While androgynous images of entertainers have long appeared in movies and depictions of gay and/ or lesbians on television are more present than ever, this season the new trend on reality TV may have been transgender contestants.
Until just a few months ago, transgender characters have been relegated to scripted television series like 'Boston Legal,' 'Ugly Betty,' 'Dirty Sexy Money' and 'All My Children.' Recently, two contestants have showcased the ups and downs of being transgender while vying for the top prize on two of TV's most popular shows.
The Gender Benders
The Gender Benders
BlackVoices.com takes an up-close and intimate look at how androgyny has crossed into mainstream entertainment culture via the work and depictions of transgendered people, transvestites, transsexuals, cross-dressers and gay icons. Sometimes dramatic, sometimes comedic, and often-times jarring, these gender-bending images leaves a lasting impression on all who bore witness. Take a gander.
Name: Flip Wilson
Profession: Actor/Comedian
Gender Bender: As the strong-looking, colorfully-dressed, flirtatious and outspoken Geraldine Jones, Wilson is credited with negotiating race and class bias by positively characterizing the average, working class black female.
Claim to Fame: After being featured on shows such as 'Laugh-In,' 'The Ed Sullivan Show' and 'The Tonight Show,' he landed his very own sketch variety show, which debuted on NBC in 1970.
Factoid: Flip Wilson was born Clerow Wilson, Jr. in Jersey City, NJ on December 8, 1933. On November 25, 1998 he succumbed to complications of liver cancer.
Name: Milton Berle
Profession: Actor/Comedian
Gender Bender: During his television heyday, "Uncle Miltie" (as many referred to him as) donned wigs and dresses during his slapstick comedy antics.
Claim to Fame: In 1948, NBC brought 'Texaco Star Theater' from radio to television, later naming Berle as the permanent host. The vaudevillian-styled show became a ratings hit, winning Emmy Awards after its first season.
Factoid: Milton Berle was born Mendel Berlinger in New York City on July 12, 1908. He passed away at the age of 93 on March 27, 2002.
Name: RuPaul
Profession: Singer/Actor/Drag Performer/Former Talk Show Host
Gender Bender: RuPaul, born RuPaul Andre Charles, became not only the first drag queen supermodel after signing a contract with M.A.C. cosmetics but he was also the first drag queen to have his own talk show.
Claim to Fame: At the height of the supermodel era, RuPaul released a dance/house album called 'Supermodel of the World' lead by the hit single 'Supermodel (You Better Work).' It became an MTV hit and topped the dance charts.
Factoid: On his 'Foxy Lady' album, he covered Diana Ross's 'Work That Body' and also appeared on her music video for the single, 'I Will Survive.'
Name: Wesley Snipes
Profession: Actor
Gender Bender: Snipes's character, "Noxeema Jackson," in 'To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar' is a drag queen who, along with fellow drag queens Vida Boheme and Chi-Chi, sets off on a road trip to Los Angeles only to have their car break down along the way.
Claim to Fame: Though his first movie was 'Wildcats' with Goldie Hawn, Snipes, made a name for himself in two popular black films of the early 90s, playing Nino Brown in 'New Jack City' and as Shadow Henderson in Spike Lee's 'Mo' Betta Blues.'
Factoid: Snipes holds a fifth degree black belt and also practices Capoeira, a Brazilian martial arts.
Name: Boy George
Profession: Singer/Songwriter
Gender Bender: Influenced by David Bowie and Iggy Pop, Boy George's androgynous look made him a stand-out in his group Culture Club.
Claim to Fame: Culture Club's 1983 debut, 'Kissing To Be Clever,' included the #1 song 'Do You Really Want To Hurt Me.'
Factoid: Boy George, real name: George Alan O'Dowd, later confessed to being bisexual and dating his Culture Club drummer Jon Moss for whom he wrote a great deal of his hit songs for.
Name: Sylvester
Profession: Musician/Drag Performer
Gender Bender: Sylvester got his start performing with a group of transvestites called The Cockettes in San Francisco. Record label pressure to reshape his image resulted in his reportedly showing up to meetings in full-on drag.
Claim to Fame: His first solo album, 'Step II,' which was released in 1978, earned him the name "The Queen of Disco" following the success of two disco classics, 'You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real),' and 'Dance (Disco Heat).'
Factoid: Before he passed away from complications due to AIDS, Sylvester (real name: Sylvester James) lived out one of his dreams, singing back-up for his idol Aretha Franklin on her album 'Who's Zoomin' Who?'
Name: Felicity Huffman
Profession: Actress
Gender Bender: As "Bree" in 'Transamerica,' Huffman plays a man-to-woman pre-operative transsexual who finds out that she has a son before her final surgical operation.
Claim to Fame: Huffman has gained popularity as the character Lynette Scavo on ABC's 'Desperate Housewives.'
Factoid: In 2005, Oprah Winfrey granted Felicity's "Wildest Dream" when she got to sing backup for her idol Tina Turner on Winfrey's talk show.
