From the Sublime to the Ridiculous
In this installment of Dina’s Digital Diner Dina covers two items that cover the polar extremes of femininity—and good taste.
On February 7, the New York Times carried a piece about the models who carry the prize suitcases on the popular game show Deal or No Deal. The article discussed how the producers must work hard to keep the models looking beautiful during the long shooting hours and gave some examples of the wide cross-section of feminine beauty (and brains, too, in some cases) that make up the elite 26 woman troupe.
The two dozen-plus models are a large part of the show’s popularity. The women are regular cast members of the show and they usually keep the same numerical place on the 
stage—although sometimes they are moved around. The show employs fourteen makeup artists to keep the ladies looking their best. They deal with such challenges as toning down a too-beach-tanned model, readjusting a hairdo to keep it the way viewers have become accustomed to, and blotting out small imperfections on the models’ seemingly flawless skin.
The models wear revealing cocktail dresses and high heels while spending upwards of twelve hours a day shooting the shows on a frigid soundstage. The ladies themselves have a varied mix of backgrounds: a Playboy centerfold, a law student who just passed the California bar, an interpreter for the hearing-imparied at her church, and a member of Mensa, the group for people with high IQs.
The producers know that some portion of the male audience tunes in just for the beauty on display.
All the way across the country from Deal or No Deal’s Hollywood studio we came across a story about another public display of femininity. The sheriff’s department in Cumberland County, Maine is on the lookout for a crossdressing male. The crossdresser in question pulls up alongside women driving at night, jumps out of his vehicle and models his “women’s underwear, garter belt and black high-heeled boots” according to Sheriff Mark Dion. There have been six such reports to the sheriff’s department. He has also been reported wearing a camisole—a nice feminine touch there, you must admit.
I know what you’re thinking (other than “they’ll never catch me”): it doesn’t sound like a very good outfit worthy of modeling to anyone, especially shocked women motorists. Now here is the funny part: the Cumberland County sheriff says that the crossdressing annoyance has broken no laws. However they are concerned that he is a traffic hazard because he is getting out of his vehicle at night in the middle of roads. At this time, the crossdressed would-be model is simply a very gender-neutral “person of interest.”
Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment
About the Author (Author Profile)
I started crossdressing and going out publicly in 1988. I joined the Renaissance group in the Philadelphia area that year and later became chapter leader for two years in the '90s. I always enjoyed writing and wrote for the Renaissance newsletter and magazine throughout my membership years. I've been writing for TGForum for several years now. I also contributed items to LadyLike magazine and other TG publications before the advent of the internet. My hobby-within-a-hobby is singing live as my alter-ego Dina Sinatra and I have had the opportunity to do that with several accommodating performers and in a number of venues over the years since the mid-1990s. In the Diner column items here, I try to relate crossdressing or transgender themes (and my own pet peeves and fetishes) to the larger world -- and vice versa.Subscribe
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