Straights in a trance: why are there more and more transvestites? Part 1
He decides to conduct his own experiment and grabs the beauty by … that part of the body that betrays her (or rather, his) gender. With genuine amazement, the macho, not spoiled by civilization, informs the laughing public of the bar: “This is a guy! It's a guy in disguise! Wow, what they came up with!"
In the cult film of the late 80s "Dundee, nicknamed Crocodile" Bushman Dundee, a naturalist and pathfinder, having got from the Australian wilderness to New York, in the first bar he stumbles upon a transvestite and, not noticing the catch, begins to look after him until his friend whispers in his ear that this is a man in disguise. Not fully believing the stunning news, Dundee decides to conduct his own experiment and grabs the beauty by … that part of the body that betrays her (or rather, his) gender. With genuine amazement, the macho, not spoiled by civilization, informs the laughing public of the bar: “This is a guy! It's a guy in disguise! Wow, what they came up with!"
The next time, Dundee will not be fooled: having suspected a transvestite in an imposing elderly lady at a social party, he already acts for sure to find out who is in front of him. The film was filmed back in 1986, when our country was still absolutely virgin in terms of the presence in public places of transvestites walking freely in women's outfits. Scenes from the life of New York trances looked like an unknown exotic and caused almost the same amazement among the Soviet public as the main character.
IN THE PRE-RESTORATION ERA
And nevertheless, despite the fact that in the eighties, painted-up men in skirts and with foam-rubber breasts simply did not walk around the streets, there were transvestites in the USSR. And sometimes they even got out “to the people”. If inexperienced Soviet citizens knew how to distinguish a transvestite, from time to time they could find false ladies among passers-by. However, in those days, the people could not even imagine that men could wear skirts. And therefore, some especially cute and daring trances from time to time made bold forays.
One of my friends in Moscow, returning home late at night, got into a conversation with a grandfather, a taxi driver, who had been taxiing in his Volga forty years ago. When they passed one small alley behind the Kazansky railway station, the old taxi driver remembered that under the USSR, boys dressed as girls hung out in this alley, so to speak. And even despite the fact that any "such" informals were constantly chased by the police, this point was not touched, because there was a certain demand for the disguised young men, including from some "bigwigs".
However, it is now trances who swagger and flaunt in front of each other on their social networks, telling what daredevil pioneers they once were, and then, overcoming fear and doubts about their own normality and trying to express their inner needs, many of them risked not only be in the middle of a scandal, but also get a prison sentence. For example, under the article for sodomy.
And nevertheless, the Soviet trances were resolved: they put on skirts, wigs, stuffed a bra that was strapped by their mother with foam rubber and went out into the street under the cover of twilight. "Going out" as a confirmation of your femininity was the second key milestone in the personal history of almost every trance, second after the adrenaline-filled awareness and acceptance of yourself.
Experienced trances say that “under the Soviets” it was easier to go out in female form than it is now, they say, if you are wearing a skirt and without stubble, you are already a woman. And if the chest consignment also protrudes, then there could be no questions about gender at all, because the brain of a Soviet person simply did not contain other options. There was nowhere to get information - there were no magazines, no videos, no other sources of such information, and therefore all men who non-standardly showed their sexuality were automatically recorded as "homosexuals."
Only the transvestites themselves knew about the existence of transvestites. Not even knowing what word to call their inclinations, and fearing to stick their noses beyond their room, they nevertheless hoped that they were not alone in their interests. As one trans “retired” said, he practically agreed inside himself that he was a homosexual, because he was agitated by fantasies about having sex with men. However, at some point in society there was an understanding that homosexuals were not interested in women, and then he was seriously puzzled, because he was also interested in women!
So what is the essence of the behavior that smart encyclopedias call transvestism? Now we are not talking about fetishism, when a man gets dressed in lingerie, but about the desire to completely change into women's clothing, look feminine, behave like a woman. Such transvestites are most often heterosexual, but there are also homosexual and bisexual. And therefore transvestism is not directly related to sexual orientation, its roots are much deeper.
