Send in the Clowns

Not a drag queen doing outreach

I have done many outreach sessions at various colleges and universities – typically for Human Sexuality classes. Usually I was accompanied by post-op, pre-op, no-op, male-to-females and/or female-to-males – a smorgasbord of trans individuals.

I don’t know how the professors prepared their students for our appearances, but oftentimes, the students were not expecting us – especially us male-to-females. The students’ questions and comments indicated that they were expecting drag queens and not the ladies that appeared before them. It was a teachable moment and our presentation enlightened the students, who were expecting someone more flamboyant. 

What was the source of their expectations?

The source was the media’s fixation on drag queens, that is, the media’s desire to publicize drag queens with inferences that the queens represent the trans community. My guess is that in many cases, the media does not know the difference or care about the difference between the trans community and the drag community. Their only concern is publishing their story and the truth be damned.

I have nothing against drag queens doing their thing. You go, girls! But I am not a drag queen and have an issue when they are held up as an example of me. So I strongly disagree that “any news is good news” – that the publicity drag queens receive is a good thing for the trans community or me.

Wearing Agua by Agua Bendita

Femulating at Santiam High School in Mill City Oregon in 1993.
A sample from our flickr Yearbooks collection.

Clowns in Gowns

Exhibit A

Exhibit A is a photo of a group of female impersonators (professional femulators), circa 1960. Discounting the glamorous evening gowns, these ladies resemble cisgender females you might see anywhere in the early ’60s.

Exhibit B

Exhibit B is a photo of what is considered 21st Century female impersonators (drag queens from RuPaul’s Drag Race). They more resemble the clowns in Exhibit C than they do cisgender females.

Exhibit C

Is it no wonder that I have no interest in modern drag queens? They are just clowns in gowns, in my opinion. 

I especially dislike it when they appear at Pride events and the ill-informed mass media and/or civilian population mistake them as representatives of the transgender community.

Not all drag queens are clowns in gowns. There are some who are professional femulators, but it seems that the clowns in gowns are getting all the attention today. Too bad.

Wearing Joie

Bob Uecker and Rob Stone femulating on television's Mr. Belvedere.

I'm not a drag queen

Transgender Day of Visibility (Today)

A reader sent me the news that Coca-Cola has a drag artist as a spokesperson for their products. 

“I’d call that a big step forward,” said the reader who sent me that news.

Yes – a big step forward for drag queens, but I'm not a drag queen! Doesn't do much for me or my trans sisters.

The new Coke queen is not the first. For the past year or so, drag queens have been appearing in television commercials here and there. The queens are all over-the-top and have no relation to femulators like me. 

The only transwomen I’ve seen on television are in ads for AIDS-related medicines. I applaud the pharmaceutical companies for that, but it would be nice to see a transwoman in an ad for a more generic product like Pepsi or Ford or Walmart where the crossdresser is just another consumer and not the butt of a joke.

Wearing Paige

Peter Outerbridge in the 1999 Canadian film Better Than Chocolate

I am not a drag queen

I am not a drag queen!

After a local "GLBT" pride celebration, the local newspaper had no articles about the event, but it did publish one photo from the event, which it featured on the front page of the local news section of the paper.

Guess what the photo showed?

Gay couples with their children in tow? No.

Appropriately attired transpeople taking in the event? No.

Over-the-top drag queens preparing to perform a number from Hairspray? YES!!!

You seldom see the media showing appropriately attired transpeople. That would be boring. The media prefers to show drag queens.

I have friends, relatives, and acquaintances, who know that I crossdress, but have never seen me en femme. I am sure they have seen news reports about GLBT pride events and like the "report" in the local newspaper, they almost always feature flamboyant drag queens. So, I have no doubt that those friends, relatives, and acquaintances who have never seen me en femme think that when I crossdress, I dress like a drag queen, too, because that is all they know.

Source: Annette at A Vintage Splendor dot com

Professional femulator Michael Andrews in the 1983 film Murder Me, Murder You

Drag in the Family

By Starla Renee Trimm, Femulate Contributing Editor

The other day, I happened to catch one of the All in the Family episodes in which Finocchio's drag queen, Lori Shannon (Don McLean), appeared as female impersonator Beverly LaSalle.

