Actresses Portraying Transwomen

I have a pet peeve: actresses portraying transwomen.

Here are two portrayals that come to mind that are so unrealistic: Rebecca Romijn on Ugly Betty and Famke Jannsen on Nip/Tuck.

Both are television portrayals, but the film industry is just as guilty using actresses to portray trans-woman, for example, Raquel Welch in Myra Breckenridge and Felicity Huffman in Transamerica.

Male actors should portray transwoman. Such portrayals would be more realistic if men filled the T-girl roles. Few actresses are the right size to realistically portray a male-to-female transperson. Their voices are not convincing and in boy mode, their mannerisms are not convincing.



When male actors do portray transwoman, the portrayals are very realistic. Cillian Murphy in Breakfast on Pluto, Lee Pace in Soldier's Girl and Johnny Depp in Ed Wood are examples of successful portrayals of actors portraying transwomen.

Can you imagine someone like Drew Barrymore portraying Ed Wood? I think not.

Wearing Venus (Source: Venus)

Ed Wood femulating in the 1953 film 📺 Glen or Glenda.

Sisters Act

In light of the brouhaha over actress Scarlett Johansson portraying/not portraying a transman in a new film, I am repeating what I wrote (with edits) in March 2015.

That is actor Eddie Redmayne in the photo above femulating in the film The Danish Girl in which he plays Einar Wegener/Lili Elbe, a Danish artist who was an early sex reassignment surgery patient.

As in the past, whenever a non-transgender person gets the role of a transgender person, there is a hue and cry from the transgender community complaining that a transgender actor/actress should have gotten the role. And so it goes with the non-trans Redmayne portraying Einar Wegener/Lili Elbe.

I have no complaint about hiring a non-trans person to play a trans role. If I was casting a film, I would want the best actors/actresses to be in my film whether or not their personal life experience matched that of the film’s characters. If there was a match that would be icing on the cake, but if not, that’s where the ability of an actor to play a role takes over.

And as a member of the audience, I want my money’s worth; I want to see the best performances that money can buy up on the big screen, not an amateurish production featuring authentic transpeople or cowboys or cops or snipers. Have you ever sat through a film featuring any of Warhol’s trans trio, Candy, Holly, and Jackie? I rest my case.

My complaint about the casting of transgender roles is using females to play transwomen and vice versa, using males to play transmen. For the sake of authenticity, male actors should play transwomen and female actresses should play transmen.

Who is a more authentic transwoman: the pretty and petite Felicity Huffman in Transamerica or the large of frame, six-foot-one Jeffrey Tambor in Transparent? The audience has to suspend disbelief, i.e., that Huffman is a cisgender woman in order to accept her as a pre-op transsexual, whereas it is easy for the audience to buy into Tambor’s masculine roots.

And in this day and age, during Trump's War on Transgenders, I think we have bigger fish to fry than something as trivial as who portrays who in movie roles.

Wearing Intermix (Source: Intermix)

Taylor Hawkins femulates a flight attendant in The Foo Fighters' "Learn to Fly" video.

Blue Monday

Alexis Arquette, 1969-2016, may she rest in peace.

Sisters Act

That is actor Eddie Redmayne in the photo above femulating in the film The Danish Girl in which he plays Einar Wegener/Lili Elbe, a Danish artist who was an early sex reassignment surgery patient.

As in the past, whenever a non-transgender person gets the role of a transgender person, there is a hue and cry from the transgender community complaining that a transgender actor/actress should have gotten the role. And so it goes with the non-trans Redmayne portraying Einar Wegener/Lili Elbe.

I have no complaint about hiring a non-trans person to play a trans role. If I was casting a film, I would want the best actors/actresses to be in my film whether or not their personal life experience matched that of the film’s characters. If there was a match that would be icing on the cake, but if not, that’s where the ability of an actor to play a role takes over.

