THE DANISH GIRL

I saw a review on TV about the movie “The Danish Girl” which is a 2015 British made drama / film, based on the 2000 fictional novel by David Ebershoff, inspired by the lives of Danish painters Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener.

The film stars Eddie Redmayne as Lili Elbe, who was one of the first known recipients of sex reassignment surgery and the beautiful Alicia Vikander as Gerda Wegener and even has James Bonds new Q Ben Whishaw as a key Character in the plot.

If you've not seen it stop here as this blog is full of spoilers.

Working from home I thought I'd put the film on my laptop and watch it in case my wife showed some interest in the movie as I wanted to check it out first to see how it would reflect on me as a Crossdresser and how it may get my wife thinking off on a tangent having watched the film.

Parts of the film show similarities to myself upto about half way but then it deviates out of my place on the perceived “Trans Spectrum” and onwards on the full trans journey..

The movie starts in the mid-1920s Copenhagen (Denmark), showing a successful married couple who are both artists showcasing art at a party with the male role taking note of the way women are dressed with one scene showing him walking through a location with lots of womens clothes on hangers running his hands through them as he walks along, which is something I bet we've all done thinking back to the feel of silky lingerie as I walked through M&S lingerie department with my mother and her telling me off for touching lack silky slips and nighties thinking waht you telling me off for I like the feel….

As the film progresses knowing the back story we can guess that Einar Wegener (Redmayne) is contemplating how it would feel to be dressed up but not daring to try.

Einar is a popular portrait artist who eventually becomes Lily, married to Gerda.

As the film progresses Gerda asks her husband, to stand in for a female model who was late to come to their flat to pose for a painting she's working on.

So we see Redmayne being told to put on stockings and heels and drape a dress over himself in a pose for Gerda to complete her painting and see how Einar is clearly getting a thrill from the situation and possibly turned on? The person in the painting is a friend of the Wegeners and turns up much to Einars embarrassment finding him posing with the dress and stockings etc and gives him a kiss saying he looks pretty and gives Einar the name “Lily”.

I think back to the time my wife first asked if she could dress me up as a woman which I initially declined.. I'll return to this in a bit.

The act of Einar posing as a female figure begins what turns out to be a lifelong identification on the part of Einar as a female, named Lili Elbe. Gerda thinks of it as a bit of fun at the start until it eventually grows more serious as Einar starts to crossdress behind his wifes back and forms the character of Lily in his own mind as a separate person maybe to Einar which sets off a progression, first tentative and then irreversible, of leaving behind the identity as Einar, which Lili has possibly struggled to maintain all her life battling with the pressure of society to be and act as a man when all along having the feeling of being female and probably back in the 1910-20's very confusing..

At one point Gerda is undressing with Einar watching her led in bed (Vikander has a very nice bum lol). Gerda has a new under garment on which Einar notices is new and comments on it asking her to keep it on as they made love.. probably loving the feel of the material against himself.. know that feeling as its so nice to see my wife in lingerie and feel it against me (although rare sadly).

The next day Gerda is on the bed and Einar sits on the edge of the bed with Gerda unbuttoning his shirt then discovering that under the male clothes Einar was wearing her undergarment with a look of shock turning to ok I can handle this probably thinking hmmm this may be fun standing him up puling off his trousers seeing him “crossdressed” for the first time they again make love this time him in the undergarments and her naked (I wish)… She is clearly troubled and cant sleep in the night and starts to draw her husband but alters the hair making the portrait of Einar female instead of male which the next morning Einar is thrilled to see.

She comments that she thought Einar would make a pretty woman.

My wifes made comment about how I look and has said I could possibly pass in public with some practise which is very complimentary and ego boosting to hear.

The next big step is another arts party which Einar finds boring but Gerda needs to get her art noticed and needs the networking afforded at the party having got nowhere with her paintings with the local gallery.

Einar doesn't want to go saying its boring so Gerda suggests he goes as someone else.. Lily..

So they set about creating Lily dresses, lingerie, heels, stockings, makeup and a wig with Gerda transforming Einar into Lily which Lily is thrilled with and it seemed at this point both were having great fun with crossdressing FUN being the operative word as Gerda had no idea of how deep Einars feelings were about being dressed / being a woman.

Going back to the note I made about my wife asking me to dress I eventually relented and said OK and she did my make up and dressed me up and I was thrilled with the result, thrilled to be dressed in front of her but my wife was less thrilled to see the transformation into what / who we now call “Davina”… (Just for the point of a name to describe me crossdressed and fancying Davina Mcall) especially when I told her I'd crossdressed before.. So I saw some parallels at this point in the story and in my wife dressing me..

