Dina’s Diner 4/5/21

A (NEW) FACE IN THE CROWD

Tashnuva Shishir

The Associated Press website had an article headlined Bangladesh TV Hires Country’s First Trans News Anchor. The article appeared on March 12, 2021. Many other news sites picked up the story as well.

The article started out, “Tashnuva Anan Shishir, who previously worked as a rights activist and actress, debuted on Dhaka-based Boishakhi TV on Monday, International Women’s Day. She read a three-minute news bulletin, and after finishing cried as her colleagues applauded and cheered. “I was very nervous, I was feeling so much emotional, but I had in my mind that I must overcome this ordeal, this final test,” Shishir, 29, said in an interview Tuesday.”

Her life story – like so many trans persons the world over – included many challenges before her current level of success. Her family was not supportive of her as a young trans person. She began living as a woman in her teens. Her father stopped speaking to her, believing that she had caused the family to “lose face” in their community. She was bullied and suffered sexual assault. She contemplated suicide. Instead, she fled her provincial hometown for the nation’s capital, Dhaka, and made her way into activism, a health sciences program, and the recent news gig.

Bangladesh is a country the size of the state of Georgia and it has a population of about 160 million. Even though the country has a tradition of hijras (non-binary individuals of all types), they are generally held in low esteem and live life on the margins. The article said that the Bangladesh government has liberalized rights accorded to trans persons since 2013 and recognized hijras as a third gender option. The government estimates there are ten thousand trans people in the country but many see that as a vast undercount in a country with 160 million souls.

Things are looking up at least in some areas. The AP reported, “Boishakhi TV said it wanted to be part of the changes and has hired a second transgender person in its drama department. “Our prime minister has taken many steps for the transgender people. Encouraged by such steps, we have appointed two transgender people. We want the attitude of society to change through these appointments,” said Tipu Alam Milon, the station’s deputy managing director.”

THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

The New York Times had an interesting essay in the March 9, 2021 edition. It was titled Quarantine Made Me Long for Painful High Heels by Lou Stoppard, a (female) fashion journalist. Here is the theme of the article from paragraph two:

“The torture devices of fashion, previously demonized as tools to disempower women (cocktail dresses, corsets, pantyhose, awkwardly sized handbags), have taken on a whole new cast in the pandemic, while the comfort clothes lauded as their better replacements (tracksuits, flats) are now synonymous with being stuck at home: limited, constrained.”

Prior to that thought, Ms. Stoppard speaks of daydreaming about being at a party in too-tight shoes or boots, a pinching brassiere, and noisy bangle bracelets and welcoming the discomfort after a year of almost no social activity. Other women she spoke to mentioned the same longing. From the article: “I want sequins, I want painful beauty treatments, I want lamé,” the writer Lauren Collins said wistfully. Ms Collins, who lives in Paris, described the urge to wear something fragile, or easily stained. Now the preciousness might feel exciting, rather than hampering or time-consuming. Such fabrics come with the memories of trips to the dry cleaner, maybe on the way to work, or between appointments.”

Ms. Stoppard echoed that sentiment when she wrote, “To have ruined a dress, or broken a heel, is to have moved, to have tried.” To be out there in nice fashions or impractical high heels is to live and after months in casual clothing, one can start to feel like a schlub. As crossdressers, the sensation of being in a nice dress and high heels is to be aware of our bodies the entire time. The different way dresses feel against torsos, the exposed legs swathed in hosiery, the tilt and precariousness of high heels makes everything seem a little more vivid.

No wonder the ladies want to get back to it (at least occasionally) as much as we do.

EVERYTHING’S COMING UP DAISY

Daisy Taylor

I’ve never written about adult performers in all the years I’ve been writing the Diner. But Daisy Taylor captured my interest. With her voice. No kidding.

