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Abstract
Cabaret star and television personality Carlotta, a transsexual woman whose fame has endured for more than half a century, is arguably the most prominent transgender celebrity in Australia. This article takes screen representations of Carlotta as its focus to investigate the mainstream media's treatment of a celebrity who embodies a traditionally marginalised subject position. First examining depictions of Carlotta from the 1960s and 1970s, and then looking to more contemporary examples from the 1990s and 2000s, the paper traces the evolution of Carlotta's representation on Australian screens. The article considers the problematic elements apparent in individual screens texts, but also the ways in which these texts enable Carlotta to challenge the rigidity and 'taken for granted-ness' of the sex-gender system. The paper does so in consideration of Sandy Stone's proposal of visibly intertextual transsexualism, Kate Bornstein's advocacy of ambiguous and fluid transsexualism, and Riki Anne Wilchins's assertions that transsexualism is a practice of transformation. As a transsexual celebrity, Carlotta's appearances in film and television give mainstream Australian audiences the opportunity to engage 'safely' but constructively with a transgender person, thus informing real-world attitudes towards transgenderism, and her public presence affirmatively reflects transgender experiences. Through these screen representations, Carlotta illustrates progressive possibilities of transsexual gender embodiment.
Key words: Carlotta, transsexualism, transgender representation, Stone, Bornstein, celebrity
Introduction
As a nation nourished on a mythology of hetero-patriarchal mateship and symbols of rugged masculinity, Australia's affection for mainstream representations of male-to-female transgender1 figures is perhaps curious. From the fictional transgender heroes in the Oscarwinning film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Elliot, 1994), to transgender contestants on popular reality television shows, to transgender performers at the world-renowned Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, a number of differing representations of transgender people and transgender lives are popularised in Australian culture. Also promoting the visibility of transgender in Australia is a notable handful of transgender celebrities, who maintain a significant presence in the cultural consciousness of this country. Among these, perhaps the most prominent is transsexual cabaret star and television celebrity Carlotta, whose fame has endured for more than half a century. Carlotta is a transsexual woman who has been an important figure in Australian culture since the 1960s. She began her career as a member...