Amanda F. Steele cover the arts and entertainment scene that features trans actors, characters, writers or musicians. Today she has news about the Scarlett Johanssen casting controversy; a transgender character being added to General Hospital being portrayed by a trans actress; news about Laura Jane Grace’s band Against Me! and more. Stay up to date on transgender people in the arts and check out Trans Media Arts!
Linda Jensen is on her summer vacation so this month we’re bringing you a Retro Rerun from back in the day. This article first appeared on TGForum in 1997. Linda has always been a traveler and when she visited other cities in the US and Canada she always brought her femme finery along so she could enjoy the local trans scene. Back in 1982 she found herself in New York City and for the first time learned about the existence of heterosexual crossdressers. She attended the meeting of a group there and met Kay. That’s when the real excitement began.
Dina Amberle, hostess and head chef at Dina’s Diner has whipped up another delicious confection to tickle your palette. She takes a dash of trans model Hunter Schafer, adds in some male ballerina spice and just a smidgen of African print dresses. Then she blends it all thoroughly and chills it for a bit before topping it off with an appreciation of the way new technology makes Elasticgirl’s body more bouncy in The Incredibles 2. Don’t worry about the calories! Enjoy!
Last month Sophie Lynne reviewed the graphic novel Crosswind in which a ruthless hitman and a frazzled housewife exchange bodies. Sophie gave the series a positive review and thought, due to a short bit of dialogue in the fourth book, that there was a trans woman character who might be featured in later books. Turns out that was true, and now that Sophie has obtained all of the books, and read them twice, she has decided to add something about the series in this month’s Page Pundit.
Cheryl Ann Sanders, a.k.a. Cassie, was a frequent contributor to Transgender Forum in the past. Back in the 1990s when TGForum featured and interactive bulletin board it bristled with challenges and responses. One of the challenges was to describe your first kiss as a woman. Cassie dips back into the past today to present her answer to that question and she challenges you to add your response in the comment area below.
Amanda F. Steele covers the transgender arts and entertainment scene. Today she talks about the event surrounding the San Francisco Pride March; digs into the #metoo controversy around Morgan Freeman’s treatment of female interviewers, including Janet Mock; and offers some info on Cynthia Nixon’s transgender son, and a trans model who is walking the runaway for major designers. She also has a look at a band who decided to support gender fluidity by putting their legs on display the same way they use women’s legs in their logo. It’s all waiting for you in Trans Media Arts.
Our Fashion Maven Tasi Zuriack lives in Mexico and her town has an annual Pride Parade. This year on June 16 Tasi was invited to ride on a local gay club’s float. But it didn’t turn out as easy as that sounds. You would think it would be show up, get on the float, wave at the crowd. But Murphy’s Law was being enforced that day. First off, it rained. But, we’ll let Tasi tell you the tale of how she finally made it onto the float and took part in the Pride event.
Today our Correspondent in Thailand presents a piece of fiction that discusses the nature of time. Isn’t it funny how when you are anticipating something time seems to move so slowly. Then when that thing you have been waiting for arrives suddenly there just isn’t enough time to enjoy it as much as you’d like. While Precious Time is a work of fiction you may well see yourself in the main role.
Susan Grant is one of the lucky ones who got to patronize the legendary Finocchio’s nightclub in San Francisco back in 1958 when men were men and and men were women onstage. She visited the club while she was in the Navy and Finocchio’s was on the Navy’s “Off Limits” list. That only made her want to check it out more. She returned to visit the club 30 years later and found that it no longer the same experience. Today she writes about the club and passes on a juicy bit of information on what may have happened after Howard Hughes visited Finicchio’s.
Raquel and Mark, seemingly two parts of one person that became separated after drinking a strange potion, have been transported to another land, possibly another world. There they confront “the Magistrate” who is apparently responsible for their condition. In a house that is a duplicate of their childhood home Raquel meets her “mother” and then her “father.” Then she finds herself cast into darkness only to awaken in a horrid swamp confronted by a hideous creature with one eye. It’s Guug, an ogre who tries to protect her from wolves but the wolves attack and Guug is injured. Raquel is in serious peril! Is all lost? What will happen next? Read Chapter 21 of Metamorphosis.
Last week Jan Brown and some of her friends attended the Out Films CT festival at Trinity College in West Hartford. They were there to see the short films with transgender themes. Seven films from all over the world were featured. All were from twelve to thirty minutes in length and covered various perspectives on transgender issues. See what Jan thought of the films in her review.
All the world’s a stage and we are but players. Shakespeare wrote something close to that and for some members of the trans world the desire to put on a show and be a performer on the stage providing entertainment and inspiration becomes a life goal. Today Katherine Diaz, our correspondent in Bogota, writes about the urge to be a glamorous star and perform in the spotlight. She also makes a modest attempt at El Majestual Mundo de los Shows in her included video. Her blog es en Español. Use the link at the bottom of the page to access Google Translate.
