May Simón Lifschitz is an actor, model, and gender activist from Denmark. 25-year-old May was born as a boy but started her transition into a girl when she was 16 years old. Through the last few years, her career as an actor and model has been growing rapidly, both in Denmark but also internationally. Before transitioning May Lifschitz was working as an androgynous model, even though she did not physically look like a woman. Through her modeling career, Lifschitz realized that her apperence and gender did not match the woman she felt like in her mind, and therefore she started her transitioning into a woman.
May is the first transgender on a magazine cover in Denmark, the only transgender actor in Denmark, the second transgender Victoria's Secret model, and one of the first transgender woman to be on Netflix, but each time she achieves a new role or modeling job the media focuses on her being transgender and not just her talent. In every headline concerning Lifschitz the word transgender is mentioned before actor or model, which displeases May because she does not want her gender identity to be the most important information about her. May says she wants to change the norm in the movie and fashion industry because she wants it to be an industry where you can be transgender without it being pointed out as the most important thing about a person.
Victoria's Secret has been criticized for not showing gender diversity in their commercials or fashion shows, but in 2019 the fashion company hired May as their second transgender model, following Valentina Sampaio. Even though May got hired for their 'Love Yourself' campaign, together with a plus-sized model, Victoria's Secrets marketing manager in 2018 stated that transgenders and plus-size models did not fit into their brand because they are branding a fantasy. Apparently, the marketing manager changed his mind in 2019 after a lot of criticism, but it might not be because the brand wants to be more including. Instead, it might be tokenism which means Victoria's Secret hired models representing minorities to avoid another shitstorm, so instead of including and accepting minorities they capitalize on their diversity because it creates positive attention to their brand. May states that she is aware of the problem with brands capitalizing on diversity, but she says there needs to be room for brands like Victoria's Secret to wake up and thereby changing their perception of gender diversity in mainstream media.
By Frederikke Høegh
Sources:
https://www.berlingske.dk/nyheder/undertoejsgigant-hyrer-foerste-transkoennede-model-og-hun-er-dansk