One elderly "trance" with the poetic pseudonym Laura once told that she began her dressing story by trying on women's trousers with elastic bands somewhere in the early seventies. She was 14 years old, and it was incredibly pleasant for her to feel how these elastic bands press on the skin under her trousers, and to imagine how the same elastic bands dig into the thighs of women around.
Laura considered the first fitting as a random whim, but then she was drawn to try on nylon stockings, then her sister's swimsuit, then her mother's dress … And then fears and thoughts of her own abnormality flooded, but the desire to dress in a woman's did not pass, and Laura continued her experiments with clothes and accessories under terrible secrecy and with periodic nervous breakdowns. So the boy-girl sausage, until perestroika began and he (a) learned that there are hundreds and thousands of such "abnormal" throughout the country. Remembering those times, perestroika, Laura praises and calls it a "new milestone" in her personal life.
TRANSSEXUAL REVOLUTION
The dashing nineties became not only years of gang squabbles and redistributions, but also an era of information boom: hundreds of print media appeared that printed dating ads, and then, as they say, it started. It has become much easier to search for your own kind, meet people and start a relationship. In one thin newspaper like "From hand to hand" one could find several potential partners or "friends with the same interests."
The downside of these years was that the general public learned about transvestites and reacted ambiguously. Perestroika, one of the slogans of which was publicity, broke through the information gateways, and the flows of information about everything that had been hushed up before covered people like a tsunami. Many transvestites during these years were repeatedly beaten and raped and, in general, suffered a lot from society, which at first considered them perverts. However, some still consider them so, but that's another story.
By the end of the nineties, the development of the Internet began in the country, and for trans people, on the one hand, the issue of loneliness in the crowd transformed into loneliness on the Web, and on the other hand, it incredibly expanded the horizons of communication with their own kind.
And now the XXI century has come and brought the time when the phenomena with the prefix "trans" have flooded our lives and have become almost habitual, ranging from transgenic foods (so-called GMO-containing) and ending with transgender homo sapiens. Both of them evoke an ambiguous reaction from the traditional majority and fears about the fate of future generations. Standard fears: transgenic products will lead to mutations and unpredictable changes in the human genome; transgender people will lead to the extinction of humanity, which will simply cease to reproduce, losing interest in normal relationships …
In 2009, the screens saw the release of Veselchaki, the first Russian film about men dressing up in a woman's dress. Only one man from a small group of drug-queens turned out to be just a travesty actor playing for the audience, the other four are real transvestites, both heterosexual and homosexual. Each of them has their own story, told touchingly and sympathetically.
Those who deliberately try on a female image, being born a man, these stories are often not familiar from films, and, thank God, if not all:
Classmates, guys from the yard, ordinary men, "not grabbing the stars from the sky", bully, insult, or even give a trance that is too feminine even in men's clothes in the face, suspecting something "wrong" in it
The first appearance in a woman's dress … Adrenaline, alcohol, a sense of freedom and flight, the attention of men who are not aware of who they are dealing with … It's good if you wake up in bed with a nice guy in the morning, and not in a doorway with a broken nose …
Mom first saw her son in a woman's dress. Shock, tears, a shot of brandy in one gulp. A more advanced mother (as in the film) has the next stage - an attempt to smile through tears and understand the unlucky child: “Where did you get this dress? I'll sew you better! " A more conservative mother's reaction can be more varied: from curses and expulsion from home to a heart attack with an ambulance and resuscitation
A cute and plastic boy who agreed to dance in a drag show, after a while suddenly realizes that he likes this job and that it brings not only money, but also pleasure. However, the "what is good and what is bad" hammered into the head from childhood makes at one moment to drop everything and return to the bosom of the traditional family. However, only in order to leave her again and go into transreality. This time it's final. Many transvestites go through such a "bumpiness" at least once in their lives
A trance, accustomed to maintaining conspiracy and "not being substituted" in ordinary life, at some point realizes that he has nothing to lose, and, provoked by some momentary emotion, comes out. That is, openly - and sometimes boldly and defiantly - admits that he belongs to the "minorities" (LGBT). Whoever went through this knows what an avalanche of emotions covers a brave man or a madman at this moment
A cattle tipsy man pokes his finger at the smart travesty and yells at the whole Ivanovskaya: “Wow! First time I see real fagots! " It is not clear how to react: either to spit, or to give in the face. Somehow it seems not comme il faut in a woman's dress and on high heels to get involved in a fight …
An experienced trance accidentally meets in another gay club a trans "veteran" who once became his "godfather", showing himself in front of him in a woman's dress and / or telling about how it turns on, and / or seducing him … always these meetings with "ex" are pleasant. Sometimes the younger one at this moment slips the thought: “Will I really look the same pathetic and ridiculous at his age?”, Which he desperately drives away
A trans with a heterosexual family tries to maneuver between their interests and those of the family, as a result, constantly being torn into two parts and not living a full life either here or there. And then the daughter asks to get acquainted with the parents of her boyfriend, but only demanding to "pretend to be normal" … Is he crazy ?
