She's so STUNNING!

[Mister]

Or the mostly gay audience.

i think it's performance + wardrobe + voice + venue.

[tekla]

Well that's pretty much hitting for the rotation then.

[Arch]

This vid gave me waking nightmares. I had to stop partway through.

Okay, y'all know that I'm into boys. And I am a boy. So that explains that. Calpernia in her current shape reminds me of a voluptuous gal from junior high school who was voted "best figure" in ninth grade. I used to see her, and other girls like her, in various stages of undress in the locker room. For me, it was a horror. I had to look away. I hated being surrounded by all of that...femininity. All of those fleshy curves--only I saw them as unsightly bulges, more like deformities. The girls used to tease me mercilessly about my "figure." I didn't have one, and that's the way I liked it. I was lean and flat-chested and boyish, and I hoped it would last forever. It didn't.

>>>shiver<<<

With that said, it looks to me as if she has had some work done. I'm sure the estrogen helped, and so do the high heels. But unless Calpernia is a radical departure from the transwomen of my acquaintance, she must have had augmentation.

Sorry, I don't mean to come across as disrespectful, but this video sure brings back unpleasant memories. 

[Jay]

Oh my god. She has a great set of thighs/butt and hips. I would be all over her in a minute!

Jay

[Audrey]

RUNNING lol.  That was a horrendous "performance"  the outfit was pretty bad too. Nice figure horrible hair.

[heatherrose]

...this video sure brings back unpleasant memories. 

Ditto, says I. Memories of D.Q.'s venomously refering to "born women" as "fish".
The complete disrespect appalled me. It is possible that things have changed,
as my interaction with the gay "community" was in the mid-'80's to early-'90's,
on the mid-atlantic coast. The disrespect of others and the prevalent neurosis
that I experienced, have unfortunately, left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Respect garners respect.

[Mister]

nice ass?  no way, it's all fat and jiggly.  Calpernia needs to hit the stair stepper.

[tekla]

Oh buy a sense of humor.  Drag shows - like ALL shows - are based on a formula, and in this case it's a very old, very time honored formula.  It was the basic shtick when I saw the legendary Charles Pierce run the routine at the equally legendary Finnochio's who were doing that stuff as far back as the 1930s.

Like all forms of entertainment from crappy C&W bands (like there are good ones) to the Tijuana donkey shows to your favorite poll dancer - avoiding them is easy, don't pay to get in.

[Audrey]

my friend John (60) was in cali during the 60's and always talks to me about finnochios.  hes such a trip... one of those just really neat people thats been there done that. anway that has notingto do with this thread really, sorry.

[heatherrose]

To each their own.

Some find that form on a woman to be the most attractive.
Personally, I have always appreciated a feminine figure which is curvy
but well proportioned. It was her presentation which put me off.

[tekla]

I find the most attractive quality in any woman is gainful employment, preferable at a professional level.  Largely because that speaks to both intellect and accomplishment.  A sense of humor is also needed.

But my girlpals often refer to 'the holy trinity' being... Are you single?  Are you gay?  Are you employed?  And if the answers are not Yes, No, and Yes - you're not going to get the time of day off of them.

[Arch]

Ditto, says I. Memories of D.Q.'s venomously refering to "born women" as "fish".
The complete disrespect appalled me. It is possible that things have changed,
as my interaction with the gay "community" was in the mid-'80's to early-'90's,
on the mid-atlantic coast. The disrespect of others and the prevalent neurosis
that I experienced, have unfortunately, left a bitter taste in my mouth.
Respect garners respect.

I love the gay men's discussion group that I go to every week, but sometimes someone will make an unflattering remark about women's bodies, in a sexual context. I cringe along with the rest of the guys, but not only because I'm not sexually attracted to women. I flinch because I still have female plumbing and haven't come to terms with that yet. I wonder what they would say if they knew about me. I wonder if some of them DO know about me.

Beyond that, I feel uncomfortable because it is sexist and disrespectful. And then I think back to negative remarks that some of my trans friends have made about men's bodies and genitals--again, in a sexual context. These friends know that I'm exclusively into men but won't take offense at their frankness.

I keep telling myself that people, including myself, will say things in private that we wouldn't say in mixed company. A lot of people do. But I feel stuck in the middle, and this gives me both valuable perspective and a sense of in-between-ness, of not quite belonging in either world.

I hate that I'm still somewhat misogynistic and that coming out of the closet has intensified that. I hate that, as often than not, I still automatically make negative associations about women. I'm frustrated that when I saw the Calpernia video, I couldn't appreciate it as just a performance, somewhat over the top, by a woman who has had to fight to be a woman. Instead, I flashed back to gym class and the voluptuous classmate, who was never mean to me, and the gaggle of vicious teenage girls who were mean to me.

