Sheila Kuehl
Kuehl was born Sheila Ann Kuehl in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her father, Arthur, was an airplane construction worker at Douglas Aircraft. He was Catholic and her mother, Lillian, was Jewish. As a child actress she performed under the stage name Sheila James.
Sheila Jeffreys
Jeffreys was born to an army family from London's East End. After attending an all-girls grammar school, she studied at Manchester University, then taught at a girls' boarding school. In 1973, Julie Bindel writes, Jeffreys decided "to abandon both heterosexuality and her feminine appearance". Jeffreys wrote in "Beauty and Misogyny" (2005):