Dina’s Diner 5/31/21

MAKEUP TRANSFORMS

The New York Times T Magazine had a long article titled Makeup Is for Everyone, sub-headed with “Now that people of all genders have embraced the rituals of beauty, once seemingly reserved only for women, what does it mean to adorn our faces?” The article by Times writer Megan O’Grady appeared on May 10, 2021. Ms. O’Grady covers a lot of territory and points out some interesting milestones that, although they seem old now, were relatively recent developments in gender, technology, and attitudes about cosmetics.

While nodding to early male makeup pioneers like David Bowie, Boy George, the glam rock movement, and the club kid scene, the article tries to explore how makeup for men may be moving toward acceptance. It also notes how makeup for women has changed over just the past decade or so. On the female side, women in the 1990s and early 2000s often desired specific makeup goals — “wanting Beyoncé’s eyes or Angelina Jolie’s lips.” Or to achieve particular celebrity looks: “Britney Spears (that shimmering brow bone), Mariah Carey (that brown lip liner) and Jennifer Lopez (that bronzer and luminizer-enhanced glow).” According to the article, that started to change when a non-celebrity woman named Adrienne Nelson posted the first beauty tutorial to YouTube in 2006. Yeah, only 15 years ago.

The so-called beauty vloggers multiplied and began to include many men, not all of whom are traditional drag queens, showing how to apply makeup. Those YouTubers have millions of followers and in some cases have become famous themselves. The article also points out the influence of RuPaul’s Drag Race for putting male cosmetic transformations into the living rooms of homes all over America. Did you know that show (which seems to have been on forever now) only premiered in 2009? Ms. O’Grady makes a funny observation that many of the low-key cosmetic tutorials online are akin to the soothing vibe of Bob Ross’ Joy of Painting. Apparently, many of the people who subscribe to the beauty vloggers do not even regularly use cosmetics themselves. They just like to watch.

The article includes about a dozen photos of male models wearing various amounts of cosmetics, some subtle, some dramatic. As one of the online commenters noted, the age of the models defeats the idea that male makeup is a viable market for cosmetics companies. “The models in the article are a bit young though, nothing for the over fifty and sixty? They have all the money. Time to think up something for them.” Hear, hear. Not only does the older demographic have the dough to spend on brand name cosmetics–let’s face it –we need it more, too.

Oh, I wasn’t talking about you and me. Just in general, y’know?

BODY POSITIVITY, POSITIVELY!

Billie Eilish

The June 2021 British Vogue magazine issue (that hit newsstands in May) featured teen singer Billie Eilish on the cover. As you may already know, it caused quite a stir on the internet and elsewhere because Ms. Eilish “revealed” herself in a collection of lingerie ensembles.

A pop singer in revealing clothing is hardly news but Billie was known for wearing loose fitting clothing in her public appearances and for making statements criticizing body shaming incidents. She became the counterpoint to so many other female singers who used tight, revealing, fantastical outfits to boost their profiles.

Although she’s been a star for a few years, Billie Eilish is only 19 years old now. She’s won awards, sang a Bond movie theme and her usual green and black wig is iconic in its own right. Except for a few photos, her body was pretty well hidden from view. One set of paparazzi photos that showed her candidly in a tank top brought an avalanche of body shaming comments. It turns out that the baggy blouses had been covering up an impressive pair of breasts for a young woman. So the choice (it was her idea, according to Vogue) to do a glamour shoot was destined to shock.

One of the interesting aspects of the photos (to me, anyway) is that Eilish and the Vogue team chose vintage-inspired lingerie outfits rather than more contemporary items. The individual pieces are all new, of course, and by name designers, also of course, this being Vogue. Corsets, stockings, garters, high heels and a cascading blonde wig reminiscent of Veronica Lake feature prominently. The article says, “For her Vogue shoot, she is indulging a fantasy by embracing a classic, old-timey pin-up look inspired by Betty Brosmer, Horst’s illusionist beauty shots, and the stockinged models of Elmer Batters. When we first speak, the shoot is imminent. Although it was entirely her idea, Eilish is apprehensive. ‘I’ve literally never done anything in this realm at all,’ she says.”

As crossdressers, we know all about the appeal of lingerie. Most of us can’t pull off the modern semi-nude fashions seen on red carpets nowadays but foundation wear, stockings, garters, and high heels? You betcha. So while some critics said Billie’s embrace of lingerie and glamour went against her “anti-fashion” and body positivity stances, we know where she’s coming from. She told Vogue, “It’s all about what makes you feel good.” Sing it, sister.

WAIST NOT

Our Managing Editor, Angela Gardner, suggested this item about a pinup model of years gone by, Betty Brosmer. Her name was mentioned in the item above about Billie Eilish as one of the inspirations for her corseted photos.

Betty Brosmer

Angela sent me a link to a Yahoo.com feature story about Betty headlined The Girl With the Impossible Waist. According to the article, Betty began modeling for Sears Roebuck (remember them?) in California and two years later (at age 15) in 1950 moved to New York City with her mother to model for men’s magazines of the day. It was a different time, for sure. Nothing is known of any personal ordeals she may have had to contend with, but she has spoken candidly about the process of premature sexualization she was forced to undergo as a teenage model. “When I was 15, I was made up to look like I was about 25,” the article notes.

