Laverne Cox Reflects On Life Ahead Of Her 50th Birthday: “hard to believe I’m still alive. This body has been through so much; successes, failures, abuse, ecstasy”
Ahead of her 50th birthday next month, actress Laverne Cox is reflecting on life. On Tuesday, the Orange Is the New Black star shared a sexy black and white video of herself to Instagram, wearing a cute lingerie set. Below the post, she wrote a lengthy caption about her life.
The award-winning star said, “In a little over a month on May 29th I turn 50 years old. It’s hard to believe I’m still alive, that I’m almost 5 decades old. This body has been through so much, both inside and outside: traumas, transition, classical ballet, successes, failures, abuse, injuries, healing, weight gain, weight loss, illness, pleasure, ecstasy. This body has been through a lot of negative self talk about it from me. I’ve been cruel, abusive, punitive in the ways in which I have talked to and treated to this body.”
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She went on to say, “knowing the ways in which cis normative, white supremacist, misogynist, fat phobic, capitalist beauty standards make us devalue ourselves has not exempted me from internalizing those standards. There are some ways in which my body has changed as I’ve gotten older and grown into my womanhood that I love. There are other things I struggle to love. But it is my prayer that a day at a time I can actively participate in keeping this body healthy and strong as it ages. It is my prayer that a day at a time that I can let go of negative self talk towards this body replacing that the negative with affirming talk of this body’s resilience and beauty and how it’s gotten me through almost 50 years of some thangs of the thangs. Lol! Honey!! This is what comes up for me as a 49-year-old woman posting a video of myself in skimpy lingerie on Instagram. My internalized age-ism says, “How utterly cringe.” My internal fight to not put myself out to pasteur says, “B**ch, you betta do it.” She concluded her post with the hashtag, #TransIsBeautiful.”
Lavern has lot to celebrate about life. On top of recently snagging the gig as E! News red carpet hosts, LaVern has taken man wins throughout her career. She made history (many times) as an openly transgender woman. Cox became the first openly transgender person to appear on the cover of Cosmopolitan thanks to a February 2018 cover of the South African edition. She is also the first openly transgender person to have a wax figure at Madame Tussaud’s.