It is prom season, a time when many a young femulator’s heart is all a flutter thinking about the pretty prom gowns he won’t be able to wear to his high school’s spring formal.In high school, I did not date much. I interacted easily with girls on a day-to-day basis, but when it came to dating, I did not interact successfully.
Looking back, I realize that interacting with girls was easy because I was feminine. However, dating girls was difficult because I had to act like a male and that was so foreign to me that I was lousy at it.
When I attended my high school’s prom, my sister had to set me up with her best friend as my date. That date went fine because I already knew my sister’s friend well; it was as if we were two girls out on a date. The only problem was that one girl had to dress like a boy. I wore a white tux and that was probably a good thing because back then, I was about 50 pounds heavier than I am now. Squeezing into a prom gown would not have been a pretty sight, but I am sure my mother would have sewn me something dreamy to wear and would have had me fitted with the proper foundation garments so that I would be voluptuous in her creation. Of course, it did not happen, but I dreamed about it nonetheless.
Times have changed. As Ray Davies once sang, “Boys will be girls and girls will be boys” and today, at some of the more progressive schools in our nation, girls do wear tuxedos to proms and boys do wear gowns.
Lucky kids!
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| Wearing Bebe |
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| Professional femulator Jean Pierre Rene at the Juan-les-Pins club in Paris. 1956 |
i'm 99% sure the femulator above is the artist also known as "bambi", who spent many years performing at clubs such as le carousel before transitioning and becoming a teacher of literature. a documentary on her extraordinary life was made fairly recently, although unfortunately it's in french (mine is rubbish). but one doesn't need to understand a word to enjoy watching the trailer!:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3brrFAQfj8
Bambi was Marie-Pierre Pruvot, not Jean Pierre Rene.
DeleteI research what I post and don't post items haphazardly. So I don't appreciate being second-guessed.
stana, i was not trying to "second guess" or show you up in any way regarding the femulator pic posted here. however, as there was next-to-no information provided for it (through design or otherwise) i was merely trying to fill in the blanks for femulate readers who might be in the dark otherwise. in that regard, the below link does appear to confirm that bambi and jean pierre rene are/were one and the same:
Deletehttps://zagria.blogspot.com/2008/03/marie-pierre-pruvot-1935-high-school.html#.YLGPJt3TU1l
The link you cite makes no mention of Jean Pierre Rene.
DeleteAt first glance, I thought the photo was of Coccinelle, the world-famous transgender entertainer. But the internet proved me wrong. What I wouldn't give to go back in time to see the amazing female impersonators at Madame Arthur's in Paris. Back then the body sculpting techniques of today's plastic surgeons weren't even on the radar, and they still managed to make themselves stunning and undetectable as women.
ReplyDeleteCoccinelle was Jacqueline Charlotte Dufresnoy, not Jean Pierre Rene.
DeleteI didn't doubt you, Hon'. I just couldn't recall Coccinelle's given name, so I checked it out. Do you know if our featured impersonator had a stage name? I'm pretty sure I've seen this photo lumped into a collection of Coccinelle photos. I don't think all that many internet posters do the work to verify what they put on display for us. Just another of the countless reasons to appreciate all you do for our community.
ReplyDeleteThat first paragraph rings so true and is THE reason I never went to either Junior or Senior prom because I could not be dressed how I knew I was meant to be. My only regret for never going was to bask in the beauty of all of those beautiful dresses with the girls perfectly coiffured for the evening.
ReplyDeleteWhy do the Prom young adults look so unhappy is such awesome attire ?
ReplyDeletePerhaps these two individuals are mimicking that classic, blank, expressionless face that so many runway models are trained to express....
DeleteVelma
Several years ago my wife and I attended an LGBTQ black tie fund raiser. My wife wore a tux and she looked awesome. I wore a black column gown and felt like a million bucks.
ReplyDeleteI don't know , but if I could have been able to dress wonderful like that , at that age in the 70s , I would have smiled , having had the most euphoric experience of well being in my life .
ReplyDelete