Dina’s Diner always has the freshest ingredients and the finest spices. When Dina Amberle whips up a recipe it always includes tangy tastes and delivers hearty intellectual nutrition. Today Dina uses such items as the beauty pageant scandal in Venezuela along with the seeming contradiction of acceptance of LGBT people and the Catholic foundation of the Philippines with some princesses and a rainwear fetish stirred in to create another tasty edition of Dina’s Diner.
Sophie Lynne is our Page Pundit. She reviews all sorts of publications with transgender themes, characters, and such. Today she goes from text only books to take a peek at a graphic novel series in which a hitman switches bodies with a harried housewife. Will the housewife be able to carry out a hit? Will the hitman do something horrible to the housewife’s abusive husband? Sophie doesn’t give away too many details but she tells you all about who writes and illustrates the series and how good it is. Read her review of Crosswind.
Amanda F. Steele cover the entertainment and the arts beat. Today in “Trans Media Arts” she has news about “Supergirl” and a new transgender character. There’s a Kim Petras video for her new song “Heart to Break” that you can watch and news about a new film from India that features a trans character in a leading role. She also has news about “Transparent” and the premier of the new show about the 1980s House Ball scene, “Pose.”
In the 1990s TGForum had an expert on drag in movies who wrote a series of articles for us. Laurie Sheril was her name and she covered the instances of movie crossdressing through the different historical periods of film-making. We’re bringing her series out of the archives as a Retro Rerun beginning with her article on drag in the early years of the talkies.
What’s cooking down at Dina’s Diner this week? Dina has several special items on the menu. Learn about the Japanese reliving the ’80s with tiara wearing “Princess Parties.” Then she stirs in a soupçon of the the phenomenon of androgynous models and wonders aloud if the thrill is gone, or if the models are still there but no longer shocking. Then she blends equal portions of the appeal of large hoop earrings and the “first pitch girls” of South Korea. She rounds it all off with the attraction of beautiful, professional, and intelligent television presenters. It’s all ready to be served up hot and spicy down at Dina’s Diner.
There is a saying that “the devil is in the details.” Sometimes no matter how much work you’ve put in some little detail will get overlooked and major problems will occur. For one trans woman just one lapse into inappropriate body language was enough to cause her a big hassle. Former TGF contributor Cassie Ann Sanders returns to TGForum with a new short fiction piece that illustrates how it’s the little things.
Our cartoonist, Sabrina Symington, had an unfortunate occurrence. Some creep stole her laptop and all her cartoons in progress. But Sabrina would not miss a deadline! She got out some old school paper and crayons and drew today’s cartoon by hand! Then took a picture of her work with her cell phone camera. Deadline made! See what Dykey Dinosaur has to say about the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.
Trans Media Arts covers trans people in the arts and entertainment world. Today Amanda F. Steele covers the documentary about trans man body builder, “Man Made.” Gives you info on the controversial film Anything which premieres soon, and then she gives you the skinny on the new show about the house ball scene of the ’80s that comes to television in June, “Pose.” She wraps it all up with a trailer for the film about Tongan trans folks, called leitis. It’s all in Trans Media Arts.
Sherman, Tx: Friday, April 27 – May 27, Jake and Rave Productions, LLC, will be releasing the concept episode for Spirit Quest, a transgender owned and starred paranormal investigation show on Amazon for one month. The show follows Braxton Roane, a transgender man, as he travels the United States, with each episode exploring different historical […]
Kimberly writes about a time when she moved from the east coast to California. She was only dressing en femme part of the time and that time tended to be very early in the morning. Or late at night if you look at it from another view point. Everyday she would get up and get fully dressed in lady’s business attire. Then off she would go, out into the world. What did she do on these excursions? What adventures did she have? Read her blog post today and learn what she did and to what lengths she went to avoid discovery by her neighbors.
Raquel and Mark, seemingly two parts of one person that became separated after drinking a strange potion, have been transported to another land. They trek to the north to confront “the Magistrate” who is apparently responsible for their condition. In a house that is a duplicate of their childhood home Raquel meets her “mother” and then her “father.” Then she finds herself cast into darkness only to awaken in a horrid swamp confronted by a hideous creature with one eye. It tells her “Guug not eat you. Wolves eat you.” The wolves attack and Guug is injured. Raquel is in serious peril! What will happen next? Read Chapter 20 of Metamorphosis.
Every few years the theory pops up again that the subject of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting Mona Lisa was actually da Vinci in drag. If not actually da Vinci some claim it was one of his male models decked out in feminine attire. Either way the only supporting evidence is thin. Susan Grant thinks that she may have a deeper insight on the subject. Today she explores it thoroughly and all she asks is that you pay attention to the hands, not that mysterious smile.
