Dina’s Diner 1/16/17

TALENT, HARD WORK, OR LUCK?

National Public Radio’s Terry Gross interviewed Damien Chazelle on the Fresh Air show airing on January 5, 2017. Mr. Chazelle is the writer-director behind the recently released, critically acclaimed film La La Land and previously was responsible for the film Whiplash in 2014. During the course of the interview, Mr. Chazelle talked about being successful (now) and recalling the doubts early in his career. He wondered aloud what factors played the most important part in any successful career: talent, hard work, or luck. Terry Gross picked up on this interesting train of thought and pointed out that many people in the arts work hard and never achieve success with critical acclaim or financial rewards. Damien even went so far as to wonder if there even was such a thing as “talent.” Both seemed to agree that luck played an important part in success stories since hard work alone does not do the trick and not every talented artist achieves success.

Although he was talking about film making and music (Chazelle, like the protagonist in Whiplash, was a young jazz drummer), that question about the intersection of talent, hard work and luck could be applied to many careers — and, of course, crossdressing. I think most crossdressers are at least somewhat competitive about the way we look in comparison to others. In those self-evaluations and critical comparisons we must deal with our own positions vis a vis the competition. Just as in other aspects of life, we are not all coming to our crossdressing on equal footings. Factors like age, physical characteristics, financial resources, time, and personality all play a part in where we “stack up” against the competition, so to speak.

Talent, Hard Work or Luck?

Poking around on the internet, I see plenty of crossdressers who look fantastic. Some are young, some are older, some seem to live in well-appointed homes, others in tiny apartments. We see the ladies who are out on the town with their crossdressing friends. There are beautiful self-photographers whose shoe soles are shiny smooth because they have never touched pavement outside of home or hotel room. It’s easy to find young crossdressers who have the advantage of youth but the disadvantage of little skill, or not much dough. There are older crossdressers who look great if you allow for age and its attendant bulk, bulges, and wrinkles. And of course, there are the poor souls who seem to have no clue how to get started other than some panties and a pair of heels. At the end of the analysis, some are more talented than others, some seemed to have really worked hard at it, and some have been lucky in experiencing fun, social crossdressing lives.

I know some of us (and I count myself in this group) feel that by the time they reached some level of mastery of cosmetics and dressing, it was on the downhill slope of time. I know some friends who probably wished they had more time for their crossdressing selves or financial resources that would have made their crossdressing experiences more robust. I’m sure there are girls out there who just wished they knew some other crossdressers or lived in more hospitable locations to provide greater opportunities. And almost all of us can now feel that we were born 10, 20, even 30 years too early to take advantage of the progress in transgender and crossdressing acceptance happening today.

Talent, hard work or luck. I guess you need a little bit of all three to be successful in anything, including crossdressing.

WHERE IN THE WORLD

Last week’s TransMedia Arts feature here on TGFoum mentioned the “Gully Queens” in Jamaica. In case you missed it, the Gully Queens refers to transgender persons living in the culvert gullies that run alongside and underneath roads in Jamaica. The loose band of transgender Jamaicans also received press in November 2016 when singer Ray BLK included them in a video of her song Chill Out. According to news reports, Jamaica has a virulent strain of homo — and trans-phobia which forces some gay and trans citizens to take refuge in those rough surroundings.

I was interested in this because I’ve been curious about transgender and crossdressing communities in places other than North America and Europe. To those continents, I should also add the developed countries of Asia since it is fairly easy to find information about transgenderism in Japan, Korea and, of course, the ladyboys of other southeast Asian countries. But Africa, South America and the Middle East are much more difficult to research. Part of this may be language and cultural or political restrictions. I think a large part of it has to do with economics and the kind of “luck” I referred to in my earlier item. Deeply felt transgenderism is a genuine issue for individuals in any culture but crossdressing is, as the saying goes, a “first world problem.”

A Nigerian trans person.

