female impersonator

noun

1. a male performer who dresses as and impersonates women.

female impersonator

noun

1. a male theatrical performer who acts as a woman

Word History and Origins

Origin of female impersonator¹

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

Lady Java, as she was also known, worked as a drag queen, singer, dancer, comedian and “female impersonator” at a time when cross-dressing was forbidden without a permit, winning over crowds in predominantly straight clubs and running in circles with L.A. luminaries such as Lena Horne.

From Los Angeles Times

By contrast, the 1974 James Caan/Alan Arkin buddy cop movie “Freebie and the Bean” became one of her favorite movies, thanks to its thieving female impersonator.

From Los Angeles Times

A transgender woman, known then as a female impersonator, she was of her time but also very much ahead of it, a performer whose battles and brash glamour resonate today as drag queens and LGBTQ+ rights are under siege across the nation.

From Los Angeles Times

So fully did Mr. Humphries animate Edna that he was at continued pains to point out that he was neither a female impersonator in the conventional sense nor a cross-dresser in any sense.

From New York Times

In an attempt to avoid scrutiny under the standard’s first prong, Tennessee lawmakers do not specify who is a “male or female impersonator” and which performances of the like would be determined as appealing to the “prurient, shameful or morbid interests of minors.”

From Slate

Related Words

• bio queen
• drag artist