Dina’s Diner 3/16/15

LIFE’S SECOND ACTS

The progress in acceptance of transgenderism in modern culture is pretty astounding. While this has not resulted yet in full legal protections, the prevalence of stories about transgender individuals — from adults of both sexes to teens on the cusp of adulthood to small children identifying as the opposite gender — has been seismic.

Transgenderism has a lot of cultural and religious resistance to overcome for sure before full acceptance. But generally, people seem to like stories of rejuvenation, comebacks, and new life paths. I thought of this when I saw an article recently that was headlined “Stars That Used To Be Strippers.” Did you think that maybe I was reading the latest issue of Scientific American?

A small group of celebrities (females and males) stripped before they became famous. Catherine Zeta-Jones…really? Add to that the smaller number of former porn stars who have managed to crossover to mainstream careers. Ronald Reagan was an actor before becoming an even more famous and successful politician. Vanilla Ice is successfully rehabbing real estate properties. Now we can count some transgenders (Andreja Pejic, Laverne Cox) who have transformed their careers while transforming their lives.

So once the public gets past the visceral reaction to transgenderism (even if some people never will get past that), the generally favorable reaction to stories of personal change, progress…transformation should make the snowball roll faster downhill.

WHY THE HELL NOT?

Paolo as Kim Kardashian

The Internet was filled with coverage about the male makeup artist who recently transformed himself into a number of different female celebrities. It hit the news and culture website The Huffington Post on March 10, 2015 under the headline “Genius Makeup Artist Transforms Himself.” The makeup artist in question is Paolo Ballesteros, a 32 year old Filipino actor, model and cosmetics wizard.

As the HuffPost said, Ballesteros is amazing all with “his jaw-dropping ability to transform himself into seemingly any female celebrity under the sun — with little more than some deftly-applied makeup.” Hey, that makeup is something, isn’t it, girls? This year, Paolo transformed himself into the newly blonde Kim Kardashian, Dakota Johnson (star of 50 Shades of Grey) and Kylie Jenner also of the Kardashian clan. I said “this year” because Ballesteros also received attention and kudos last year when he posted photos of himself made up as Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Megan Fox, and Beyonce.

The article continued: “Ballesteros, host of the Filipino variety show Eat Bulaga, told The Huffington Post in an email Tuesday that he started experimenting with celebrity makeup transformations after watching tutorials on YouTube. He made a few attempts, he said, and was “surprised” at how quickly he took to it.” He told another reporter that getting the various noses right was the hardest part because you cannot make a large nose small or vice versa except through an illusion.

It’s funny that men who are good with makeup never try to transform themselves into other famous males. Of course, it’s easier to change the gender visually than to make one male look like another male through cosmetics alone. Still, since men of a certain creative leaning have been transforming themselves into women since early times, it seems that there must be some deep compulsion in this direction. And for that matter, the visual appeal of a transformed female impersonator is equally as compelling.

NAILS IN THE COFFIN

I’ve noticed recently that a fair number of crossdressers seem to have forsaken fingernail polish. There may be multiple explanations for this — in fact there must definitely be multiple explanations for this phenomenon. This incisive Diner item will explore the reasons behind this development.

The first explanation may be the simplest. It could very well be that no fewer crossdressers are wearing nailpolish now than earlier but I never noticed it before. You can never discount the simple explanation. But assuming that I am onto something here with this observation, the other explanations are more interesting.

Nail polish is sort of a pain in the fanny for the occasional crossdresser. It can be messy if one doesn’t have a light touch. Some polishes take a while to dry completely which puts you at risk of smearing the lacquer if you don’t give it enough time. This is especially annoying when you are trying to get dolled up and dressed after work and get someplace in a compressed time period. Pulling pantyhose up with less than fully dried nail polish is sure to cause a smear. And applying new polish over smeared polish usually makes a bigger mess than before. So there is the inconvenience factor at play and maybe some gals just said “to hell with all that.”

Cute without Polish

When I started dressing seriously in the latter part of the 20th century, fake nails were big. Some crossdressers found no better friend than the purveyors of Lee Press-On Nails. I was never a fan. Crossdressers who may already have large hands and meaty fingers just looked more bulky with a layer of plastic on top of their thick natural nails. I’m not even sure if fake nails are still a thing but no wonder if crossdressers have given up on them.

Another reason for this observation is that I am seeing it (or more accurately “not seeing” it) mostly on Internet photo sites. So the crossdressers posting their photos may be purely stay-at-home enthusiasts who just don’t feel like messing with nail polish just to take selfies. No real cultural significance if that is the conclusion.

The other explanation could be that crossdressers like many biological women are getting more comfortable with a natural look. I’m not sure if this is a completely valid hypothesis. The prevalence of nail salons and the popularity of mani-pedi’s may make this fallacious. But it does sort of dovetail with the emergence of “trap” culture that I mentioned in last month’s Diner.

Many youthful, androgynous traps also opt for a more natural look with minimal makeup and simple street fashions. There doesn’t seem to be much psychic correspondence between traps as a group and crossdressers (older, more traditional in their feminine style visions) but maybe there’s something in the ether that is wafting into the psyche of natural transgenders and crossdressers alike. Or maybe I’m all wet.

AT THE CORNER OF HOLLYWOODLAWN AND VINE

I saw an article by Jeffrey Marsh on The Huffington Post on March 9, 2015. Mr. Marsh is the originator of the “Don’t Say That’s So Gay” campaign designed to stop using “gay” as a derogatory term to describe something unliked. He also has a widely viewed Vine page (which I just discovered is a sort of blog, photo, video site).

Jeffrey Marsh

Jeffrey Marsh is what is or was called “genderqueer” (I think). That is, he has transgender aspects but outwardly sports a beard and generally masculine appearance but wearing dresses and other feminine accessories. The essay on Huff Post was about his lack of certainty about labels and how he sees himself.

Jeffrey opens with a story about a nightshirt that transformed into his first dress as very young boy: “…if there was a specific moment I ‘discovered’ I was gender different, it was long before I can remember. I was always me — always wanting to wear a dress. The hard part came not from who I was and what I liked, but from the anxiety that created for everybody else. That’s still the hard part! I love being me and love being me in any dress as often as I can, and many people can’t handle it. I’ve grown to accept my part, my role. I’m trying not to be too grandiose about it, but I feel like I’m here to help people through the process of accepting that I exist.”

Jeffrey’s approach of mixing gender norms in his outer appearance is still unusual. But the story of not knowing a moment when one identified as gender variant is pretty common. Children like that just know themselves even if they don’t understand it and cannot describe it. Apparently Jeffrey is still struggling with the words to match how he feels. He told the HuffPost, “If someone is not in a place where they can accept that gender means different things to different people, then I don’t want to hang with them. If, on the other hand, someone is on the edge, someone is willing but just doesn’t understand, that’s who I’m happy to talk to. And you know, we probably won’t talk about gender. We’ll talk about our favorite Youtube channel, or the best lip gloss.” Because there’s more to life than categorizing everything.

By the way, Jeffrey Marsh doesn’t seem to wear fingernail polish. Hmmmmm.

Tags: featured, Jeffrey Marsh, opinion, Paolo Ballesteros

Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment, Transgender Opinion