Looking for transgenderism or crossdressing in Africa or it’s larger nations like Nigeria and Kenya turned up only some mention of drag performers and a few items about transgender celebrities. Similar searches for Egypt and Iran as modern Middle Eastern countries also turned up nearly nothing. There are many Indian crossdressers that are active online but (as I mentioned in an item some months back) they primarily crossdress in traditional sari and seem to be acting as individuals singly rather than a “community.” There are some South American crossdressers and some very beautiful trans girls (in Brazil especially) but not in the type of communities we have in the States or some European nations.

When you see the hardships of the Gully Queens and some other oppressed transgenders, or the halting steps of other international crossdressers who are seeming to feel their way forward with limited resources and facing who knows what societal problems, you realize how lucky we are to have landed where we have.

A STAR OF STAGE AND SCREEN FACES THE AUDIENCE

Charles Busch

The New York Times had an interesting first person essay by playwright-actor-singer Charles Busch in the Sunday Arts section on December 25, 2016. Mr. Busch’s essay was titled “The First Time…I Performed in Drag.” In case you’re not familiar with Charles, he has been performing in his own plays and films since the 1970s always as a female character, usually in a send-up of overwrought Hollywood melodramas. Two of his campy film titles are Die, Mommy, Die and Psycho Beach Party and his play The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife has been produced on stages by legitimate companies all over the world.

It turns out that Charles Busch was a “straight” drama student at Northwestern University in Chicago in the mid-’70s. As he wrote in the essay, it became obvious that the theater department “wasn’t quite ready for me. I was too light (euphemism for “gay”), too thin and just too . . . too much.” At 21, he saw an experimental Off-off-Broadway stage play in which some of the female roles were played by men “in a comic style that was outrageous and yet always true to the story.” Charles wrote that he now saw a way to use all of the things that were working against him in the traditional theater world to forge his own way. He uses this great quote from Jean Cocteau: “Whatever it is about you that disturbs other people, cultivate that, because that is who you really are.”

With that in mind, Charles went back to Northwestern and wrote a play about “squabbling conjoined twin sisters” in which the roles would be played by himself and another actor in drag. It would be his first foray in public dressed as a woman, not to mention his first time writing, directing and starring in a show. Needless to say, the show became a smash on campus as the outrageous concept created advance buzz. He wrote about the transformation of Charles into one half of a conjoined female twin character this way: “I had always tried onstage to eliminate any effeminate mannerisms, and consequently came across as lively as the animatronic Abe Lincoln at Disneyland. Playing a female role gave me a freedom of expression I had never known. I had small features, was only five foot-seven, and was blessed with great legs. Maybe not as beautiful as Garbo, but I could definitely look like the female character I had written for myself.”

On his personal web page, there is a long list of plays, films, musical revues, cabaret appearances, and other theater accomplishments that were the result of his embrace of a unique artistic vision using drag as his vehicle of choice. Cultivating that which disturbs other people seems to have worked indeed. He told The Times that he is considering a cabaret act in which he wouldn’t perform in drag which he described as “Salome’s last veil.” He said, “I’ve approached some venues to see what they think. So far, they’d prefer me to be in drag. They’re worried my audience might stay away otherwise. It would be a bold move for me to be dressed as a man. Now, isn’t that a kooky twist?”

THE MIND WANDERS SOMETIMES

Gaynor as Chickadee.

A Diner or two ago, I wrote about watching old TV shows on some nostalgia cable channels. I was watching an episode of the Batman series late one night featuring the Penguin as Batman’s nemesis. One of the Penguin’s sidekicks in this episode was called “Chickadee” and was portrayed by an actress wearing a red corset-y bodysuit, opaque tights, and stiletto pumps. I usually check the internet to identify the actors or actresses that catch my attention and “Chicakdee” was played by an actress named Grace Gaynor. She appeared in a number of television shows and films through the late ’80s.

It seemed that it would be difficult in today’s more feminist friendly environment to parade an actress as “Chickadee” in the equivalent of a Playboy bunny costume through a half hour of prime time. The funny thing is that we see much worse (?) now on television but the blatant eye candy aspect of “Chickadee” would never pass the indignation test today. But never mind all that. Finding that the actress’ last name was “Gaynor” reminded me of another long-time crush of mine — singer and actress Mitzi Gaynor, who is no relation.