Name: Grace Jones
Profession: Model/Actress/Singer
Gender Bender: On the cover of her 1981 album, 'Nightclubbing,' Jones flaunted an androgynous look, with square-cut hair and a padded suit jacket, cigarette in mouth. Her height and overall new look was said to have influenced the cross-dressing movement of the 1980s.
Claim to Fame: Jones began her career as a model in New York and was once a muse to Andy Warhol. Her disco recordings were welcomed by a loyal gay following. Jones also appeared in 'Boomerang' as Helen Strangé.
Factoid: Jones was born in Spanish Town, Jamaica.
Name: Dustin Hoffman
Profession: Actor
Gender Bender: In 'Tootsie,' Hoffman played Michael Dorsey, an unemployed actor, who takes on the role of "Dorothy Michaels" a female soap opera actress and later falls in love with the show's leading actress.
Claim to Fame: Dustin Hoffman's first memorable role was in the 1967 film 'The Graduate' as a young college grad named Benjamin Braddock who gets himself into a messy situation by having an affair with a married woman and falling in love with her teenage daughter.
Factoid: In 1982, he reportedly wanted to play the title role in 'Gandhi,' but ended up signing up for 'Tootsie.' Oddly enough, he lost the Oscar for 'Tootsie' to Ben Kingsley who played Gandhi.
Although she was recently booted from the show, King, who was noticed by Banks when she first appeared as an extra in the background during a photo shoot in a previous season of the hit CW series, says she did not believe that Tyra chose her simply for ratings and controversy sake.
"Tyra picked me because of my performance and she picked me because I stood out in the background of a photo," King told BlackVoices.com last week. "I don't think that it's a trend...she picked me for that reason."
"I think the one message we always try to get out there, that Tyra always expresses, is you want to widen the spectrum of what is considered beautiful," 'Top Model' executive producer Ken Mok said in a recent interview with the Associated Press.
Androgyny is nothing new to the show either.
J. Alexander (also known as Miss J) is one of the show's most popular judges and has garnered a cult-like following with his over-the-top wardrobe, colorful accessories and sharp-witted quips. Other cross-dressers, drag-queens and gay culture icons (Kevin Aviance, Benny Ninja, etc.) have graced the screen during some notable challenges.
Banks, who once praised the transgender saying, "I tell my staff, 'This girl is absolutely amazing','' made a point to express that the reason for King's dismissal was because of a difficulty to stand out in photos and not because of her sexual orientation.
In a swimsuit challenge, wearing boy shorts, still proved uncomfortable for the Maryland native. "I would say that it was difficult for me," she confided. "I tried not to think about it because I did not want it to consume what I was doing. I think it was more mentally difficult but I went through and did what I had to do."
The leggy beauty is hoping that within three years she'll be able to afford to pay for the surgical operation that will make her a woman and continue to follow her dream of becoming a supermodel. "The finances are what are keeping me from doing it. If I could have had it already I would have," she said. "My goal is my 25th birthday [to] have it by then but hopefully I will get a job that will put me in a situation where I can."
Right now, King resides in New York City and continues to pursue her modeling career in addition to dabbling in fashion design.
Shortly after she caused a media splash on 'Top Model,' Laverne Cox gained attention for being another transgender person on reality television -- as a contestant on VH1's 'I Want to Work for Diddy' competition.
On the hip-hop savvy series, Cox's fellow contestants asked her to "tranny it up" in one of the challenges. And although she told us she didn't really know what that meant, she counts her time vying for the opportunity to work with Sean "Diddy" Combs as an "overwhelmingly positive experience [and] a really good time."
The camera ready transgender, who referred to herself as a "strong black woman" on the show, particularly loved watching herself on television. "I think it's huge and it's so exciting for me to be a professional transgender person. To see a transgender person on TV, hopefully people will continue to see us as human beings," she said.
Causing a stir and shaking things up on a popular TV show is nothing new (see: Omarosa Manigult-Stallworth, Tiffany "Miss New York" Pollard). But many wonder if mainstream TV viewers are really ready to embrace a transgender person –and not just use them as window dressing for shock value.
"I know that it was very important that we represented who we were openly from the very beginning," 'I Want to Work for Diddy' cast-off Rob Smith, who identifies as gay, wrote on his blog. "But let's not get too serious. We're all aware of how absurd reality television is."
"I honestly don't know whether they are ready or not, but at this point it doesn't matter," Cox attested, before adding, "I am so passionate about it. There will be people that will go against it but I said, "you know what, I'm really passionate about breaking into the arts so whether or not people are ready or not I am going to do this.'"
In addition to auditioning for more acting roles in the future -- already having appeared on 'Law & Order SVU' and MTV – she has also produced her very-own documentary series on transgender people called 'T,' which can be seen at www.BeingT.com.
1. I think it's great that finally transgenders are starting to get notice. First and formost there are Human beings. What should count is ..if you are good at what you do .. "I SAY DO THE DAMN THING".. that's what should matter. Not what's between your legs.
J at 3:17PM on Oct 2nd 2008