An aging trance is thrown by a beloved young lover … And whatever the reason, it is always a blow below the belt. Despite the ostentatious glamor and fun of parties in gay clubs, despite the vibrant transvestite parties and shocking drag shows, most trans women are lonely and rarely form strong alliances, no matter whether with women, with men or with other trans …
It is surprising that two of the "hot five" merry fellows are played by the recognized macho of Russian cinema - Ville Haapasalo and Daniil Kozlovsky. And if something similar could still be expected from the omnivorous original Ville, then the classic handsome Kozlovsky was quite surprised, although it looks very organic in glamorous ladies' things.
However, the most interesting role, in my opinion, went to Aleksandr Mokhov, who played a stern party chief, with a confident hand leading the party line among the unlucky students and applying bright makeup to himself with the same hand, hiding behind the doors of his bachelor apartment. Meeting with another cross-dresser and realizing that he is not mentally ill, but a completely normal man "with specific addictions" brings the poor fellow to a heart attack.
The author of one of the reviews on the film suggested why the role of travesty is so in demand by men. It seemed to her that men were hiding behind grotesque feminine images, hypertrophying and shooting with their eyes to escape from the traditional male role of a strong, muscular male. There is some truth in this with one small exception: female images are tried on by those who were not originally intended to be a "muscular male". And they want to run away not from "male loads", but from something completely different.
Yes, outwardly these are men, but if there were magic glasses that allow you to see a person through his eyes, most of them would look fragile pretty girls with long legs and big eyes.
Despite the obvious sympathy of the creators of "Merry", the end of the film is too tragic, for which most critics reproach him. The doom of the heroes is emphasized by the musical theme, the author of which was one of the most famous travesty to the general public - Andrey Danilko.
In my opinion, the tragic ending of the plot is predetermined by the fact that even today's Russian society, more liberated and advanced than a couple of decades ago, nevertheless remains conservative and still not ready to tolerate the non-standard orientation of its fellow citizens. Perhaps the origins of this lie in the anality of the Russian public tradition, which even the swaggering urethral mentality cannot eradicate, even encouraging it somewhere, being complimentary to it. People with an anal vector were and remain the basis of our nation, defining many of the realities of our life: the eternally living faith in the priest-king (the vertical of power), domestic morality, militant homophobia, criticism of Western values, etc., and so on.
In addition, many of the origins of intolerance and homophobia stem from a misunderstanding of what transvestism really is. The most common mistake is mixing transvestism and homosexuality into one heap. They are far from the same thing. And when people sincerely believe that there are more and more transvestites due to the general and obsessive homosexual PR, they do not understand one simple thing: most transvestites feel the need to look like a girl in the first five years of their lives. So what kind of "blue PR" can we talk about?..
Part 2. Kiss of the insidious fairy