And as a member of the audience, I want my money’s worth; I want to see the best performances that money can buy up on the big screen, not an amateurish production featuring authentic transpeople or cowboys or cops or snipers. Have you ever sat through a film featuring any of Warhol’s trans trio, Candy, Holly, and Jackie? I rest my case.

My complaint about the casting of transgender roles is using females to play transwomen and vice versa, using males to play transmen. For the sake of authenticity, male actors should play transwomen and female actresses should play transmen.

Who is a more authentic transwoman: the pretty and petite Felicity Huffman in Transamerica or the large of frame, six-foot-one Jeffrey Tambor in Transparent? The audience has to suspend disbelief, i.e., that Huffman is a cisgender woman in order to accept her as a pre-op transsexual, whereas it is easy for the audience to buy into Tambor’s masculine roots.

On the other hand, if any film company decides to do Femulate: The Movie, then all bets are off!

 

Wearing Max Mara.

Actor Peter Sellers in the 1962 British film Lolita.

Statuesque Stars

Most of my free time this weekend was spent working with Turbotax. I finally buttoned up my tax return about 5 PM last night and crashed in front of the television.

The 2013 version of The Great Gatsby was on HBO, so I gave it a look. Visually, it was beautiful --- recreating New York City of the 1920s. And the actress playing Jordan Baker was stunning.

I did not recognize her, so I looked her up. She is Elizabeth Debicki, who happens to be half Polish and half Irish (Happy Saint Patrick's Day) and is 6 feet 3 inches tall!

With that I guess it is time to update my Famous Females of Height List.

Besides Ms. Debicki (photo right), I have two other additions to the list:

5’11” Toni Tenille, the singer of Captain and Tenille fame. (Source: Peaches)

5’8” Vanessa Angel, a model and actress, best known for the film, Kingpin.

Have a stunning week!

 

 

 

Actor Alexandre Styker (right) femulating in Belinda et Moi, a 2014 French television movie.(Thank you, Carmen, for the heads-up concerning this film.)

 

 

 

Wearing Madeleine.

Glamazons

This time around, reader G Kunz contributed a bunch of new entries to the Famous Females of Height List, including two members of the Glamazons; a third member of the group, Dorothy Ford, was already on our list.

You can read all about the Glamazons here and here are all the additions to the list.

5’8” - Abbie Cornish - actress - film, Seven Psychopaths - Source: Stana

5'9" - Betsy Brandt - actress - television, Breaking Bad - Source: Stana

5’9” - Olivia Williams - actress - film, Rushmore - Source: Stana

5’10" - Chyna - wrestler - source: G Kunz  

5'11" - Betsy Brandt - actress - television, Breaking Bad - Source: Stana

5'11" - Christine Marzano - model and actress - film, Seven Psychopaths - Source: Stana

6'0" – Irish McCalla – actress – film & television, Sheena: Queen of the Jungle - source: G Kunz

6'0" – Helen O'Hara – actress – television, Richard & Judy - source: G Kunz

6'0" – Bunny Waters – actress – film, Dangerous When Wet - source: G Kunz

6’7” – Amazon Ashley – stripper - source: G Kunz

 

 

 

Actor Gaurav Ghera femulating in India television’s Mrs. Pammi Pyarelai, 2013.

 

 

 

Who wears Julie Brown better?

Inspirational

While waiting to wait on my wife, I sat down in front of the telly, smoothed out the skirts of my maid's uniform and turned on the set to see what I could see. I came upon Heartbreakers, a film about a mother and daughter team of gold diggers. It is an amusing film and features some delicious outfits worn by the gold diggers, Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt. And Ms. Weaver's rendition of Back in the U.S.S.R. is worth the price of admission.

Sigourney Weaver has always been an inspiration to me because we have some things in common.

She is two years older and two inches shorter than me, and like me, she is not exactly waif-like. Her measurements and mine are exactly the same proportionally when I am girded properly. And although she is a senior citizen like me, she does not dress like a senior citizen, nor look like one.

