Dina’s Diner 12/16/19

THAT’S MY BOY!

I saw an article online that appeared on a site called Medium.com headlined, “My Son Wore a Dress to Picture Day and It Reaffirmed My Faith in Humanity.” It appeared on the site November 13, 2019.

A boy having fun in a dress.

The story in brief was that the author’s five-year old son asked if he could wear a dress to his pre-school’s picture day. Apparently, the boy was inspired by his eight-year old sister’s joy at wearing a new dress she had received. The author – the boy’s mother – wrote: “I was excited and proud of his choice. I strive to raise open-minded kids and to help them understand that we live in a world that is ever-changing, full of differing family structures and gender orientations. That being said, when I ordered him the matching dress, I worried.” She acknowledged that she lives in very liberal, very hip Brooklyn, New York but that other places and other individuals might not be so open-minded.

She emailed her son’s preschool teachers to gauge their reaction to her son’s picture day dress idea. The teachers decided to make it a discussion about “preferences” in terms that five-year olds could understand ala “Some people prefer eggs, some cereal; some people prefer dresses, others pants; some like pink, some blue.”

But when picture day finally rolled around, Mom was still apprehensive. Long story short, everything went well and the teachers gave her a thumbs up to signal a successful picture day experience. It was interesting to read that Mom doesn’t impute any deep message to her son’s dress choice. She suspects that it was mostly inspired by his admiration for his older sister and the texture of the fabric more than anything deeper. I think that is a level-headed way to look at it. Although we hear a lot about it nowadays, it’s hard to imagine a five-year old making a fully-considered gender statement. She says, “As my children get older, I will continue to support their preferences, whatever they may be.”

THOSE KRAZY KIDS!

Speaking of boys wearing dresses, the New York Times had another feature about pre-teen drag queens in the September 8, 2019 Sunday Styles section. It was headlined Sashaying Their Way Through Youth. And featured a couple of young queens I wrote about previously in the Diner, twelve-year old Desmond is Amazing and ten-year old Lactatia. Also mentioned in the article was nine-year old Kween Kee-Kee and fourteen-year old E! the Dragnificent.

Kween Kee Kee

These kids – and others who also have internet presences as school-age drag queens – approach it as performance rather than a gender identity. “From an early age, Desmond was theatrical” his mother told the Times. The Times reports, “Desmond pegs his start in the world of drag to 2015, vogueing at the New York Pride parade. Next came gigs channeling Gwen Stefani and David Bowie, along with runway shows for Gypsy Sport and the Blonds.” He was planning for an appearance at RuPaul’s DragCon later in September when the article was being written. Kween Kee-Kee’s mother said, “Our goal has never been to make K famous. We allow Instagram to be a public account as we don’t feel we need to be pressured to hide our child, and because we think his story could help other kids.” She said when Kee-Kee (nee Keegan) expressed an interest in drag, they had to find resources and guidance to even get started before Kween Kee-Kee became a star of sorts online. The Times points out that despite the gender boundary-breaking of the whole drag kid scene, mothers seem to do all the legwork while the dads are less involved. Ain’t nothing non-binary ‘bout that!

The article made an interesting side point about the state of drag in today’s entertainment scene. The article said, “In one way, the debate over drag kids mirrors one in drag as a whole: How mainstream can the art form become before it loses its subversive power?” A follow up quote was insightful if somewhat negative: “By opening their thriving subculture to children out of a misguided sense of ‘inclusivity,’ gay men risk losing a space for their expression at all — or alternatively, opening their subculture to Disneyfication,” the writer Kevan Copeland, a 38-year-old gay man in Toronto, wrote in a post on Medium.com.

The article wraps it up with some context. After all, we’re talking about young boys (and some girls). “Laura Edwards-Leeper, a clinical psychologist in Oregon who works with queer and trans kids, said that experimenting with gender expression isn’t necessarily linked to being queer or trans. “It’s normal at basically any age for boys to dress up as princesses and girls in male superhero outfits,” she said. What’s changed is parenting [noted the Times]. “When there’s no judgment, kids are more likely to feel free to explore,” Dr. Edwards-Leeper said.”

KEEP THOSE (BINGO) CARDS COMING IN

The New York Times Arts section had a feature on some of the unsung people in the city’s cultural scene. The article appeared in the August 30, 2019 edition. (I’m so far behind on my Times browsing). One of the notables was long-time New York City drag queen Linda Simpson.

