II What One of America’s Foremost Medical Writers Has to Say About Fairies
Dr. Robert W. Shufeldt, author of Studies in the Human Form, has included at least one fairie among the many human beings the results of his physical examination of whom he has published. The following are excerpts from his valuable and interesting article, Biography of a Passive Pederast, in the October, 1917, issue of the American Journal of Urology and Sexology. I use my own spelling of “fairie.” My comments are in brackets. Those interested should read the entire original article. Particularly two photographs of the subject are given, one nude and the other in full feminine garb.
“J. W.... is a fairie from the slums of Brooklyn, N. Y.... twenty-three years of age. When fourteen... the lobes of his ears had been pierced... for ear-rings, and these ornaments he commonly wears when dressed in female attire.... He invited my attention to the fine development of his breasts, whereas there was not the slightest evidence of gynecomasty.... The impression was left upon my mind that he was morphologically male in all particulars.... I became thoroughly convinced that the man was laboring under... a most extraordinary delusion.... He claimed to have his menses regularly every month.... [Evidently bleeding piles.]
“In July he admitted that he had never been pregnant; while in November, when he brought with him one of his numerous ‘husbands’ or lovers, he claimed |Yearning for Feminine Attire.| that he had been pregnant a few years previously and been operated on in a hospital and the conception removed ‘through his side.’... I am convinced that this mendacity is due to his delusions.
“... While he could sing soprano well, he could not whistle... and he threw a stone like a girl. [Common earmarks of androgynism.]... He did not, as he moved about... give one the impression that there was anything in his demeanor simulating femininity, nor did his behavior in any way betray the remarkable manner in which his sexual life was being lived.... Apart from his extremely meagre education, he is no fool or dullard in other particulars.... It would seem that his trade [professional female-impersonator and fairie] is plied chiefly for the money there is in it.... He claims he has never been arrested or otherwise interfered with by the police....
“... He has always been possessed of the contrary sexual instinct. He always shunned women and girls more or less, while yearning at the same time to assume female attire and enter into their domestic vocations.... Believing himself designed by Nature to play the very part he is playing in life, it was truly remarkable to hear this nervous, loquacious, foul-mouthed, and foul-minded fairie of the most degraded slums of the multi-millioned city chatter about his experiences....
“Few writers in the field of psychiatry have enjoyed what I had next the opportunity to observe.... The putting on of female attire by a contrary sexed male. [The paper details the putting on of the various articles.]... He became very talkative... telling of some of his recent escapades... gesticulating as we |A “Man” Transformed into a Soubrette.| often see agitated girls do... remarking that he was very tired, owing to the fact that he had been ‘ironing all the forenoon.’ [Androgynes gravitate toward peculiarly feminine tasks.]... ‘What do you think of that hat? Isn’t it a dandy? I trimmed it myself.’... He was, without the slightest doubt, thoroughly in earnest in all he said and did, and by no means was he playing a part.... ‘Dear me,’ he said, ‘I’ve forgotten my ear-rings; but you won’t mind that?’ Upon my assuring him that I liked young girls better without them, he seemed relieved and proceeded to fit to his head a... blonde wig.... As he had recently shaved, his face was quite smooth, and in a twinkling he made it up with... pink powder, with red pomade for the lips.... ‘Ha!’ he said [after fully transformed outwardly into a soubrette, in the style of costume prevalent among courtesans at the date of J. W.’s appearance before the doctor for wear in their resorts only, but in 1921 affected for street wear by all butterflies of fashion] ‘I feel more like myself now, and I am ready for the picture!’...”