Fictional and Human Transformations

There are several people and fictional characters who effected my life personally by transforming themselves into something I feel they should not have done or have been capable of doing. But who I’m I to judge?

The first fictional character I want to discuss is The Hulk a fictional superhero who is  green-skinned. He’s also a hulking and muscular humanoid who like me possesses a vast degree of physical strength along with our alter ego Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, a physically weak, socially withdrawn, and emotionally reserved physicist, with the three of us existing as independent personalities and resenting of the other.

I say that the two of them affected me personally because after watching them right after school each day on my 13 inch colored TV. I knew that I would join forces with the two of them with our similar personalities. Like Bruce I was always considered a scientific nerd, continuously being chased home from school by bullies. Even the one legged midget Billy Bain chased me home trying to build him a tough boy reputation. Like the Hulk I took steroids and worked out as much as I could not wanting to spend too much time away from the U S Government nuclear science laboratory.

I used highly toxic enamel black paint to cover my entire body and especially my face like that old actor The father of American minstrelsy Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice, who in 1828, in a New York City theatre, performed a song and dance routine in blackface and tattered clothes. Rice's character was based on a folk trickster persona named Jim Crow. Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system which operated primarily, but not exclusively in southern and border states, between 1877 and the mid-1960s. Jim Crow was more than a series of rigid anti-black laws. The purpose of Jim Crow laws was to protect white people such as Edward Ewing, 38 from violent black criminals like the black thugs who punched Ewing unconscious, leaving him hospitalized with mounting health care bills. That law was not popular among black slaves.

Now you can understand why I got a personal problem with Bruce. He’s the one who has me injecting Gamma Rays into my brain.

I always thought Jim Crow was a name of a liquor with a picture of Ted Danson who showed up in minstrel blackface and peppered his jokes with racial epithets at the Friars Club.

Just like the scary eyes Hulk when we ran through the streets of any city half dressed while the people feared Hulk and laughed loudly at me as if I was Dan Emmett, known as one of the founders of the Minstrel Show, performed as a clown with Welch’s Olympic Circus prior to performing in Blackface.

Even today I’ll tell anyone who’ll listen especially that midget Billy Bain that he should never make me angry as Bruce says just before making the transformation into the incredible Hulk. Well the one legged midget now 27 did and today he’s barely  physically capable of  permanently riding around in a motorized wheelchair donated to him from the Jerry Lewis muscular dystrophy telethon people.

The second and a real person I think! I know that I have some serious personal issues with RuPaul Andre Charles, a he/she African American entertainer who carved out an idiosyncratic place in popular culture as perhaps the most famous drag queen in the United States. What exactly is a Dragon, I mean Drag Queen? A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, most drag queens have been men dressing as women. In modern times, drag queens are associated with gay men and gay culture, but they can be of any gender and sexual identity. Well what’s the difference between a Drag Queen and a transgender. Me, Bruce and the Hulk are confused.

Through a bit of research by Bruce and myself the difference is that a drag queen is a character that is played whereas a transgender is a way of life, part of that person’s identity.

My oldest brother met the infamous drag queen RuPaul on a Rotary International Club visit to New York City. For those of you who may not be familiar with the Rotary International Club. Rotary Club  is a community of friends who are committed to creating positive change in the world and probably uses homosexual activities, involving gay social events and volunteer gay pride parade projects by offering networking opportunities that build personal and professional connections. And Rotarians can extend those networks by visiting other underground clubs such as the Bushwick Club and around the globe. Helping low self esteem people to make human transformation to their mind, body and mixed up souls locally and around the world.

My brothers undercover Drag queen teacher thought that it would be an excellence experience for the 5 students to visit a local Underground Manhattan club in which the confused man woman performed each and every night. When my brother return home from that trip. He decided to make the transformation of turning himself into Belinda from Lenard.

Looking back I wish I hadn’t forged my mother’s signature on that permission slip allowing him to meet and fall in love with his American Idol RuPaul.

The weird kinky love affair was brief because I paid a visit to the drag Queen right after I put on my blackface and demanded that “it” end the affair immediately. That was right after I pounded the big beehive wig worn lopsided on “its” head deep into his or her bald headed skull.

It really didn’t change anything because even today my brother is a star on that Reality TLC tv show Dragnificent! The three of us kept in mind that a leopard doesn't change his spots just because you bring him in from the jungle and try to housebreak him and turn him into a pet. He may learn to sheathe his claws in order to beg a few scraps off the dinner table and you may teach him to be a beast of burden, but it doesn't pay to forget that he'll always be what he was born: a wild animal. Just like when former President Obama told Hilary Clinton “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig!

I realize that there are members of my family that are truly mentally messed up and it all started with my father. Many people don’t know this but my father and Bruce Jenner became best friends why they were members of the 1972 Olympic team. My father ran long distance and the marathon. While Bruce participated in the decathlon.

I can clearly recall my siblings and I being forced to eat Wheaties the breakfast of champions. Today I understand why all the cereal boxes depicted a picture of Bruce Jenner. You see my father knew things about Bruce long before he made the transformation of becoming Caitlyn Jenner. My father didn’t wait 20 or more years to make the transformation of turning himself into Mary Ann Summers of the CBS sitcom Gilligan's Island. My youngest brother and my lesbian mother had no understanding why a handsome athletic man would ever want to physically change himself into Gingers rival.

I know firsthand what happens to children when you decide to make drastic transformations to oneself. That’s why I decided not to bring any blackface children into this topsy turvy world. There are plenty other who have affected my psyche but today I’m not at liberty to discuss them like J. Edgar Hoover who played himself, Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire, Westley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, and John Leguizamo in To Wong Foo, John Travolta in Hairspray, Martin Lawrence in Big Mamma’s House 1 and 2, Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, Tom Hanks in Bosom Buddies, Jamie Farr in M.A.S.H and Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot!