Our Gangster in a Dress

Harry Spear and Jean Darling switch genders
in “Crazy House,” a 1928 Our Gang comedy.

When I was a kid, I was a big fan of the Our Gang/Little Rascals comedies. Would you believe that I am so old that I saw my first Our Gang comedy, "Hook and Ladder," in a movie theater as a short inserted between the newsreel, cartoons, coming attractions, second feature and main feature?

Anyway, after my first taste of Spanky and his gang on the big screen, I sought out the series on television and over the years, I probably viewed every episode including the early silent episodes.

One silent episode left a big impression on me. I only saw it two or three times, but I will never forget it. For years, I tried to track it down without much success. Even the Internet was not much help.
Now that a lot of Our Gang episodes are on YouTube, I decided to renew my search and, Eureka! --- I found what I was looking for.

The episode I sought was titled "Crazy House," a silent two-reeler from 1928. Here is the plot description from Matinee Classics:

"In this Our Gang film, Jean Darling is a rich girl who invites the gang to her elegant home for a party. The gang is allowed to go anywhere in the mansion since her parents and servants are not home. Little do they know her father has set traps throughout the mansion for an April Fool’s Day party which scares off the gang. The police end up coming to the house with a surprise at the end of the movie."

That sounds innocuous: just your typical Our Gang plot, but there was a sub-plot that made an impact on my very impressionable pre-teen mind.

The rich girl wants to be a boy. After the gang arrives, she convinces one of the male gang members (Harry Spear) to switch places with her and they crossdress in each other's clothes. After the girl and boy switch clothes, the girl became aggressive and fights with the boy in the dress and tries to start a fight with other gang members to prove her masculinity.

I will always remember seeing the boy in the little girl's short dress and thinking that he looked just like a little girl with short hair. Also, I will always remember how the girl in drag pushed around the boy in drag.

I identified with the boy in drag. As a kid, I was not aggressive and other kids (boys and girls) bullied me and pushed me around. I was a poster child for a sissy and it was inevitable that I would wear a dress.

And so it goes.

("Crazy House" is on YouTube here is in two parts on YouTube. You can view Part 1 here and Part 2 here, but note that the crossdressing scenes only occur in Part 2.)

 

Artist Steven Arnold and beat poet Ruth Weiss switch genders for Halloween in 1965.

Actress Joan Crawford in 1932.

Future Dressing

A modern male and female.*

What will life be like for us girls in 25 years? Here are my predictions for where we will be in the year 2039.

It will be completely acceptable for males to dress however they please. Just as it is acceptable for females to wear male clothing today, it will be acceptable for males to wear female clothing in 2039.

There will be different degrees of how males adopt womenswear. At one end of the spectrum are guys who may on occasion wear a macho skirt, a manly pair of heels and a little foundation, while at the other end of the spectrum will be the "femmen" (you know who you are), who will dress in womenswear all of the time. And nobody will hassle anyone for what they wear except maybe scolding those fellows wearing white frocks after Labor Day.

There will no longer be women's and men's restrooms; there will just be restrooms.

Clothing stores will no longer segregate their wares between women and men or girls and boys. Instead, the stores will have adult, young adult, and children's departments.

Sex reassignment surgery (SRS) will be very common in 20 years because folks will be able to get SRS on demand just like cosmetic surgery can be had on demand today. Folks with and without gender dysphoria will be able to change genders and the results will be more satisfactory because of advances in the surgical procedures.

All health insurance plans will cover gender-related procedures, either as basic coverage or as an option like some plans offer vision and dental coverage as an add-on expense today. For example, if you were contemplating SRS, you could opt for gender coverage and it would not be an expensive add-on because the procedure will be so common in 20 years.

By 2039, you will be able to live in whatever gender role you prefer. When someone asks a child, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" the anticipated answer will be "girl" or "boy" and not a career choice. Females can be as macho as they want to be and males can be as feminine as they want to be.

What a wonderful world it will be!

*   I replaced the original photo that appeared at the top of the post after Glori discovered and commented that the photo depicted two transwomen.

 

 

 

Brigham Morris Young femulating as “Madam Pattirini” circa 1900.

 

 

 

Wearing Madeleine.

Before and After

Before I knew what I was doing and After I learned a thing or two.

European femulators between the World Wars.

