Oli London (1990 - ) influencer, temporary trans person

London was born and raised in London. In 2013 he went to Seoul, Korea to teach English. He took to the South Korean culture and their music, and especially became obsessed with Jimin of the boy band BTS. 

London underwent 18 cosmetic surgeries in S Korea, China, Poland and Armenia costing over $150,000 to resemble Jimin. In November 2019 he appeared on the US reality show Botched, and discussed his operations. He was warned that after five rhinoplasties another risked necrosis and the loss of his nose, and they declined to operate on him. By this time London was a famous ‘influencer’ with ‘millions’ of followers on Tiktok and Instagram, and released several KPop style records.

By 2021 London publicly identified as a non-binary Korean – to backlash in Korea where they was criticised as merely using Korea for fame and attention. In August 2022, by which time they had had 32 surgeries, they apologised to Jimin and other Asians that such obsessive emulation was wrong. 

By that time London had announced that she was a genderfluid trans woman, and had married porn-actor Danny Richardson. She intended to get surgeries to look like the female Korean singer Rosé. She talked about going to Bangkok for genital surgery and breast implants- but she never started on female hormones. 

However by October London had changed his mind, reverted to being male and using male pronouns and divorced his husband. Around the same time he visited a church and started reading the Bible. He has been embraced by conservatives and Christians, has adopted their negative attitude to trans persons, and has a book coming out about his life and his new opinions. He has jumped on the bandwagon of condemming the Scottish self-id law despite similar laws working just fine in Argentina, Ireland and many other countries.

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Of course one cannot detransition if one has not transitioned. A few months of claiming to be trans on social media is not in itself transition. London could have called his book A Change of Mind or even Changeback (a wider term than Detransition) – but he never stuck with it long enough to call it Detransition. 

We should note that while London had extensive homeogender surgery, he had no transgender surgery. 

Why is it that so many of those who start on the transgender journey and find that it is not for them, then want to prohibit it for other persons?   For other examples click https://zagria.blogspot.com/search/label/changeback, .

• “BTS Jimin Superfan Oli London appears on U.S. TV Show E! Botched”. All K Pop, November 13, 2019. Online.
• Peter Conte. “BTS fan Oli London's shocking transformation to look like K-Pop idol”. Com.au, Nov 19, 2019. Online.
• “Oli London identifies as a Non-Binary Korean and netizens angered as they believe he doesn't really like South Korea or Jimin but he's just using them for attention” Allkpop, June 25, 2021. Online.
• Angie Hernandez. “Influencer Oli London Apologizes for Getting Surgery to Look Like BTS’ Jimin”. E! Online, Sep 01, 2022. Online.
• Angie Hernandez. “Influencer Oli London Shares He’s Detransitioning Back to Male“. E! Online, Oct 14, 2022. Online.
• Oli London. “Oli London: I’ve rejected my trans identity to follow Jesus. Now I want to be baptised”. Premier Christianity, 1 November 2022. Online.
• Edie Heipel. “De-transitioner Oli London shares conversion to Christianity”. Catholic News Agency, Nov 4, 2022. Online.
• “British Influencer Oli London Files For Divorce After Just 7 Months Of Marriage After Admitting Resemblance to Kpop Star Was An Attraction”. Towleroad, January 16, 2023. Online.
• John James. “I spent £250,000 to look like a Korean woman... but I've gone back to being a MAN: 'De-transitioner's journey to the opposite gender and back again”. Daily Mail, 26 February 2023. Online.
• Oli London. Detransition: a memoir. Skyhorse Publishing, 2023.

EN.Wikipedia    IMDB     Spotify

Pete Burns (1959–2016) performer

Burns was born in Cheshire to a father from Liverpool and a German Jewish mother who had fled from the Nazis.

He later told journalist Kris Kirk:

"When I was 13 I heard about April Ashley's sex change and I thought 'Bloody hell, that's what I have to do', 'cos I was really enjoying putting on make- up and stuff. But after a while I realised you didn't have to be a 'she' to do it".

At 14 he dropped out of Catholic school after it was clarified that his appearance/actions were not in line with the rules. Shortly afterwards Pete met hairdresser Lynne whom he married in 1980.

"The only thing that spoiled it was that the man in the registry office had to go and make a feeble joke by asking which one of us was the bride".

They remained married until 2006.

After working in a Liverpool record shop, Burns was able to perform with a band, and after personnel changes they became Dead or Alive, who had a number one single with a cover of "You Spin Me Round" in 1985. Pete fronted the group and was known for his androgynous look.

After his friend InternationalChrysis died in 1990, he put out a cover version of David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel" under her name in 1994:

"You've got your mother in a whirl /She's not sure if you're a boy or a girl ".

Burns became a media personality, swearing on the BBC, a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother. He became famous for his feminizing plastic surgeries, and appeared on television programs on the subject.

In 2006 Pete and Lynne were divorced; shortly afterwards he entered a civil union with Michael Simpson.

He published an autobiography in 2007. In 2010, Burns won £450,000 in damages from cosmetic surgeon Dr Maurizio Viel, who, the singer claims, left him 'suicidal' after his lip implant operations went wrong.

However by 2015, and more plastic surgery, he was bankrupt.

Pete died of cardiac arrest, aged 57.   

