User:Gpscholar/Transformation Magazine

Transformation monthly magazine, published by Centurian Publishing of Sparks, Nevada. Devoted to male transvestites and male-to-female transsexuals, or transwomen, it bore the subtitle The Magazine Created For Men Who Enjoy Being Women. A caption, shown in a sunburst, appears on every cover to further indicate the periodical’s fare: “Men changed into females.” Its cover girls included the “Boy-Girl of the Month” who were well known in the pornographic film business of the day:  Lilienne Li, Sylvia Boots, Gia Darling, Olivia Love, Tonya Cline, Kimberly Devine, Sierra Feiraro, Mia Turiano, Ivana Diamonds, Nicci Tristan, Wendy Williams, Tara Emory, and Danielle Foxx. A bevy of other transsexual beauties (“Special Featured Girls”) were also featured, including Karen Dior, Jeri Jones, and many former or future cover girls.

Typical fare are articles concerning male-to-female transformation and transitioning and the club scene. Most issues also contained readers‘ letters and “TV art” by S. A. Carlson, Salina, Lisa, Billie, Wayne Ewald, or other illustrators.

Other regular features included news of interest to the transgender community, makeup tips, transsexual and transvestite movie reviews, reports on the party and club scenes, and a medical doctor's column concerning male-to-female transitioning, hormone therapy, and sex-change surgery. Perhaps to generate more advertising revenue, Transformation began to list web sites on its front cover in its new, ongoing “Web Review."

An early debate as to whether to show models’ male genitalia ended with an affirmative decision. Transformation is one of a series of fetish magazines edited and published by Jeri Lee, others of which are Forced Womanhood and Enslaved Sissies and Maids.

According to Lee, with the second issue of the magazine, she had increased the number of subscribers to "25,000 worldwide." By the fifteenth issue, there were 100,000 subscribers, Lee told her readers in one of her occasional "Letters From the Editor" and had convinced a national distributor to distribute the periodical. At this time, Hustler had 395,000 subscribers, she added, by way of comparison. With issue twenty one, the magazine began to appear on a bimonthly, rather than a quarterly, basis. Although she said that she "usually" avoided the impulse "to spout off about politics," she did so in several of her "Letters," Lee railing against Republicans and criticizing Ronald Reagan, claiming he had ruined both California and the United States, making the nation a "laughingstock" to the rest of the world, but defending President Bill Clinton, claiming Clinton had done nothing a "good job running the country" and shouldn't be impeached over receiving "a blowjob!"

Transformation is available only as an oline and mailing publication today, and contemporary transwomen have replaced the ladies--or ladyboys--of the past as the electronic version’s “Boy-Girl of the Month,” with Frank Marino, RuPaul, and Wendy Williams among the publication's more recent models.