There were three episodes in which Lori appears:  "Archie the Hero" (1975), "Beverly Rides Again" (1976) and "Edith's Crisis of Faith, Part 1" (1977). The character is somewhat of a breakthrough, being the first time a drag queen is depicted in a positive and sympathetic manner on U.S. television. Beverly becomes a friend of the Bunkers, especially Edith, who becomes quite chummy with her new "girlfriend." Even Archie comes to begrudgingly tolerate LaSalle's flamboyant personality.

In the third episode, Beverly is killed in a gay bashing causing Edith to go into a deep depression and nearly lose her faith in God. This is the kind of gut-wrenching pathos brilliantly, but respectfully complimented with humor that the show was known for in its heyday. (Interestingly, it has been pointed out that LaSalle may be more trans than drag queen, as she is shown dressing en femme even when not performing.)

Sadly, Shannon was not as sympathetic as the character portrayed in All in the Family. Shannon/McLaen was said to be quite stuck-up and mean-spirited in real life and was not well-liked by many of the drag queens at Finocchio's. When McLean passed away from health issues at the young age of 45, one fellow performer was quoted as saying, "I don't care what the doctors say – that queen died of hate."

Wearing Nicholas dress, Alexander Birman sandals and Mercedes Salazar earrings (Source: Intermix)

Transgender beauty pageant in Kerela, India, June 2017

Weekend Wearing Womenswear

Zoe alerted me to a Huffington Post article about a youngster who will dress up as his hero for Halloween. His hero happens to be Bob the Drag Queen and the boy's mother and uncle are lending a hand putting his costume together and making it as authentic as possible.

It is a nice story and I think you will enjoy it.

∞ ∞ ∞

Lost my eyelash comb somewhere, somehow. I didn't realized how much I missed it until I made up my face Sunday afternoon. So Monday, I bought a new one (this one).

A long time ago, a queen told me to use an eyelash comb with metal teeth. At the time, they were hard to find, but I managed to get one from the Vermont Country Store, of all places! So I was a little upset when I lost it. But these days, the metal-toothed combs are more common.

The function of the comb is to separate and unclump your eyelashes after applying mascara. The plastic teeth are just too thick to fit in between the lashes you are trying to unclump, whereas the metal teeth are just right to do the job. So go metal.

By the way, the metal teeth are very sharp, so be very careful or you'll poke your eye out!

∞ ∞ ∞

Beauty expert, Louis Licari, wrote about blurring on Huffington Post... not gender blurring, but age blurring. It is an interesting blog post and includes tips on how you too can blur your age and look "young" despite how many birthdays you have celebrated (or not).

You can read Mr. Licari's post here. Enjoy!

∞ ∞ ∞

Helen of Haute Business fame and I have such a similar fashion sense that you'd think we were separated at birth! I am so enamored by some of her outfits that I decided to replicate one to wear to work on Halloween.

Will you be en femme at work for Halloween? I hope so!

Wearing Veronica Beard.

Eugeniusz Bodo femulating in the 1937 Polish film Piętro-wyżej.

When I Grow Up

Elaine Armen passed along this link to a recent article about Toronto's oldest drag queen, Michelle DuBarry. I have posted photos of Miss DuBarry here in the past, so it is nice to read some words about her, too. But it is also nice to see photos, so here is a link to some of her pictures.

I don't know about you, but I don't think Miss DuBarry is a "drag queen." I would call her a "female impersonator," "female illusionist" or "professional femulator," that is, a performer who attempts to emulate rather than caricaturize a female, as most drag queens do.

Drag is not my thing, but I am fascinated by the art of professional femulation. If I can do it over again, I want to be a professional femulator when I grow up.

Michelle DuBarry (left) with The Great Imposters

Wearing Opening Ceremony.

The Prancing Elites dance troupe

Going to My Prom in Drag

"Jacob Szymanski is already planning for his senior prom at Carl Sandburg High School, which will be Friday, April 25, at the Field Museum in downtown Chicago.

"His alter ego, drag diva Harlet Wench, will be in all her glory.

"Szymanski, 17, who lives in suburban Orland Park and is openly gay, will be dressing in drag for the Eagles' extravaganza.