Mitzi Gaynor

Mitzi Gaynor had a distinguished career in films starting in the 1950s and she continued to be a Las Vegas and touring musical act into her later years. Even into those later years, she was often pictured in shimmery, sexy dance outfits that showed off her taut body and great legs. Mitzi always favored short blonde or frosted blonde hairdo’s which gave her a fresh, athletic appearance befitting her dance background. I remember an older fellow I worked with when I was in my twenties proudly mentioning that Mitzi Gaynor was of Hungarian descent, as was he. I never thought of Hungary as a place that spawned great beauties but I did know that the Gabor sisters (Zsa Zsa and Eva) were Hungarian and along with Mitzi that made at least three good looking Hungarian babes.

Zsa Zsa Gabor in Queen of Outer Space (1958).

And as fate would have it, as all this was happening in my head and on my laptop, the news had recently broken that Zsa Zsa Gabor had died at age 99. Zsa Zsa became one of those personalities who retained their celebrity for decades even though no one could remember why they were so famous. Some forgotten movie roles, her many marriages and all those broken English talk show appearances created a legend atop a vaporous career. Regardless, The New York Times gave her a long obituary and a separate tribute on December 19 and 20, 2016. Thinking back on it now, Zsa Zsa adopted the same haughty-bitchy, semi-serious persona on those talk shows as a drag queen might. Dishing one liners, looking “mahvelous, dahlink” and laughing all the way to the bank.

Grace Gaynor, Mitzi Gaynor and a Gabor. That’s a lot of “G’s.” But glamour begins with “G.”

GAMS ON THE LAM

I guess it’s that time of year again for the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes. I received an email from them recently and I guess it won’t be long until we see the “Prize Patrol” bringing million dollar checks to lucky recipients. Which brings me to the female crew member of the three person PCH Prize Patrol.

Danielle Lam

It was a few years ago, I guess, when I found myself paying greater attention to the woman in the navy blazer and tan skirt in the Sweepstakes commercials. Despite the fast moving video cuts in the commercials, it was obvious that the woman had great legs. Since the Clearing House uniform skirt was fairly short, it was obvious also that her employers were purposely featuring those shapely pins. Thanks to the internet, I was able to quickly find out that the young woman is named Danielle Lam and she is employed by Publishers Clearing House not merely a commercial actor.

The interesting thing about physical beauty — be it facial features, bust proportions, hip curvature, derriere dimensions, or leg shapeliness — is that the difference between “world class” and “run of the mill” can often be measured in a handful of millimeters. Throw all the variables together and you realize that “beauty” is a crazy crapshoot of minute differences from person to person. So I find Danielle Lam’s legs to be very pleasing indeed whereas some other woman’s legs may be only a few millimeters less shapely by comparison. The other amazing biological wonder is that we humans can make these determinations of “beauty” in split seconds through simple eye sightings.

Merv Griffin, the producer of Wheel of Fortune, was supposed to have said that Vanna White had a large head. In his opinion, that made her face more prominent and drew attention to her natural beauty. The right mix of proportions of features is important as we all intuitively know. A voluminous derriere on a large woman doesn’t hold the same appeal as, say, Nikki Minaj’s bubbly booty below her 26″ waistline. Jennifer Love Hewitt (remember her?) got a lot of mileage out of huge hooters on an otherwise slightly built body.

As crossdressers, we are always either minimizing or maximizing, enhancing or diminishing, highlighting or disguising various parts of our faces or bodies to look more female. Many men have great legs — better than most women, if you like a shapely calf rather than a slender reed. And the modern Instagram male cosmetics mavens show that masculine faces can look as beautiful as women through cosmetic artistry. But again we come back to the subtle differences between the men behind the makeup brushes. The same minute variations that separate the girl in the next cubicle from looking like Margot Robbie are also at work separating your looks from Bradley Cooper’s — or, come to think of it, your crossdressing appearance from the queens on RuPaul’s Drag Race.

It’s complicated and I gotta run because the door bell is ringing and it might be Danielle Lam, with her gorgeous legs, and a check for a million dollars.

Tags: crossdressing, featured, opinion, Transgender

Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment, Transgender Opinion