Iulia Necșulescu

“Though
the actresses who played female boys were of all ages and performed in a vari-
ety of acting styles, they were generally small, thin, white, and photogenic, and
their performances combined boldness and vulnerability. Their femaleness al-
lowed them to convey fragility and androgynous beauty. These performances
demonstrate that cross-gender casting, which may seem like an inherently
transgressive practice to twenty-first-century scholars, can also uphold conser-
vative gender, class, and racial regimes. At the same time, the performances
cannot be dismissed as reactionary or antifeminist, because they embodied
middle-class women’s sentimental politics and created a space in which wom-
en’s bodies had an important role in producing an idealized masculinity.”
― Laura Horak, Girls Will Be Boys: Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema, 1908-1934

“The repressive fifties were giving way to the rebellious sixties, symbolized by miniskirts and Playboy magazine and the young, progressive-thinking family in the White House. Elizabeth's great achievement during this period was that she made the public want her as she was: she made being sexy, independent and defiant of cultural norms the desirable way to be.”
― william J Mann

“So what do you think it's all about? Life, I mean."
[...]
"To work hard", she said, "and to love someone". Then she paused. "And to have some fun", she added. "And if you're lucky, you keep your health...and somebody loves you back".”
― A. Scott Berg, Kate Remembered

“I've worked very hard, you know," she confided to him, "and I've planted some kind of-I've been lucky enough, I guess, to plant a star-and then people wanted to either get in the act or else they wanted to rob me emotionally or financially, whatever. And then walk away and it's always lonely”
― Anne Edwards, Judy Garland