I know I will never be mistaken for Sigourney Weaver, but she is someone worth femulating for big girls like me.

Professional femulator Michelle DuBarry (left) poses with The Gream Imposters,
one of Toronto's original professional femulator troupes (circa 1970).

 

Wearing Wow Couture.

It is a great time to be a tall woman

I am over six feet tall, so I am a tall woman.

In my early teens, I became interested in tall women because they affirmed my existence as a tall woman, that is, I was not the only tall woman out and about in society. Few were as tall as me, but maybe there were enough out there so that I could blend in more easily as just another tall woman.

In the past, tall women tried to blend in with their shorter sisters, so they dressed down (pun intended); instead of celebrating their height, they tried to hide it (to appear less intimidating to men).

Also, tall women did not have a lot to choose from clothes-wise. Few clothiers catered to tall women, so tall women had to make do with what was available, which typically did not celebrate tall women's height.

Today, tall women are out and proud and celebrate their height. They have more clothing to choose from now that more clothiers recognize their potential as customers. They no longer dress down to hide their height. They wear high heels and leg baring skirts and dresses. They don't care if they are intimidating. They've come a long way!

It is a great time to be a tall woman!

To celebrate tall women, I maintain a list of tall female celebrities, my Famous Females of Height List. Here are latest additions to the list, including two Baldwins who are unrelated. However, the 6'2" Baldwin is related to actors Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin (she's their daughter).

5'8" - Emmy Rossum - actress - television - Shameless

5'9" - Emily Deschanel - actress - television - Bones

5'10" - Brooke Baldwin - news anchor - CNN (photo above)

6'0" - Ashlan Gorse - American entertainment journalist - E!

6'2" - Ireland Baldwin - fashion model

 

Andrej Pejic, fashion model.

 

Wearing Alice + Olivia.

Shopping Tall

Michelle Persad writing for The Huffington Post offers the best websites to buy clothes for tall women. That means she is writing for most of us, girls!

I concur with her about JCP, Nordstrom, and Victoria's. I don’t know about her other recommendations because I have not shopped them, but I will now!

The slide show accompanying the article displays 19 tall female celebrities (yes, they are all on my Famous Females of Height List) followed by some fashion tips for tall ladies like us. The tips include a couple of Stana Standards: "Do go for oversized accessories as your frame can pull it off" and "Do stick a pair of tights under dresses that are too short."

Speaking of my Famous Females of Height List, here are some new additions:

5'8" – Dina Korzun - actress - film, Cold Souls

5'10" – Jennifer Coolidge - actress - film, Best in Show - source: Crystal Stephens

6'3" – Gwendoline Christie (see photo) – actress – television, Game of Thrones - source: Bonnie Scott

6'4" – Cupcake Cassidy – stripper – source: Trish Mifflin

 

Miss Glamouresse contemplating her restroom choices.

 

Wearing DailyLook.

Taller than Usual

Over two months have passed since the last Famous Females of Height update. Thanks to three readers' input and my recent spate of watching old movies starring tall female actors, this update is longer than usual.

Here are the tall additions to the list:

5'8" – Greta Gerwig  – actress – film, Lola Versus

5'8" – Bianca Kajlich  – actress – television, Rules of Engagement

5'9" - Alexis Smith (photo right) - actress - film, The Horn Blows at Midnight

5'10" - Haydyn Gwynne - royalty – Netherlands

5'10" - Princess Maxima - actress, UK - source Sarahjane

5'11" – Kate Bock – model – Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Rookie of the Year - source Joni Roberts

6'0" - Jessica Williams - actress - television, The Daily Show - source Meg

6'1" - Aimee Mullins - actress, athlete, model - According to Wikipedia, "She was born with a medical condition that resulted in the amputation of both of her lower legs" and she is "able to change her height between 5 ft 8 in and 6 ft 1 in by changing her (prosthetic) legs."

 

 

Femulator attending the Atlanta Cotillion, 2009.

 

Hedy Lamarr, actress and radio pioneer.