improving his image

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her handy man (in uniform)

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travestis parisiens

Updated Below

I collect female impersonator ephemera. (You can view my collection here.)

During my search for additions to my collection, I often encounter a set of early 20th Century postcards from France titled “Travestis Parisiens,” which translates to “Parisian Transvestites.” The postcards depict a person in various stages of dress/undress being assisted by an angel. The beautiful images are artist signed Jean Tam.

Are the transvestites depicted by artist Tam males dressing as females or females dressing as males or both. The postcards appear below; you be the judge.

By the way, these postcards are too expensive for me and are not part of my collection.

UPDATE: I don't speak French, so I used Babel Fish to translate "Travestis Parisiens" from French to English and it cam up with "Parisian Transvestites."

According to Jamiegottagun, who knows how to mind her French P's and Q's, Babel Fish is wrong and the correct translation is "Dressing up Parisian." Therefore, the persons depicted in the postcard images are not necessarily transvestites, although the females donning men's duds are definitely crossdressing.

 

Tyra Banks, a transwoman???

America's Next Top Model fired Janie Dickinson as a judge on that show because she called the show’s host, Tyra Banks, “fat.”

In retaliation, Janie said that  Tyra used to be a man (not that there’s anything wrong wit that).

"She's huge. She's a big woman. I used to think she was a man. I used to look at her and think, 'Something isn't right here,'" said Janie.

That’s the whole story, but if you want to read the source, go here.

one of my family's issues with my femulating

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femulating in february... not so much

I have gone the whole month without one femulation. And I don't expect to femulate anytime before the month is over unless there is a great gender epiphany and my family and employer inform me that they are ok with me en femme from now on. But that ain't gonna happen!

I blame the weather for my lack of Februray femulation. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

March is more promising on the femulation front.

On the 12th, I will attend the True Colors Conference, where I will be presenting my "Femulate" workshop. When I am not presenting, I will be working at the Connecticut Outreach Society's booth.

On March 20th, I will attend the annual banquet of the Connecticut Outreach Society, where I will eat, drink, dance, lip sync, and schmooze en femme.

I am so looking forward to March.

Harry has some explaining to do

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An Interview With the Blonds

I have featured Phillipe Blond as The Femulated: model of the day on two or three occasions because Phillipe is a knock-out in my opinion and certainly deserving of The Femulated: spot.

So, you can imagine that I was very pleased to discover “An Interview With the Blonds” (Phillipe and spouse David) on The Huffington Post.

You can read the whole interview here.

you need more filler, fella

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designer makes unisex clothes because everyone is born unisex

Androgyny was at its peak on the Rad Hourani catwalk yesterday. Both the male and female models dressed in tights, high heels, bike shorts, and layers of black on the runway. "Unisex is my main focus," Hourani told us. "All my pieces are unisex so you can wear it feminine, masculine, a guy can wear it, a girl can wear it, at any age, anytime, anywhere."

…it's not a matter of men dressing like women, or vice versa. "I don’t like to put limits to gender," the Canadian-born designer explained. "I think everybody is feminine, and everybody is born unisex." Not physically, of course. "I don’t believe in making differences between women and men. I think we’re born just, like, a human on the planet and it’s just the way we’re conditioned that we create desire."

Read the whole story here.

will The New York Times accept a wedding announcement from a transgender bride?

Planning a transgender wedding went pretty smoothly. Only one question remains: Will The New York Times accept a wedding announcement from a transgender bride?

Read all about it here in Joanne Herman's article on The Huffington Post.

(Photo caption: Georgina Turtle leaving St Margaret's Church in Westminster with her new husband, Christopher Somerset, on October 13, 1962. Georgina, formerly a dentist in the British navy, transitioned in 1957.)

my favorite photos page

In case you had not noticed, I use Blogger for this blog.

The brains behind Blogger are always adding new features to improve the Blogger world. I recently discovered a new feature, i.e., the ability to create up to ten static pages to a blog.

Ever since I abandoned flickr, I had planned to create a Google Sites web page to host my photos. However, being a low priority project, I never got around to it.

When I discovered the new static page feature of Blogger, I figured that It would be a quick way to get my gallery of images back online, until I get around to doing it with Google Sites.

It took about ten minutes to create the page, load it with photos, and publish it. And here it is: my favorite photos page.

girls will be boys

According to The Huffington Post...

"Fashionable women would do well to raid their boyfriends' closets come fall, judging from the looks shown Sunday at New York Fashion Week."

