towards a large-scale change.

Aydian Dowling Could Be The First Trans “Ultimate Guy” for “Mens Health”

Aydian Dowling (Facebook)

This past week has been a banner one for the trans community. First, Laverne Cox stripped down for “Allure” to help empower her various communities (black, woman, transgender). And now, fitness magazine “Men’s Health” might soon have its first transgender cover model.

Twenty-seven-year-old Aydian Dowling from Eugene, Oregon currently leads the magazine’s “Ultimate Guy” search, which searches for the man who “possesses all of the qualities that make up today’s well rounded, active, health conscious and thoughtful guy; is fit and fearless and leads by example.”

Dowling certainly meets those requirements. He began transitioning using hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in Oct. 2009, and had top surgery (which removed his breasts) three years later. In terms of leading by example, Dowling is also a fitness entrepreneur: He created YouTube channel Beefheads Fitness, which focuses on fitness for trans people. He saw an opportunity within the marketplace when he realized that nobody was filling that void, and decided to step in. Dowling also gives back by donating some profits from his clothing company to help transmen pay for top surgery.

As of Sunday night, Dowling sits atop the “Reader’s Choice” leaderboard:

‘Men’s Health’ Ultimate Guy Contest Leaderboard April 19, 2015

The rankings are based on user votes, so anyone who comes to the website can decide whether to vote or not. (As you can see, there’s some self-selection bias at play here. But in this case, it might not be such a bad thing.)

Dowling has pretty much blown every other ranked contestant out of the water at this point. Brian Taylor, currently in second place, hasn’t even received 25% of the votes that Dowling has.

The winner of the “Ultimate Guy” contest will be featured on the “Men’s Health” November 2015 issue cover. The magazine’s editors note that “the winner of the reader vote isn’t guaranteed to win the contest, but will be in the top 10 finalists.” It’s very exciting that we’re potentially watching history in the making, and that this represents a large shift in terms of (re-)defining ideas of mainstream masculinity. And we really hope that the “Men’s Health” editors award Dowling the title, if he wins the reader poll.

Ariana Miyamoto is the First Mixed-Race Miss Japan

Ariana Miyamoto, Miss Japan 2015 (We Are Wakanda)

The newly-crowned Miss Japan Ariana Miyamoto has made history: She’s the first mixed-race woman to win the title. She had previously won the Miss Nagasaki title.

The 20-year-old Miyamoto, born to a Japanese mother and an African-American father, will go on to represent Japan at the Miss Universe 2015 pageant.

This is huge for Japan, as the country is known being very racially homogenous. According to a July 2014 estimate, those who self-identify as Japanese comprise 98.5% of the total population. By contrast, “other” races (under which African-American falls) holds onto only .6%. The estimate puts the country’s population at 127M+, so that would mean “other” races would number around 762K+. (To put that in context, self-identifying Japanese would number around 125M+.)

“Hafu” (mixed-race) marriages have grown steadily since 1980, when the Japanese government recorded 5K+ “international” marriages. In 2004, mixed-race marriages numbered 39K+, which represented 5%+ of all marriages within the country.

Though it’s clear that the number of interracial marriages, and multi-racial citizens, are rising, it’s difficult to find because racial data isn’t collected in Japan (only nationality is acknowledged). But Japanese filmmaker Megumi Nishikura found that “20K+ half-Japanese are born in Japan each year, including both multiethnic and multiracial people” through her documentary “Hafu: The Mixed-Race Experience in Japan.”

Though Miyamoto is already getting backlash for “not being Japanese enough,” she’ll now be seen by the world as the new face of Japan.

Oregon Will Have the First Openly Bisexual Mayor

Kate Brown (The Democratic Party of Washington County)

Progress is being in Oregon today: Former Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown will be sworn in as governor, becoming the first openly bisexual woman (actually, person) in the nation to hold the office. Brown succeeds former governor John Kitzhaber, who resigned due to a criminal probe into his fiancée’s role in his office.

She was appointed to Oregon’s State House of Representatives in 1991, was elected the following year, and re-elected two years later in 1994. She moved to the Senate in 1996, and was elected Senate Majority Leader in 2004. She began serving as Oregon’s Secretary of State in 2009.

While her main interests center on removing barriers to voting registration and growing small businesses and entrepreneurship, she’s also advocated for LGBT rights. Brown was profiled in the “Out and Elected in the USA” survey of LGBT government officials in 1992. She’s been married to her husband Dan Little since 1997.

Brown hasn’t run into any trouble with her constituents with her status as a bisexual woman, as Oregon is known for being very socially progressive. As Hannah Hoffman of “The Statesman Journal” notes:

Her sexuality has never been a prominent issue in Oregon, where Portland recently had an openly gay mayor in Sam Adams and where the current speaker of the House, Tina Kotek, is a lesbian.

Hopefully, we’ll see the rest of the country follow suit.

India Elects First Transgender Mayor

Indian hijras (Deviant Didg/Nikki Rixon)

An Indian transgender woman has made history: She is the first trans woman to be elected as mayor within the country.

Madhu Bai Kinnar will represent Raigarh in the state of Chhattisgarh. She beat her rival by 4.5K+ votes.

It’s estimated that India has around 2M transgender people. India’s population in 2013 was 1.252B, so transgender people would comprise around .15% of the total.

It’s not only a victory for trans people, but also for those in the lower classes. Kinnar was a member of the Dalit lowest caste, sometimes termed “the untouchables.”

India has made great strides in trans issues recently. Last year, the Indian Supreme Court ruled to recognize transgender persons as “third-gender,” termed “hijra.” The ruling came five years after the country introduced the “other” option for gender on ballot forms.

The Pirelli Calendar Shoots Candice Huffine, Its First Plus-Size Model

Candice Huffine, 2015 Pirelli Calendar shoot

Last month, Pirelli unveiled its long-awaited 2015 calendar, with a very notable first: Candice Huffine became the first plus-size model to grace the calendar’s legendary pages since it began in 1964. So what took so long? According to their website, the Pirelli calendar is devoted to “pioneering innovation to staying ahead of the game.” This remark was made by Pirelli Chairman and CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera, and is displayed prominently on the calendar’s history page. It’s not as if Pirelli has shied away from doing something out of the norm for its calendar before. In 1987, photographer Terence Donovan used only black models (including a young Naomi Campbell) within its pages. It’s very sad that only after approaching 500 models over the course of 52 years, we’re only beginning to see plus-size women represented in one of the most well-known calendars. Now if only she was represented on the 2015 Pirelli Calendar site itself…

Texas’s First Trans Homecoming King

Texas homecoming king Mel

Recently, high school student Mel won the title of his school’s homecoming king. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, does it?

But it actually is: Mel is the first transgender student to win the title in the entire state of Texas.

This is big considering the fact that Texas isn’t known as the most tolerant state. As “The Cut” notes, “it’s one of 32 states where a person can be fired for being openly transgender, and one of 29 states where you can fired for being openly gay or lesbian.” (“The Cut” also has a more detailed account of Mel’s story.)

But this shows that attitudes are changing, starting with the youth. I can’t wait to see how Texas, and other states, progress.

Sex & Stats: Where Numbers Come to Bang

Statistics. Economics. Sex.