"'I'm going to my senior prom in drag because I hope to help other kids in the future,' he said. 'I love doing drag and think this a perfect opportunity to gain some attention for the LGBT community and LGBT youth in specific. If I were to go as a boy, nobody would care, but if I put on the wig, the heels, the makeup, and the dress; suddenly people are interested.

"'I want to use this attention in a positive way. People think just because it's 2014 that bullying and discrimination don't occur. Times are changing and it's a lot better, but homophobic behavior is still around in schools and it makes other kids afraid to come out of the closet, or just be who they are.'"

For the rest of the story, read Windy City Times and OrlandPark Patch.

Actors Robert Caso and David Schon femulating in the 1993 film The Naked Truth.

Lisa Vanderpump.

Mad Drag

This bit appears in the current issue of Mad (#525 - February 2014).  I was  very impressed that the usual gang of idiots knew their drag queens!

I Want To Be a Drag Queen When I Grow Up

From Mail Online, 'He gets bullied but he's determined to be a performer': Proud mother tells of 14-year-old son's drag queen ambitions

Here is the rest of the story about a British teen's desire to trip the light fantastic in sequins, heels, and big hair.

I never uttered those thoughts when I was growing up, but I dreamed about taking the train into The City and apprenticing with a troupe of female impersonators.

At the time, I thought that my vocation would not sit well with my family, so I it remained a dream. However, in retrospect, I think my Mom would have been as supportive as the mother of Tom/Tamara. And my Mom was a great seamstress; ooh --- the fabulous outfits she would have created for me!

And so it goes (or so it went).

"A woman is not complete without aching feet."

"A woman is not complete without aching feet" is a line from the film To Die Like A Man and is spoken by one of the transgender characters as she slips on a pair of high heel pumps.

(So, now I know I am not alone regarding aching high heeled feet!)

To Die Like A Man is a 2009 film from Portugal that is now available in the US on DVD with English subtitles.

It is a very dark film and it will not make your day.

Here is the foreboding storyline from IMDB: A transvestite tries to erase any past history of herself as a male. She dies tragically before this is accomplished and her male identity is engraved on her headstone.

Here is Wikipedia's take on the film: It tells the story of a homosexual drag-queen at the end of his [sic] career. The cast includes several Portuguese real-life drag-queens, with no previous, or little, acting experience. The story has been allegedly inspired by the real story of Joaquim Centúrio de Almeida (artistic name: Ruth Bryden), a Portuguese drag-queen, and has motivated a lawsuit on account of plagiarism of a biographical book on the life of Almeida by the late author Carlos Castro, who was murdered in 2011.

I started watching the film as hurricane/tropical storm Irene crashed around my head on Sunday. Maybe the storm outside was too distracting or maybe the film was too bleak for this girl, but whatever the reason, I did not watch it all. Instead, I skimmed through the DVD watching scenes that I thought might be interesting; some were, some were not.

I have to watch the film from beginning to end in order to give it a fair shake. For now, I just wanted to let you all know about its existence.

Happy Thanksgiving

Dolly Parton leading the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2007.

It's a good thing I was born a girl, otherwise I'd be a drag queen. – Dolly Parton

My feelings exactly. – Staci Lana

voting

We are approaching the half-way point and so far 412 of you have voted in my poll (thank-you for voting).

If you have not voted, it only takes a few seconds to vote, so I encourage you to do so before the poll closes on Friday.

male homecoming queen

Mr. and Ms. Mason 2009 from Connect Mason on Vimeo.

Ryan "Reann" Allen, a senior at George Mason University, won the homecoming queen title earlier this week.

When not attending school, the newly crowned "Ms. Mason" performs as a drag queen in area nightclubs, but her appearance as homecoming queen concealed her drag queen roots. Instead of resembling an over-the-top drag queen, she dressed more like a typical co-ed might dress when competing for the title: natural makeup, gold sequins top, short black skirt, black tights, etc.

Good job, Reann!

You can read all about it here.

excellence in femulation (partie deux)

(Updated Below)

Today, the Femulate Awards Committee bestows the coveted Femmy Excellence in Femulation Award to actor Sylvain Morin for his portrayal of a drag queen in the 1993 Canadian film Love & Human Remains.

UPDATE: Would you believe there is an actual Femmy Award? It is for the intimate apparel industry. I guess I should have Googled it before (and not after) I used it!