"Menswear influences were everywhere during the week of previews..."

"Diane von Furstenberg confessed to the crowd she has a more masculine side. 'I always wanted to live a man's life in a woman's body...'"

Yadda, yadda, yadda.

If women are encouraged to raid their boyfriend's closets, is that a signal for men to raid their girlfriend's closets?

Not that there is anything wrong with that in this day and age, but it may be problematical for many men because milady's wear is likely to be too small for milady wannabes.

I know that the items hanging on my spouse's side of our closet will not fit me. I learned the hard way that there is a world of difference between a size 6 and a size 16.

Since raiding my spouse's closet will be for naught, I have to buy my own women's wear, which is exactly what I did yesterday.

I have been eyeing the dress pictured above ever since Newport-News began showing it in its catalogs. A few weeks ago, the price dropped from $89 to $39. Then over the weekend, Newport-News had a 25% off sale, which lowered the price to $29.25, so with credit card on hand, I pounced. And in a few days, I will have some new women's apparel in my size to add to my side of our closet.

nice legs

I saw this on Digg yesterday and I wanted to pass it on for your enjoyment. As usual, click on the image to enlarge it.

my fashion modeling

Although I never was a contestant in a womanless beauty pageant, I was a model in fashion shows on two occasions.

In 2007, I modeled in a benefit fashion show for the Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition. Eight trans girls and boys each modeled two outfits. We had to provide our own outfits and the venue, a bar, was packed. We models had to walk on the floor space around the bar trying to squeeze by the bar patrons (that's me in the photo). It was not an ideal situation, but it was still a lot of fun.

In 2008, I also modeled in the Fantasia Fair's fashion show with a slew of other girls. We modeled our own outfits at that show, too, but we actually strutted our stuff down a catwalk rather than the floor space around a bar. It was a dark and stormy night and as a result, the audience was small, but enthusiastic, and I had a great time.

don't overdo it

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awaken the "girl self"

The Vagina Monologues' author, Eve Ensler, has a new book titled I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls.

You can read about the book on Marianne Schnall's The Huffington Post blog today.

What you won't read in Ms. Schnall's posting is what author Ensler had to say during her interview on The Joy Behar Show Monday night. I don't have the transcript of the interview, so I am paraphrasing here, but the gist of one of her statements was that boys also have a "girl self" and that she encourages boys to embrace their girl selves.

In her interview, Ms. Ensler was not speaking about gender diverse people like us, but I believe that if anyone is trying to embrace their girl selves, it certainly is us.

my womanless pageant

Back in December, there was an advertisement on the Internet seeking contestants for a womanless beauty pageant in nearby Massachusetts. I answered the ad expressing my interest in being a contestant, exchanged a few e-mails about it, then heard nothing more as the plans for the event fell apart.

I was disappointed. That was the closest I ever got to being in a womanless pageant and I am not likely to get such an opportunity again (unless I move South) because womanless beauty pageants are very rare events in the Northeast.

I remember when I encountered my first womanless pageant. I was well into my second decade of girlhood and that encounter occurred in 1979 watching an episode of Real People, which featured a pageant held somewhere that I don't recall. I do recall that most of the contestants acted more like the rear ends of horses than ladies.

However, I noticed that one contestant in particular was shy and demure. She was pretty, too, and in my opinion, should have won the pageant, but I believe one of the rear ends won instead. She was not one of the good old boys wearing a dress and making a mockery of womanhood. Rather, in my heart I knew she was like me, that is, gender diverse.

Whenever I look at the photos of womanless pageants, there usually is one or two contestant that strikes me as also being gender diverse. There is a certain look in their expressions, especially in their eyes, that indicates that they are living their dream for a few hours and that the pageant is probably not their first and certainly not their last encounter with their feminine side.

It would be so lovely to be in a womanless pageant, but I guess I will have to continue to participate vicariously.

more womanless pageant news

Aunty Marlena alerted me to yet another womanless beauty pageant. This one at the Heidelberg (MS) Academy featured some quality femulation.

In contrast to the pageant featured in my previous posting, most of the “girls” seemed to know how to remove hair both north and south of the neckline.

Here are the rest of the photos.

womanless pageant news

Aunty Marlena alerted me to a womanless beauty pageant held last weekend at the Benjamin Russell High School in Alexander City, AL.

This was one of the better ones as far as the quality of the femulation is concerned. However, the predominance of hairy legs and arms makes me think that the "girls" made a pact beforehand not to shave those body parts in order to hang onto some shred of masculinity.