However my wife doesn't want me out in public crossdressed but the story continues with lots of walking practice and posture practice Gerda transforms Einar into Lily and they attend the art party at which Einars peers and their friends attend … the first person they meet is the woman who Gerda was painting and she begins to introduce Einar as “Einars cousin...” to which the woman says ..”OMG its Lily .. how wonderful”.. This got me thinking 'I wonder how my wifes friends would react 'OMG its Davina'

Lilly and Gerda are amused by men 'eyeing up' Lily and Gerda is called by friends to come over which Einar doesn't want to do as he doesn't want them to discover hes there as Lily crossdressed so he's left alone and this is the awkward moment where men chat up Lily and then Q who is a friend of theirs who susses Lily is Einar takes Lily into another room and kisses him/her just as Gerda comes looking for her seeing them kiss.

This is the reason I watched the movie before my wife as this is where me and Lily part company as I have no interest in kissing men at all.

Gerda is disturbed obviously by this turn of events and Lily continues to see Q behind Gerdas back.

In this period of time Gerda paints portraits of Lily and wins a contract with the art dealer making her first sale of portraits of Lily who she says is Einars cousin.

Einars transformation into Lily is more often as Gerda returns home seeing less and less of her husband finding him as Lily and with a new identity as if Einar is no more.

The next time Lily meets Q they kiss and Q calls Einar by his male name which upsets Lily and she leaves and that night tells Gerda of the affair.. this sparks some guilt and visits to doctors who commit Einar to hospital performing radiation therapy to rid him of this “infliction” they eventually flee to Paris as a letter Gerda picks up from doctors label him mentally ill stating he needed to be kept in a hospital and institutionalized.
 

In Paris Gerda's portraits of Lili in her feminine state attract the kind of attention from art dealers that her previous portraits had not. It is there that Gerda tracks down art dealer Hans, a childhood friend of Einar (Hans had been a boy that Einar admitted that he had once kissed which was a one off happening).

Hans and Gerda's mutual attraction causes problems as she is struggling to cope with her changing relationship with Enar being more and more Lili.

Gerda asks Hans back to their apartment to meet Einar only to find Einar as Lily when they got home and also for the first time seeing Einar “as Lily” in character fully even disputing that Einar existed that she was Lily not Einar.. This upsets Gerda and Hans offers Gerda help in getting them through this unusual occurrence which lead him to play a supportive role for each.

This is another part I was nervous about my wife seeing as I too probably after her knowing I dressed, wanted to push dressing more and do it more often and wanted her involved but I'm happy being a man and returning from crossdressing back to being 'me' no thoughts ever and whatsoever of having a sex change.. I also don't see I have an infliction or mental imbalance, schizophrenic nature or anything else medically wrong with me.. I crossdress and that's that nothing scientific or medical just what it is.. like to transform, the feel of the clothes and ingerie, stockings, tights and high heels etc, escapism from male me temporarily, try to look convincing, find it relaxing, stress busting and a turn on nothing more.

More doctors visits culminating again in a Dr in Paris looking to commit Einar as a schizophrenic with Einar escaping the hospital .. we see him later walking through the park looking androgynous being approached by two men querying if he is a lesbian or a man or woman which leads to Lily punching one man and sees her getting beat up and left in the park.

Ultimately, via Hans Lili is introduced to a revolutionary Doctor who offers for her to undergoe one of the very first instances of male to female sex reassignment surgery in Germany.

A two-part procedure that first removes Lili's external genitalia and then, after a period of recovery, fashions a vagina.
 

They return to Copenhagen where Lily reunites with Q and Gerda knows the marriage is at an end as Lily tells her Einar is dead.

Lili's eagerness to shed the vestiges of her male anatomy leads her to rush the sequence of procedures, and she eventually dies of complications from the surgery in Gerdas arms in Germany.

The movie ends with Gerda and Hans back in Denmark; a scarf that Lili had given her, is taken by the wind. The end

I guess Einar / Lily was a pioneer and very brave in what seems primitive times less than 100 years ago having gender reassignment surgery looking for happiness as a woman even stating maybe she could have babies of her own which was a naive statement.

Far to the right of my place on the trans spectrum and having seen the film quite happy for my wife to watch it with me or on her own with the knowledge of the initial excitement and discovery of crossdressing is as far as I am and as far as I'll ever be “Fun” that's all it is for me nothing more serous although provides great stress relief so from the point onwards when Lily is first kissed is beyond where I'll ever be as a Crossdresser..

Critical response In general

The Danish Girl has received generally positive reviews from critics which is a good thing in terms of something positive relating to the trans world. The consensus reads "The Danish Girl serves as another showcase for Eddie Redmayne's talent – and poignantly explores thought-provoking themes with a beautifully filmed biopic drama"