I'll bet the curvaceous classmate and I had much more in common than we ever realized. She probably developed incredibly early and perhaps felt self-conscious about her body. Maybe at nine or ten or eleven she was taunted herself by the very same girls who harassed me when I was twelve and thirteen and fourteen.

I never thought of that possibility before today. And all because Calpernia Addams probably had work done on her butt.

[tekla]

Is not the point of such groups to speak frankly?  Do woman's groups on occasion make some pretty negative remarks about men?  Bet they do.

You ought to hear what straight guys and straight woman say about 'the other.'

P.S.  I think one of the things about 'real guys' that make them real guys is that they would be pleased as punch to say it to your face.

[heatherrose]

Oh buy a sense of humor.

Did "Uncle Milty"'s (or his modern equivalent)
drag gag offend you? If it did,
you really need to get a life...

There is a time and place for everything. An individual who is a professional clown
can not expect to be taken seriously if they appear before congress, in full clown
garb, to testify in favor of anti-child pornography legislation. Is not the purpose
of "Gay Pride" for the "community" to present, to the "Mundanes", what it has
the most pride in? I guess it is just disappointing that what was presented, which
99% of the "normal" population view as wishing to share a public restroom
with their children, was a butt fat jiggling clown singing "I'm Stunning".

[tekla]

The point of pride celebrations is for us to celebrate our community in all its diversity. The Mundanes are welcome to join us, but in no way, shape or form is it for them.  They have the other 364 days a year to celebrate being boring, dull, out of it, and in general, a drag - and not even the good kind.

Were you at Denver Pride? (and I assure you, this is G rated tame stuff compared to what happens in NYC, SF or LA - on the floats)  For years we have had people who are technically 'members' of the community - but not in or of the community - complain about SF Pride.  The reaction has always been the same.  "If you don't like it, move back to Omaha, or Topeka, or Texarkana or Tallahatchie or wherever people live in a manner you approve of, because we live here, and kind of like it."

[heatherrose]

(and I assure you, this is G rated tame stuff compared to what happens in NYC, SF or LA - on the floats

Which provides fodder for the "opposition" to use against us.
They point to such examples as being,
"What can be expected for the other 364 days".

Kind of like pre-WWII U.S. junk yards selling scrap iron to Japan
which was sent back, via air mail on Dec. 07/'41.

[GinaDouglas]

Calpernia cut her teeth as a drag queen.  She was a big star for years, as she slowly got electrolysis and waited for the hormones to work.  She wrote a biography some years ago.  So yeah, it's no surprise that she can really drag it up, and drag is essentially comic parody of femininity.

[Natasha]

stunning?  i'll never know why some men like trashy women

[tekla]

Which provides fodder for the "opposition" to use against us.
They point to such examples as being,
"What can be expected for the other 364 days".

Pretty much, and I think I can speak for a lot of the LGBT community in SF here, "we don't care."

A whole lot of us came here and live here (despite the rents, the job problems, the high costs of everything) exactly and precisely because it's not anywhere, and everywhere, else.  I'm sure people in NYC, LA and a few other places feel the same way.  We're not trying to export this, we don't care.  If Topeka wants to have a Pride parade, fine, if they don't, we don't care. If Mississippi wants to be a 'right to work' state (read, right not to be paid), then fine, we're still going to be a real union town.  If other places don't want our liberal values, fine, then, at the very least, they could at least STFU when it comes to forcing their values on us to then eh? 

Largely I don't think anyone here wants to export any of this because we're bending over backwards NOT to go back to Iowa, or Kansas or Alabama.  We spend a lot of time trying to forget the years we spend (wasted) in those places in the first place.

Heck, I bet we'd be bummed if everywhere else went that way, we couldn't feel so 'special'.  And one of the things I really love about the entire off the hook, over the top nature of all of it is that I don't stand out, I'm not just normal, hell, I'm demure.


i'll never know why some men like trashy women
The are easy and more fun at a party.

[Vancha]

I sure don't like trashy women.  I am more oriented towards men, but I do appreciate a more "genuine" woman.  You can always tell when they are acting on who they truly feel they are, and aren't putting on such a self-deceiving, all show no substance act.  Maybe it's just me, but I think femininity and masculinity should be more subtle... Just a slice of someone's personality rather than a definition of it.  Calpurnia can do what she wants, if it makes her happy I have no qualms with it.  But that isn't to say I personally admire her clownish acts that can hardly be said to be an expression of true femininity.