When I was becoming active in the late 1980s, Linda Simpson was one of a group of Manhattan-based queens who were getting a lot of attention as crossdressing and drag became a recurring topic on daytime talk shows like Donohue and Montel Williams. I even found a “guidebook” titled Drag Queens of New York that profiled the big names and rising stars (like a young RuPaul) of drag and club kid culture. Linda Simpson (I always thought) was attractive and not as outrageous as some of her cohorts of the day like Lady Bunny, Varla Jean Merman and Joey Arias.

The Times feature caught up with Linda Simpson who is now ensconced at a Greenwich Village nightspot named Le Poisson Rouge where she runs the Linda Loves Bingo events. She’s been there for 10 years and told the Times she has been doing Drag Bingo since the late 1990s. “What I’ve created, I hope, is a real escapist environment. It’s just a great chance for people of all kinds – it’s a very mixed crowd – to enjoy themselves.”

When she isn’t actually emceeing the events in drag, Linda spends a lot of time shopping for the kitschy prizes for her bingo games. She also has a supporting cast of DJ’s, other drag queens and burlesque girls that make the show a spectacle. She admits “even to this day, there’s a little pre-show jitters, but I think that’s a good thing.”

A while back, I had a Diner item about how hard it is to be a professional drag queen. Linda — a long way from the television lights of Drag Race and working hard in the cement jungle of Manhattan — said about hosting bingo nights, “it’s been really good affirmation for me. I always wanted to make a living doing drag and bingo has allowed me to live as a drag queen.”

THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR

Simply having a crossdressed Christmas.

Christmas season was always a time of heightened crossdressing desire – at least in my earlier years. There was something about the omnipresent festive decorations with Christmas music piped in everywhere that made it seem like a party was about to break out – and it would be more fun crossdressed than not. The early dark of December afternoons and the warmth of house heat against the chill outdoors always seemed to encourage getting dolled up even if only to stay in the house. Our Renaissance support group always had a Holiday party for the members, and the bar scene if you were adventurous was always more festive and less intimidating than normally.

There has always been an undercurrent of sexiness associated with Christmastime. The trope of pretty models dressed in short Santa dresses with black boots is a staple of the season. The Fredericks of Hollywood catalog (remember those?) always had dozens of sexy Santa or elf themed outfits for the wife or girlfriend – or crossdresser. Photos of crossdressers in Christmas togs are easily found. You probably have a cache of your own squirreled away somewhere. C’mon, admit it.

I went online to see if there were gift ideas specifically for crossdressers. I stumbled instead on an Etsy.com page for kinky Christmas gifts. So if you like a little something more than just a Santa cap paired with pantyhose and high heels, you might want to check out the spanking paddles, shibari rope sets, chastity devices, and other items on offer there and elsewhere.

Lastly, the movie Love, Actually has its devoted adherents and its vocal critics. I am somewhere in that middle area. The one storyline I like best is Hugh Grant (as the British Prime Minister) falling for his pretty personal assistant played by Martine McCutcheon. In one early scene, Martine is shown exiting the PM’s office and she is wearing seamed stockings. That was enough to make me a fan but I do like the scene where they share a kiss onstage at the kiddie Christmas pageant.

Ah, Christmas! Now where the hell did I put those seamed stockings?

A FAR AWAY COUNTY

I came across an early photo of 1970s gender-bending rock star Wayne County and it brought back a wave of nostalgia for those first traces of crossdressing desire in my teens. In the early ’70s there was a surge of gender ambiguous rock and rollers which spanned from top line stars like David Bowie to lesser names like Wayne County. In between were rock novelties like Alice Cooper and glam rockers The New York Dolls; early hair bands like T-Rex and Mott The Hoople; and even Mick Jagger was playing with makeup and diaphanous stage outfits, as was upstart Steven Tyler with Aerosmith.

Wayne County on stage in 1972.

In the years (decades really) before the internet, the only way to keep up with the scene was through magazines. My favorite was Creem, less literary than Rolling Stone and filled with photos of teased–out, eye-lined, booted, spangly-dressed rock stars. I had no desire to be a rock star myself but I was very interested in the feminine transformation that was being partly carried out by these headliners. I was aware of female impersonators but in those days, and at my age, information on drag was hard to come by. The androgynous rock scene was a decent substitute.

Wayne County never became a big star on the rock scene and eventually she dressed in full drag for her appearances with her backing band The Electric Chairs. In fact, in the early 1980s, she began using the name Jayne County and identified as female. She renamed her backing band The Electric Queers. According to her website she is still active in the music world at age 72. But this photo of her from the early 1970s is one that lives on as an inspiration for a befuddled future Diner correspondent.

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Tags: crossdressing, drag, featured, opinion, Transgender

Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment, Transgender Opinion