Roberta Cowell - trans racing driver

[ArabellaScott]

Cowell currently being celebrated by PinkNews.

An interesting interview with him here in the Sunday Times, 1972.

www.lizhodgkinson.com/pages/journalismArticle/interview_with_transsexual_roberta_betty_cowell

I think they used him as the transgender example because children learn about WW2 in yr 6 and this, supposedly, is pertinent. They definitely pushed the born in the wrong body narrative when my son had this lesson a few years ago. It's all supposed to be Laverne Cox and Caitlyn Jenner these days, isn't it? 🙄

Problem is, his account of flying is so inaccurate it’s a surprise no one has checked him out, eg WW2 spitfires couldn’t have reached 8 miles high or 40,000 feet. His book is full of contradictions and inaccuracies, it’s as if he’s read Roald Dahl and Nevil Shute and based his recollection of being a fighter pilot on such works (without the skill of either author). He should have read Walter Scott “oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive”.

Oh absolutely. But I doubt any teachers actually questioned the nonsense they were teaching , after having paid for an external PHSE system to save them having to set one up. Cornwall had Jigsaw foisted upon them from county, because Cornwall is captured at county level.

So he's a Walt, then.

My DGM was good mates with Roberta Cowell and I met him several times at around the time he gave this interview. I would have been 11.

Being young and innocent I had no idea about sex changes, but all I can say is when I found out it came as no surprise at all. I think the claim about DSD was pure delusion. Not that tall but very burly, dressed manishly, man's deep voice but with this bonkers long dyed blonde hair.

The doctor who performed the orchiectomy on Cowell was this transman:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MichaelDillon

The doctor who performed the penectomy was Harold Gillies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HaroldGillies

'Because operations to change gender were deemed controversial,[32] Gillies falsified Dillon’s condition in order to be able to perform surgery without scrutiny, diagnosing Dillon with acute hypospadias.[35][c] From 1946, during his holidays from medical school, Dillon travelled to visit Gillies at Rooksdown House in Basingstoke for a series of surgeries.[4] The phalloplasty surgery involved using flaps of skin from Dillon's legs and stomach to form a penis. The surgeries led to infections and difficulty walking, which Dillon would falsely claim were wounds suffered during the bombing raids of Bristol'

I seem to see a pattern emerging.

' Penny Lewis writes that false diagnoses of hypospadias were relatively widespread at the time among doctors treating transgender patients'

Edit: this comment directs to this article by Penny Lewis.

https://academic.oup.com/jhmas/article-abstract/76/4/392/6374273

This person is an utter fantasist. None of this stuff should be anywhere near a year 6 curriculum.

Late war spitfires could reach 40,000 ft, so that particular bit might be true, depending on when he says that happened / if he flew through the entire war. It would be more likely if he flew reconnaissance models.

He had an RAF career, so calling him a Walt’s a little unfair. There’s more than enough shitty aspects to his personality and life story without claiming he made up his service.

Well, people who know more than me can judge by reading his autobiography.

The reason he was being celebrated by PinkNews was because of his war service.