Old transvestite paperbacks
» Ambiguously Gendered » Imagery
Without much luck I’ve long searched for images from old books and magazines of obviously gay and transgendered males. I found these two a few years ago.
Possibly the artist who drew the cover of Transvestite had never seen a transvestite. Clearly it is a genetic girl. Transsexuals had yet to be part of the popular imagination back then so I don’t think she is a ‘she-male.’ Considering the hardcore thriftiness of sleazy paperback publishers it was probably intended for a heterosexual sexploitation paperback that was never published. Lingerie adds to the cover’s fetish appeal.
Gay people weren’t allowed happy endings in the early cheap gay paperback novels (of course Gordon Merrick and his ilk embarrassingly overcompensated when gay mass market novels went through their fat Harold Robbins phase). I’ve always thought the drag queen on the cover of In Drag looks bitter. A drag queen told me that she didn’t think so. I’m happy to think I was a victim of my own imaginative biases.
If you have any scans of old gay paperbacks, magazines or cartoons I’d appreciate your sending me a copy.
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See also: Gay Transvestites and Gender Outsiders.
Comments
re the cover ‘transvestite’, yes! the womans a woman. but he’s checking out the stocking and fancies trying them on.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 16, 2003 3:45 AM