Baby Ugly

The Artist D

I’ve been asked numerous times throughout my career to write columns on fashion and beauty. I guess it’s because they think I’m pretty in pretty things. The truth of this matter is I know as much about fashion and beauty as I do about breathing. That is that I just do it and it happens. Some would say I know bupkis about either and I’m perfectly alright with that summation. I have not striven to look hot as much as I have gone out of my way to look as glamorous as I have always known I am.

Glamorous! Now there’s a word with deep meanings. Is glamorous good looking? I don’t think it always is. Glamorous can be over the top too, which is what I feel that I am. It’s why I have such trouble with fashion. They’ll ask me what they should wear or what’s “in” this season? To which I usually think “Who cares?” Do you want to wear it? Do you like it? Then wear it. Then be it. To hell with everybody else.

It’s especially a bone of contention in the transgender community.  A group of people who know themselves to be something other than what society tells them and they give a damn if they wear white after Labor Day. You’ve got to be kidding! All of this “be who you want to be” stuff across the board in this community and in others, but we’re still destined to look like Miss Thing on the front of Vogue. It’s preposterous.

Pete Burns

I winced this week as I saw someone else post another picture of famed European super star Pete Burns of the band Dead or Alive. It never fails that photos of Pete bring long strings of comments about how he’s gone too far. He hasn’t gone too far! He wanted to look like a human Bratz Doll and by Gods that’s just what he did! I happen to have a thing for big lips and interesting looks so it does sting just a bit when I see all the nasty comments.

Even the stronger willed people are pushed around by opinions like this. I’ve thought of plastic surgery many times and it never fails that someone has to thank me for not going down that road. Why are they thanking me for not doing something to myself which I may want? I didn’t drug them and give them lip implants in their sleep. Not that they should thank me for not doing. What I want my face, body and house to look like sounds like nobody’s business but my own.

Jocelyn Wildenstein

Freak unique is the way to go if you ask me and that may have a lot to do with where I come from. I grew up in the Pennsylvania version of The Stepford Wives. Row after row of bleached white robotic facsimiles of people all trying to be just like everybody else. Seeing Divine in Pink Flamingos for the first time showed me beauty because it showed me difference. That which stands out is beautiful because it is unique. Especially since I was born unique, I was never going to act like everybody else. Loving who you really are isn’t a lie. I truly believe people like Pete Burns do love themselves. It’s not some sort of psychological running and hiding as is often assumed.

Age is beautiful too. To think people get freaked out over that as well is difficult for me. The older you get the harder it is to hide who you really may be and it makes you even more beautiful than you were. There’s no reason to hide it. There’s no need for us to disguise our true style and nature just because it doesn’t match. Wear what you want and do with the body you have as you wish. You and your body are only together once for this unique time. May as well make it what you want it to be.

The Artist D is executive editor of Fourculture Magazine. He is also unearthing the underground as host of The Fabulous D Show every Sunday night at 7 PM EST at TheArtistD.com 

Tags: beauty, featured, implants, perception, theartistd, ugly

Category: All TGForum Posts, Transgender Opinion