Miriam (entertainer)

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Miriam (entertainer)
Birthdate: circa 1981[1]
Birth location: Mexico[2]
Birth name: Unconfirmed[3]
Measurements: 34B-24-36
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 120 lbs.
Eye color: Brown
Hair color: Brown
Ethnicity: Hispanic
Alias(es): Victoria, Miriam Rivera, Miriam Xtravaganza

Miriam Rivera (born circa 1981)[1] is a Mexican pre-operative transsexual who appeared on the reality television shows There's Something About Miriam and Big Brother Australia 2004.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Born in Mexico,[2][4] Miriam told Sun reporter Emily Smith that she knew she wanted to be a girl by age four, noting that her three brothers liked baseball, but she preferred Barbie dolls.[5] she said strangers assumed she was a girl:

They used to come to my mother and say, "Oh you have a beautiful daughter," and my mother used to say "That's my son," and I used to get angry. And I have always been attracted to men. When I was 11 I met someone who's gay and start talking to me about hormones, which I got very interested in.[6]

She soon started taking hormones,[7] and when she came out after being suspended from school at age 12, her family was supportive.[8] After not fitting in at a new school, Miriam ran away at age 14 and spent six months working at a strip club.[7] When her mother found her, she suggested Miriam live with a relative in America, where she attended Hollywood High School from the age of 15. After she was outed there, she moved to New York to live with her uncle and started work in her real estate agency.[5] she has stated she does not plan to have sex reassignment surgery at the moment,[6][9] citing concerns about complications or loss of sensation:[10] "My mother always says to me, 'Why would you want to be half-and-half? Why don't you want to be a complete woman?' But I just love myself and I'm really enjoying my life."[11]

[edit] Film and television appearances

Miriam being wooed by a contestant in a still from the 2004 reality television program There's Something About Miriam.
Miriam being wooed by a contestant in a still from the 2004 reality television program There's Something About Miriam.

In 1999 Miriam posed for [12] a transsexual photography website and performed under the name Victoria in several pornographic videos produced by Androgeny Productions and released starting in 2000.

She was filmed in Ibiza for There's Something About Miriam in 2003, but the show's airdate was delayed until 2004, following out-of-court settlement of litigation by the contestants. Miriam enjoyed the attention she got following the show.[13]

After the good ratings for There's Something About Miriam, she was cast as a guest visitor on Big Brother Australia 2004, also produced by Endemol. A documentary about her life was commissioned but not aired.[14]

[edit] Recently

In recent times Miriam has been living "a very private life" in New York, after recovering from being brutally beaten and thrown from a 4th story window.[15].

[edit] Filmography

  • Transsexual Beauty Queens 9 (2000, Androgeny Productions)
  • Transsexual Beauty Queens 10 (2002, Androgeny Productions)
  • There's Something About Miriam (2003, Brighter Pictures)
  • Big Brother Australia 2004 (2004, Endemol)
  • Transsexual Celebrity Look-A-Likes 2 (2005, Androgeny Productions)
  • Transsexual Beauty Queens Unleashed (2005, Androgeny Productions)
  • Transsexual Beauty Queens Superstars Volume 1 (2005, Androgeny Productions)

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ a b Birthdate is unconfirmed. Emily Smith of The Sun gives her age as 22 on February 13, 2004.
  2. ^ a b Birthplace is disputed. Smith of The Sun and others report Hermosa, Mexico. Agencia Reforma reported Hermosillo. Miriam's now-defunct official site gave both in 2004.
  3. ^ Birth name is unconfirmed in published reports. Swain of The Sun reports "her passport identifies him as male and carries her original name, which she refuses to reveal."
  4. ^ "Dinner Date—Miriam," Rachael Popow, Press Association, February 25, 2004.
  5. ^ a b Miriam's secret. Emily Smith, The Sun (UK), February 13, 2004.
  6. ^ a b Miriam, There's something about Miriam, episode 1 (aired February 22, 2004).
  7. ^ a b Swain, Gill (February 21, 2004). Duped by the most beautiful woman in the body of a man. Daily Express
  8. ^ Agencia Reforma (August 28, 2004). La transexual mas bella del planeta según revista anglosajona New Magazine.
  9. ^ "Miriam pulls it off!," Sally Brook, The Sun (UK), February 24, 2004.
  10. ^ Miriam, There's something about Miriam, episode 1 (aired February 22, 2004).
  11. ^ "Miriam Opts Out Of Op," Sky One.
  12. ^ Bob's Tgirls - Transsexual, Shemale, Tgirl, Transgender, tranny, transvestite
  13. ^ "Miriam's glad to be recognised," BBC, February 20, 2004.
  14. ^ Mutel, Glen (19 February 2004). Miriam prepares to bare all in doc about 'her' life. Broadcast
  15. ^ staff (4 October), “MIRIAM DUCKS 'MIRIAM' BOW”, New York Post: 1, <http://www.nypost.com/seven/10042007/gossip/pagesix/miriam_ducks_miriam_bow.htm> 

[edit] External links