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| The late Candy Darling. |
Years ago, The Ohio State University was hosting a huge exhibition of the work of artist “Andy Warhol”.
Since we knew
how trans and LGBTQ friendly Warhol’s work was to the community, a small group
of my transgender women friends hopped in my SUV and we headed to nearby
Columbus, Ohio to check the exhibition out for ourselves.
The first thing
I noticed from my friends was that they were all wearing their high heels which
had a strong probability of becoming very uncomfortable if we had to walk long
distances. Since I knew the campus a little bit, I knew we would, so I chose
more comfortable flats for the walk. I was happy I ended up sacrificing fashion
for comfort because we ended up having to park a distance away from where the exhibition
was being held.
Of course, we
expected no push back at all from us being there to see Warhol’s work and
especially because of his connection with trans stars “Candy Darling” and “Holly
Woodlawn” who was featured in “Lou Reed’s" famous song, “A Walk on the Wildside”
which among other things mentioned shaving legs and he becoming a she. So, we felt
no apprehension about going and mixing in with the surprisingly large number of
families that were there. Of interest, here was what Warhol said about Darling:
“Candy didn't want to be a perfect
woman—that would be too simple, and besides it would give her away. What she
wanted was to be a woman with all the little problems that a woman has to deal
with—runs in her stocking, runny mascara, men that left her. She would even ask
to borrow Tampaxes, explaining that she had a terrible emergency.”
For the most part, the group of girls I went with behaved
themselves and blended in quite nicely with the crowd of people around us
except for there is always one who tries to ruin it for the rest of us. I had
the misfortune of being on an escalator immediately behind a trans woman I had
barely met when all of a sudden, she grabs both sides of the escalator and
spreads her legs up in the air and wide apart. I was in shock that she needed
to pull off such a low class move with all the kids and families who were
around. I guess she wanted to show off her recent genital realignment surgery
to the world, but I let her have it. Saying I wanted no part of her
exhibitionism.
Other than that, I enjoyed the exhibition immensely as I was
able to learn more about Warhol than I ever would have had a chance to do on my
own without the support of my transgender women friends.
All too soon, it was time for us to leave but way too early
for us to go home. So, we decided to try out a well-known gay venue in Columbus
that we had never been to. The place was packed, mainly with gay men, a group of
lesbians, and a group of intoxicated cross dressers who I did not know it then
would come back negatively to impact my visit with my friends. Since I was
driving, I needed to only have a couple of beers and just in case, needed to
use the women’s room before we left on the long trip home. As always, I tried
to wait for the best opportunity to use “the room” until I got to the door and
it said for use by “real women” only. Which I was later able to find out was
because of one of the intoxicated cross dressers breaking all the sacred
restroom rules in front of a lesbian when she was in there with him. I guess he
did not even sit to pee and urinated all over the toilet seat before leaving
without washing his hands. It was no surprise the sign was on the door as the
drunk ruined the privilege of using the women’s rest room for all of us.
I was rather naïve that day and had never been around any
transfeminine people in my life that could not conduct themselves properly in
public. But, like any other group there are always a couple rotten apples that
spoil it for the rest. I resent them because it makes it harder for the rest of
us to live a so-called normal life.
The trip back home from Columbus to Dayton, Ohio was
thankfully uneventful as we talked about everything, we saw at the Andy Warhol art
exhibition at Ohio State. About how Warhol was so much more than just a soup
can modern artist we had heard of and specifically his dealings and support of
Candy Darling and other trans women such as Holly Woodlawn. In fact, there were
so many exhibits of his writings and interactive learning also that it was
almost too much to take in at one time.
As far as the “Flasher” went, I never saw her again as she
lived in a rural area north of where I did and worked at a well-known big box
store. I hope she was able to mature and put her exhibition days behind her,
and I knew the restroom actions by someone or someone’s in the cross-dresser
group were not representative of all CDs everywhere. But there are still
repercussions when you cross the gender border into someone else’s sacred space.
You must take care not to overextend your welcome.
If you ever have the chance to see and visit a Warhol exhibition,
be sure to do it. Maybe you will be like me and come away with more of a
respect for his work than I ever had before. He certainly represents another
era of life which will probably never be seen again. In fact, there is a huge museum
dedicated to the pop icon’s work to visit in Pittsburg Pennsylvania if you are
close enough to visit it.