She modeled for famous pinup photographer Alberto Vargas among others. At 18, she moved back to California for Hollywood where “she frequently featured on the covers of Modern Man, Photoplay, and Rogue, [and] become the highest-paid model in the country. According to Steve Sullivan, who profiled Brosmer in his biography of fifties pin-up girls Va Va Voom, she was seen in ‘virtually every men’s magazine of the era.’” During that time, she vied with pre-fame Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield as pinup icons.

As the Yahoo article mentions, her “impossible waist” was subject to much conjecture. The article says: “Her extraordinary figure was, some believe, achieved by a process of invasive corseting from a very young age. This process alters the shape of the rib cage to narrow the waist and can, in extreme cases, move internal organs out of position. But this is pure speculation: others think it’s more likely that Brosmer simply accentuated her natural curves by building the muscles in her hips, legs and ribs, making her waist look even smaller by comparison. Canny use of lighting and angles in original photographs of her, plus airbrushing, may also have distorted her shape.”

I was surprised that I wasn’t familiar with the name Betty Brosmer before writing this Diner item. I have a bunch of photo books of vintage pin up stars including the Va Va Voom book mentioned above. The Yahoo article talks about Betty’s life after the pinup days were over and here is where I (and perhaps some of you) might know Betty Brosmer: as the wife of bodybuilder entrepreneur Joe Weider. Betty Weider (still an attractive, shapely woman) was often featured in ads for the Weider’s businesses (often in the back of comic books).

She worked later for Shape magazine where she advocated for healthy beauty and fitness rather than the unnatural or image enhanced beauty standards of her own early years. Betty’s still going at age 86 according to the article so there really is something to be said for a trim waistline.

IF ONLY

I’ve been noticing more crossdressers mentioning their OnlyFans pages in online profiles. OnlyFans allows members to set up subscription channels and post adult content for money. It became popular during the pandemic when some people had a lot of time on their hands and were suffering dwindling income streams.

The idea seems to be that the content providers offer their photos or videos for a modest monthly subscription fee. Based on some reports in the mainstream press, popular OnlyFans providers can make six figure incomes a month. The site also got attention when it was reported that mothers with children, work-at-home office employees, candlestick makers, and all manner of “normal” people were cashing in on the do-it-yourself porn opportunity. Professional porn stars who were locked out of making professional videos during the shutdowns began hitting the jackpot on OnlyFans without leaving their homes.

I’m not familiar with all the ways a person can monetize their online presence. Mainstream “influencers” and others (I guess) can do it through YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. For those with more adult ideas, there are personalized subscription sites or content sharing on sites like ClipsForSale. While someone might be reluctant to subscribe to a single site for maybe $20, for the same amount, they could subscribe to several providers on OnlyFans for $4 each.

I had to register on OnlyFans to see what it was all about and I couldn’t find a way to search for how many transpersons had subscription channels. Doing a general search via Google seemed to turn up a lot of trans folks with presences on the site. In fact, I was surprised how many young trans women apparently were posting to OnlyFans. Less clear were how many crossdressers (in contrast to transitioning performers) were using the platform for fun and profit. As I said at the outset, though, I’ve noticed more CD’s putting OnlyFans links on some of their online profiles.

Making money from risqué or outright pornographic content is like water finding its own level. When one pathway is obstructed, another rivulet begins to flow, or nowadays technology opens an entirely new floodgate. If you build an adult content field. . .they will come.

MINI ME, MINI YOU, MINI EVERYONE

I came across the website Retrospace.com via a Pinterest.com posting. The topic of the original post was something called Miniskirt Monday. That is a regular feature on the groovy Retrospace site, a place devoted to photos, fashions, and fads from the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s.

Too short?

It was only after seeing it in print so recently that I realized Miniskirt has become sort of a quaint term on the order of Go-Go Boots. When was the last time you read about a celebrity wowing the audience in a daring miniskirt? In the past several years I’ve seen high school girls wearing prom dresses that make 1970s era miniskirts look positively modest.

But at one time — if you’re of a certain age now — the miniskirt was the hottest thing since the invention of the bikini in the post-war era. (That’s World War II for you young kids out there.) The mini revolution worked its way across skirts and dresses in the ’60s and ’70s such that even middle-aged ladies began sporting hemlines above the knee. It spawned a stock market theory that said when hemlines rise so does the market — and vice versa. The stagflation of the 1970s brought with it (or was caused by it) the dreaded Midi-dress, or worse, the Maxi-dress. Goodbye knees and thighs.

Looking through the gallery of the Retrospace website, it was nostalgic to see the individual and group photos of women and girls all sporting their miniskirts. This was still the age where women wore hosiery so the legs were sheathed in pantyhose or opaque tights or occasionally knee socks for the schoolgirls. Even approaching fifty years later, the thought of an exposed female thigh in L’eggs pantyhose still does it for me.

I don’t know about you but there are only a handful of times I crossdressed without a hemline falling somewhere above my knees. What’s the point of it if you can’t show your legs and perch on high heels? I know that’s not true for everyone. To each their own it must be. Mini (for) me.

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Tags: crossdressing, featured, opinion

Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment, Transgender Opinion