Digital Transgender Archive

"Spotlight on Cross-Dressing"

Four new issues of Female Mimics from the Lili Elbe Archive have been added to the Female Mimics Collection. Included in the issues are articles, cartoons, and photos of “female impersonators”. These issues also feature prominent drag venues such as Club 82 as well as well known “female impersonators.” Notably, Kim August is featured on the cover and centerfold of the premiere issue. A “star at the 82 Club”, Kim has “been likened to the such entirely different personages as Peggy Lee, Jayne Mansfield, Susan Heyward, and Lena Horne.”

According to the Ssshhh! Newsletter, the magazine was the first crossdressing magazine of its kind, one that featured mainly photographs, and ran from 1963 to 1979. It came to be influential because it provided a visible source of information for those exploring crossdressing. The newsletter explains porn shops and publications such as Female Mimics were often the first place information could be found––“even among those who set out seeking information rather than titillation, it was harder in the 1970s to find more serious publications.”