My Favorite Angel

Who was your favorite angel?

In my opinion, Farrah Fawcett had more fans than the other two angels combined. She had the hair, she had the poster and she had the most publicity.

Despite Farrah’s popularity, my favorite angel was Jaclyn Smith. In my opinion, Jaclyn was more beautiful and sexier than the other angels. And she was the angel I wanted to be!

Fast-forward about ten years... I was attending my first transgender convention. A Hollywood makeup artist was at the convention doing makeovers for the attendees. After witnessing his demo, in which he transformed an average-looking transgirl into a glamorous queen, I signed up for a makeover (it would be my first makeover ever).

During my makeover, I asked him which Hollywood actresses he had worked with and he rattled off a few names. Then I mentioned that I thought Jaclyn Smith was one of the most beautiful women among the current crop of stars (circa 1985) and he responded that he had done Jaclyn's makeup a few times and that she had lousy skin that required a lot of work!

After bursting my balloon, he patched it up by adding that I had better skin than Jaclyn Smith!

 

 

 

Actor Jeremy Stockwell femulating in the 1970 film Dinah East, which is very interesting from a femulating perspective. According to IMDB, the plot of the film is as follows: A glamorous movie queen of the 1950s is revealed to be a man whose secret led to complicated relationships. As a result, Stockwell is en femme throughout the film and he does an excellent job portraying a female. His good looks, narrow waist and petite frame sells the femulation despite some inexpensive wiggery. The film has been difficult to find, but is now available from Netflix. 

 

 

 

Wearing Madeleine.

Your Face Sounds Femulated

Most mornings, I check out the "Newest Postings From My Blog List" in the Femulate sidebar to see what's new with the girls in the blogosphere.

"Singer: Julio Iglesias Jr. as Amy Winehouse" on Elle’s Gossip Gurl caught my attention and I found myself on YouTube watching Julio femulate Amy on a television show called Your Face Sounds Familiar.

Evidently, Your Face Sounds Familiar is very popular outside the USA and appears on televisions in over 30 countries and languages. The premise of the show is that celebrities appear on the show to impersonate popular singers. And occasionally the celebrities impersonate singers of the opposite gender, as did Julio, Jr.

I had to check this out more thoroughly!

I spent an hour or so on YouTube searching out more cross-gender performances and I was impressed with many of the femulations I found. The makeup and wardrobe people on the shows performed some amazing transformations turning male celebrities into the likes of Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, Tina Turner, Rhianna, Beyonce, Shirley Bassey, and others whose names I did not recognize. (I also did not recognize the names of some of the celebrities who femulated.)

For what it’s worth, some of the male celebrities have performed as the opposite gender more than once on the program… just saying.

There are literally hundreds of Your Face Sounds Familiar videos on YouTube and I probably missed a few of the femulations, but in my opinion, the best came from Spain's version of the program. During an episode which aired last year, Andreo Ermel femulated Amanda Lear. See the video above and the photos below.

I think you will agree that she looks fantastic… her voice, not so much!

 

 

 

Santiago Segura and Julio Iglesias, Jr. femulating as Azúcar-Moreno
on television’s Your Face Sounds Familiar in 2014.

 

 

 

Wearing Victoria's Secret.

Indeed

 

 

 

 

Future professional femulator Michelle DuBarry femulating
for the very first time at age 9 in 1940.

 

 

 

Wearing Boston Proper.

Like She Said

 

 

 

Yeah --- like she said!

 

 

 

Wearing Madeleine.

Girl’s Night Out

 

 

 

Actor Caleb Goh channeling Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly
in That's The Way I Like It, a 1998 film from Singapore.

 

 

 

Wearing Zac Posen.

A Weekend with Alex McNeill

Presbyterian Promise invites you to meet and talk with Alex McNeill, the new executive director of More Light Presbyterians, one of the major voices advocating and working for LGBT equality in the Presbyterian Church USA. The weekend will focus on how we can live into the dream of equality in the PCUSA and on transgender issues and what we still need to do to make sure all are welcomed, respected and included in God's Presbyterian family. Join us for all three public events this weekend in Wilton and New Haven, Connecticut.

 

 

 

Jimmy Fallon femulating as Mrs. Fallon on television’s Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.

 

 

 

Wearing Madeliene.

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.