You can choose to believe this or not but I am not a regular consumer of trans porn. So when I saw Daisy and, more significantly, heard Daisy, I was captivated. She uses her natural male voice, which has that clear Southern California drawl appropriate for a child of Los Angeles. There’s not a lot of dialogue in her movies but the timbre of her voice in the heat of the action was, uh, interesting. Daisy also has a short, boyish haircut so she really plays with the mixed imagery of a boy who became a girl, who looks sort of tomboyish but is very much a sexy person.

There are several YouTube videos of Daisy being interviewed in which she talks about transitioning at sixteen, cutting her hair short, and when she tells dates she is trans. There are more that cover her career and life in general for a trans adult performer. All in that cutely affecting voice. As for the rest of her movie performances, I can tell you that she is also impressive in non-verbal portions of the films. Yes, quite impressive.

It’s almost impossible for performers to move a career beyond porn. It’s happened a few times for women performers. So I wonder what the future might bring for a unique person like Daisy, especially as a trans performer. You’d like to think maybe something great will come her way. I hope so.

TAKE A LOT OFF THE TOP

Taking it off.

I stumbled across a fetish that I was unaware of — and that is saying something, believe me. I don’t know if there is a shorthanded name for it but it involves women getting their hair shorn off to very short lengths or completely bald. An associated fetish is seeing the women in the barber’s chair wearing those protective capes around the neck and shoulders.

I guess it’s all good clean fun. The women in the photos and discussion forums seem to be into it for their own kink while the men watch or dream up their own fantasies of cue ball-headed women. There can be an element of dominance and submission to it but some women mentioned the empowering feeling of taking their hair down to buzz cut levels even if not completely shaven. One discussion forum asked if anyone had tried to cut or shave their own heads during the pandemic quarantines. Most of the scenarios, though, take place in the barber or salon chair and that seems to be a part of the whole fetish too. If the women are wearing one of those protective capes, so much the better.

Sometimes I wonder whatever compelled me to take up crossdressing even as a boy before it was fully understood by me. And I wonder what is behind the fantasy of seeing a woman’s hair shorn off or wearing a barber’s cape. It does nothing for me to see it or think about it. But that — as they say — is what makes the world go ‘round. Wigs being a big part of the crossdressing experience, the bald female look doesn’t seem to intersect with our thing. But I’m sure somebody somewhere is playing it out in the privacy of their own boudoir.

FACE APP, FACE APP, ON THE WALL. . .

I came across a funny item that was picked up by a number of international news sites. The headline on the Vice.com site was best: Young Female Japanese Biker Turns Out To Be 50-Year-Old Man With FaceApp.

You can’t believe your lyin’ eyes.

The motorcycle enthusiast would post photos and brief descriptions on Twitter using the handle @azusagakuyuki. The written messages were in Japanese. They garnered so much attention that some Twitter followers began to find small clues that all was not what it seemed. A Japanese talk show investigated further and discovered that the pretty young female motorcyclist in the photos was actually a fifty year old man using FaceApp to alter his photos. The article reported: “The unnamed 50-year-old admitted in the show that he uses FaceApp, the photo editing tool that can drastically alter one’s appearance, including their age and gender. He has been using it to turn himself into the Twitter-famous biker chick and even gamely demonstrated his process on TV. He apparently resorted to this kawaii (gender-bending) persona for the social media popularity. He told the interviewer, “If a girl like her existed, everyone would go crazy for her, right?””

According to the news sites, some hawk-eyed Twitter fans had noticed a photo where the “woman” in the foreground was betrayed by a faint image of a middle-aged man in the motorcycle’s mirror. Boy, you can’t fool anyone anymore. But the long blondish hair shown in the photos is. . .his! He keeps his locks long and flowing for the road. Who could disagree with his reasoning for the deception in the first place? Certainly not any fifty year old crossdressers among us. We’ve known for a long time that (most of) the world would rather look at a pretty woman than a middle-aged man.

Like to make a comment? Login here and use the comment area below.

Tags: crossdressing, featured, opinion, Transgender

Category: crossdressing, Transgender Opinion