Fashion Mags Show Celebrities Wearing Drag With Respect
Genderbending is very definitely becoming more and more a part of the mainstream. Where crossdressing was once solely an indicator of freakishness or a source of demeaning humor (for instance, Milton Berle or Flip Wilson), two different prominent magazines this month have shown mainstream celebrities in drag not as a form of ridicule, but of style.
First of all, indie pop-culture magazine Paper features a slide show of 12 female actors, models, designers, musicians, and other artistic types in male drag. The women in the slide show include actors Michelle Trachtenberg (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gossip Girls) and Gretchen Mol (The Notorious Bettie Page, Boardwalk Empire), model Jenny Shimizu, and alternative rock stars Z Berg and Tennessee Thomas (vocalist/guitarist and drummer respectively from The Like). The personas that they take on in the photographs range from corporate execs to working stiffs, from slightly androgynous to very butch, but all are depicted with elegance, dignity, and most important, style.
For the second publication Candy, it's less surprising that they would present genderbending—the whole point of Candy is that it was founded to be the world's first transgender fashion magazine. Their most recent cover model, however, is getting a lot more press than the women in Paper. Actor James Franco appears on the magazine's fall cover. Franco has played gay characters onscreen, such as Harvey Milk's lover in Milk and poet Allen Ginsberg in Howl, but has never admitted to personally being gay. For a long time, he's been one of the media's favorite celebrities to speculate "Is he or isn't he?" about. What's notable about the cover, therefore, is not so much that Candy is featuring crossdressing, but that Franco feels comfortable about playing up his perceived sexual ambiguity by associating himself with a transgender publication. Props to him. I have to say that he looks beautiful and stylish in drag, without even a hint of mockery. While celebrities have played with crossdressing for years, to see them start to do it respectfully and fearlessly is a great milestone.
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