Munroe Bergdorf
Munroe Bergdorf is an English model and activist. She has walked several catwalks for brands including Gypsy Sport at both London and NYC Fashion Weeks. Bergdorf was the first transgender model in the UK for L'Oréal, but was dropped within weeks after a racial row. In February 2018, she was appointed as an LGBT adviser to the Labour Party, but resigned the following month due to her past homophobic and misogynistic comments. Bergdorf went on to star in the Channel 4 documentary What Makes A Woman, which aired in May 2018.
Bergdorf won ‘Changemaker of the Year’ at the 2018 Cosmopolitan Awards, and was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2019 by the University of Brighton. She joined UN Women UK as an advocate in 2019, supporting its #DrawALine campaign, aiming to put a stop to female genital mutilation.
Early life
Bergdorf was born and grew up in Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex. Bergdorf is mixed-race, born to an Afro-Jamaican father and a white English mother. Bergdorf attended Bentfield County Primary School in Stansted Mountfitchet and then Bishop's Stortford High School, an all-boys' school. Bergdorf describes growing up as a "very effeminate boy". Later, she studied English at the University of Brighton, describing herself there as genderqueer.Bergdorf then worked for three years in fashion PR. At the age of 24, Bergdorf began gender transitioning, and was the subject of an episode of London Live show Drag Queens of London.
Around the same time that Bergdorf was transitioning, she co-founded club night Pussy Palace.
Modelling
Bergdorf became involved in modelling after being motivated by the lack of diversity in the industry. Her first modelling job was for a Lebanese couture company. In 2014, the London Evening Standard referred to her as "a cornerstone of London's trans scene." She told the newspaper that she was "so vocal" on trans issues because she sees it as "the new frontier", an issue being brought into public consciousness through the work of trans women like Laverne Cox and Carmen Carrera.She came to public attention in August 2017 when she was employed as the first transgender model to front a L'Oréal campaign in the UK, being announced as one of 27 models taking part in L'Oréal UK's "True Match" campaign. On her social media, she stated: "Thank you L’Oréal Paris for giving me this platform. I hope it reaches another little eight-year-old trans girl and makes her feel a little more hopeful and a little less scared about her future, than what was installed in me when I was her age." Elsewhere she stated: "I definitely set out to empower girls like me."
Racial controversy
In February 2018, Bergdorf stated that 'white people as a group are brought up racist', stating: "most of y’all don’t even realise or refuse to acknowledge that your existence, privilege and success as a race is built on the backs, blood and death of people of colour." Bergdorf attracted further public attention following an article in The Daily Mail highlighting Facebook comments that she had made, which included the claim that all white people were guilty of "racial violence" and that the white race was "the most violent and oppressive force of nature on Earth." In response to Bergdorf's comments, L'Oréal dropped her from their campaign on 1 September 2017. They issued a statement that the company "supports diversity and tolerance towards all people irrespective of their race, background, gender and religion" and that Bergdorf's comments about white people were "at odds with those values". Facebook removed her posts from their website, regarding them as being in contravention to its rules against hate speech. Bergdorf said she also faced online harassment, much of it of a racist and transphobic nature. Other commentators argued that The Daily Mail had quoted her out of context, and that her wider point about white supremacy and white privilege in Western societies was valid and needed wider dissemination. Bergdorf defended her position, arguing that she was angry after the scenes in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville and wanted to explain that racism was systemic, and that being racist was not just about attacking people, but failing to take action against the system. She added: "I don't see how calling out the roots of racism, somehow makes you a racist", calling the controversy the "worst time of my life".In September 2017, the UK-based Illamasqua hired Bergdorf as the face of its Beauty Spotlight campaign, which concerned gender fluidity. In a statement, the company described Bergdorf as embodying "diversity and individuality; she is not scared to be truly herself." It added that it did not "stand or accept any form of racism, but we also believe Munroe’s comments have been edited out of context by a certain media title without telling a true story".
In June 2020, during the international George Floyd protests, Bergdorf called out L'Oréal Paris for posting on Instagram that they stood in solidarity with the Black community. She noted that she had never received an apology from L'Oréal. In response, the company announced that they would create and appoint Bergdorf to a U.K. Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Board. Bergdorf shared on Instagram a number of abusive messages she received on that platform following her appointment.
Other activities
The same month she was hired by Illamasqua, Bergdorf gave a verbal performance of Maya Angelou's poem "Still I Rise" for a short film directed by Bec Evans and Laura Kirwan-Ashman.In February 2018, she was appointed as an LGBT adviser to the Labour Party, which she resigned from the following month after her previous homophobic and misogynistic comments received attention. Bergdorf apologised for her past comments, claiming "who I was at 23 years old, is not who I am at 31". Bergdorf later blamed "Conservative media" for using her as a "political pawn to bring down Jeremy Corbyn" and that the Labour LGBT advisory board was being targeted to be shut down, stating "when I left they went after somebody else, and then when that person left they went after somebody else" in order to "discredit Jeremy Corbyn".
As of April 2019, she has made frequent appearances as a guest commentator on ITV's Good Morning Britain and This Morning.
In June 2019, Bergdorf was stripped of her role as an ambassador for Childline two days after being appointed, when journalist Janice Turner and others questioned her suitability for the post as somebody who had modelled for adult magazine Playboy. Several days later, the NSPCC offered Bergdorf a 'full, frank and unreserved apology' for the way in which it had handled her dismissal. The NSPCC's CEO, Peter Wanless, explained that Bergdorf had been dismissed 'because of her public statements, which we felt would mean that she was in breach of our own risk assessments and undermine what we are here to do'.
In July 2019, Bergdorf was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Brighton in recognition of her campaigning for transgender rights.