• Kris Kirk & Ed Heath. Men In Frocks. London: Gay Men's Press, 1984: 114-5.
  
• Sharon Walker & Rebecca Woodward (dir). Pete Burns's Cosmetic Surgery Nightmares. With Pete Burns and Michael Simpson. UK ITV 46 mins 2 Nov 2006.
  
• Pete Burns and Ian Cranna. Freak Unique: My Autobiography. London: John Blake. 2007.
  
• Mike Goudreau & Paul Tinelle (scr). VH1 News Presents: Plastic Surgery Obsession. With Pate Burns. UK VH1 2010.
  
• Jill Cumberbach (dir). 50 Greatest Plastic Surgery Shockers. With Pete Burns. UK Channel 4 120 mins 2 Dec 2010.
  
• Jody Thompson. "'My face might fall off': Pete Burns reveals he'll keep having plastic surgery despite a string of botched operations". The Daily Mail, 4 February 2011. www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1325929/Pete-Burns-My-face-fall-Ill-having-plastic-surgery.html.
  
• "The changing face of Pete Burns". Now Magazine, January 25, 2012. www.nowmagazine.co.uk/celebrity-pictures/gallery-specials/the-changing-face-of-pete-burns-234897.
  
• Jill Cumberbach (dir). The Body Shocking Show. With Pate Burns. UK E4 30 mins 2013.
  
• Fay Strong. "Pete Burns declared bankrupt after spending hundreds of thousands on surgery". The Mirror, 21 April 2015. www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/pete-burns-declared-bankrupt-after-5556983. 
• Hannah Ellis-Petersen,  "Pete Burns, frontman of Dead Or Alive, dies aged 57".  The Guardian, 24 October 2016.   www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/24/dead-or-alive-frontman-pete-burns-dies-aged-57.
  

EN.WIKIPEDIA(Pete Burns)   IMDB   EN.WIKIPEDIA(Dead or Alive)    Transgender-Net





   

Homeogender surgery

There is a type of are some trans woman who have lots of surgeries as part of their transitions.   Some examples are Allanah Star (60+ surgeries), Gia Darling (45+), Fulvia Siguas Sandoval (64+ and in Guinness Book of World Records for most cosmetic surgeries); Nina Arsenault ($150,000+ of surgery); Amanda Lepore.  For some of these the surgeries did not include vaginoplasty.

They are hardly typical of trans women, but they do attract press attention, and in so doing can give out the mistaken impression that trans women in general are fakes and freaks.

Are such women autogynephilic?   Apart from ‘autogynephilia’ being a badly thought out concept that should be dismissed unless and until some future author is able to do something much better with the idea, several of those I have just mentioned were early transitioners.

The point that I am getting around to is that is that having lots of cosmetic surgeries to achieve an idealized body is not peculiar to trans women.  An equally small percentage of cis men and women do it also.  Some examples:

Luciana Malgeri,  Princess Pignatelli, Mrs Avedon.  A classic in this field.  She had a nose job as a teenager and married an Italian Prince.  After divorce she had silicone facial injections and  other cosmetic surgeries.  She opened her first book with:  “A few times every century, a great beauty is born. I am not one of them. But what nature skipped, I supplied—so much so that sometimes I cannot remember what is real and what is fake.”   Camille Paglia’s discussion of transsexuality on p368 of Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson segues into a discussion of Luciana (perhaps showing that Paglia has no idea about transsexuality).

• “‘La Dolce Vita’ Diva: Princess Luciana Pignatelli”.  The Esoteric Curiosa, 16 February 2010.  http://theesotericcuriosa.blogspot.ca/2010/02/la-dolce-vita-diva-princess-luciana.html.

Vanilla Chamu has spent over 10 million yen to become like a French doll. 

• David McCormack.  “Meet the Japanese model who has spent over $100,000 on plastic surgery to look like a french doll… and is planning even more extreme procedures ”.  The Daily Mail, 4 May 2013.  www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2319427/Vanilla-Chamu-photos-Japanese-model-spent-100k-plastic-surgery-look-like-French-doll.html.
• John Hofilena.  “Japanese woman spends $100k on plastic surgery to become ‘French doll’” Japan Daily Press, May 7, 2013. http://japandailypress.com/japanese-woman-spends-100k-on-plastic-surgery-to-become-french-doll-0728391

Herbert Chavez of the Philipines has had multiple surgeries since 1995 to look more and more like superman.

• Makenzie.  “Plastic Surgery to Look Like Superman”.  RealSelf, 3 Oct 2011.  www.realself.com/blog/plastic-surgery-like-superman.

Cindy Jackson, in Guiness Book of Records for most (50+) cosmetic surgeries (is Fulvia Siguas Sandoval now forgetten?).







Jocelyn Wildenstein is said to have spent over $4 million on facial plastic surgeries.







One of the psychiatrist’s terms for such surgical makeovers is Body Dysmorphic Disorder.   However I think that there is a more neutral, and therefore better term.  I have previously discussed Hom(e)ovestity – dressing UP as your birth sex.  What we have been discussing here is surgical homeovestity.   Nobody seems to have coined a term for this behaviour.  On the model transvestity –> transsexuality we would get homosexuality, but that term is well established with a different meaning.   I therefore propose Homeogender Surgery.