“Orange is the New Black” star Lea DeLaria strips down — literally and figuratively — in a moving, no-holds-barred video you have to see.
In the new installment of StyleLikeU’s “What’s Underneath Project” series, the 57-year-old actress, comedian and self-proclaimed “butch dyke” gets down to her underpants while opening up about a number of personal issues, such as body image and her early struggle with her sexuality.
“My entire life has been trying to put a positive spin on what it means to be butch,” she says in the clip. “Part of being butch is the dress, is the look. People had to recognize what you were the second you walked in that bar.”
DeLaria, who came out at 28 to her parents while already working as an openly lesbian stand-up comedian, said her father “had no idea” she was gay. “Like none. And let me just say to that: look at me. Look at me!“
Describing herself as “a proud fat woman,” DeLaria said, “We live in a fattist society that expects — especially of women — certain things, especially around their weight, and it’s bullsh*t.”
As to her proudest achievement, she said, “Getting to the level that I’ve gotten to in this industry without ever, having once, been in the closet.”
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