Anyway, here are the rest of the photos.

perhaps Aunt Samantha is more supportive

who’s no lady?

Yesterday, I received an e-mail that posed the following question: Is there any place in Femulate where you tell how you got drawn into the crossdressing world?

I do not recall telling this story here before, so here it is.

When I was a kid, I was intrigued with disguises. Being a creative sort, I assembled my own original costumes for Halloween rather than wear something off the rack. However, I would never be caught dead in a dress; all my costumes were male-themed, for example, monsters, pirates, ghouls, but not girls.

When I was about 10 or 11 years old, one of the newspapers my Dad bought (the Daily News) began carrying weekly thumbnail-sized ads for 82 Club, a New York City nightclub that featured female impersonators. Each advertisement asked, "Who's No Lady?" (like the postcard above) and contained a photo of a beautiful female impersonator.

Up until then, I was only familiar with the Milton Berlesque variety of female impersonation, so the advertisements fascinated me. The beauty and authenticity of  the impersonators amazed me.

Every week, I anxiously awaited the appearance of a new 82 Club advertisement and I was seldom disappointed as male after male was shown transformed into a beautiful female.

I was s0 intrigued that a male could transform himself into a gorgeous female that I decided to experiment with female impersonation myself and soon I was slipping on my first pair of nylons and heels. Using my mother's and sister's wardrobes and cosmetics, I tried to transform myself into a young lady.

I enjoyed every minute of it, but I started feeling very guilty. None of the guys I knew did what I did. I wondered if something was wrong with me. (Sound familiar?)

But, I did not stop and I continued experimenting, while fine-tuning my femulating skills in the process. And that’s my story.

high heels are good for you

High heels were the second item of woman’s clothing I wore when I began my experiments in femulation back in the early 1960s (the first item was nylon stockings). I took to heels like a duck takes to water. I never had a problem walking in heels and I loved how they shaped my legs.

Ever since I began sashaying in shoes of stupendous height, all I ever heard was how bad they were. A parade of experts claimed that high heels caused one bad thing after another. They were the cause of all that was wrong with our feet, as well as being responsible for some of society’s ills as well.

Well, I have some good news for high heel fashionistas. Contrary to popular opinion, wearing high heels is good for your physique and your psyche, according to studies recently uncovered by Team Femulate.

In one study, a British doctor performed tests using special scales and the results indicate “that high heels throw the weight onto the heel rather than onto the toes… which eliminates slouching, produces more healthy breathing, and adds inches to the bust.”

"But the greatest effect is the psychological one," the doctor added, "...long legs are admired and the high heel gives the impression of greater leg length... a sensation of slimness."

In another study, British scientists gave high heels a clean bill of health. “Instead of being unhealthful, high heels are actually easier on the body than low ones. In spite of the present vogue of high heels, there is no evidence that corns, flat feet, or other disorders are increasing.”

Works for me!

be a normal man

"Be a Normal Man" is the subject of a spam e-mail I received yesterday. So, following the advice of that e-mail, I went to Home Depot during lunch to do some shopping like a "normal man."

To my astonishment, there were more women shopping at Home Depot than men. The majority of the Home Depot "associates" were women, too.

I felt a little out of place just like when I go shopping for girly things in a girly store while dressed in boy mode. It felt like every woman in Home Depot was watching me to see what girly product I would fondle. I could read their minds, "What is HE going to do with that Torx screwdriver?"

I was so paranoid that I used the automated self-check-out instead of going to a cashier (who were all women) to avoid the smirks and knowing looks that I was bound to receive while making my girly purchase.

Next time I shop at Home Depot, I will be sure to wear a dress, wig, makeup, and heels so I won't feel out of place.

won

I won this item on eBay on January 2 and it finally arrived in the mail on Saturday. It must have gone around the Horn before it got to me!

It is a "souvenir" from Finocchio's, the world famous female impersonator club that operated in San Francisco during the last half of the 20th Century.

The "souvenir" is actually a folder intended to contain a photo of Finocchio's customers. A photographer would come around to each table in the club and ask customers if they wanted their photo taken. The results were delivered in this souvenir folder. By the way, there is a photo in the folder showing an unknown couple seated at a table in the club.

I estimate that this item is from the 1940s. I own a lot of Finocchio's ephemera (see it here) and it is the first Finocchio's souvenir photo folder I have ever encountered.