Look what I found

I wanted a white top to go with my white shorts. Perusing the DressBarn website, I saw a crochet lace top that I liked, so during my lunch hour, I visited the nearby DressBarn to check out the top in person.

They had a rack full of the tops including a few in white and in my size (so I thought). After examining the top, I was happy with my choice and went to the cash register to get rung up.

The sales rep complimented me on my choice and as she began ringing me up, she asked, "What is the phone number of the person you are buying this for?"

The sales rep was one I had not dealt with before and since I was in boy mode, I assume she thought that I was buying the top for a regular customer (and by giving her the customer's phone number, the customer would get credit for the sale and rack up points).

I replied, "The top is for me."

And then I added, "Maybe I should try it on to see if it fits."

It looked big enough, but I've been burnt by that assumption before, so I headed to the dressing room. Good thing I did because it was too tight around my boobs.

The sales rep found the next size up and it fit fine. I paid for my purchase and was on my way.

Getting back to my boobs. I think they are getting bigger!

During the past six months or so, I thought that my boobs looked bigger when I looked at myself in the mirror, but I assumed it was just wishful thinking.

However, now that the warm weather has finally settled in around here, I often wear just a T-shirt without a blouse over the tee. As a result, I noticed that my boobs are filling out my tees more than they ever had in the past.

I have always had boobs (due to a hormone imbalance and/or Gynecomastia), but not to this extent.

If this keeps up, I will have to start wearing bras in both boy and girl modes --- not because I want to, but because I need to (not that there is anything wrong with that).

 

 

 

Wearing Madeleine.

 

 

 

U2’s Adam Clayton femulates for the 1992 music video for “One.”

Lack of Slack

 

 

 

Wearing BCBGMAXAZRIA.

 

 

 

Monika Cathrine, a femulator from Norway

Thank Goddess, It's Friday

Have you ever seen the film Thank God It's Friday?

It is an amusing and entertaining film about a night at a disco and features the singing of Donna Summer. It also includes a femulation by actor Howard Itzkowitz, who goes to the film's disco en femme.

Thank God It's Friday is not great cinema, but watching it is one of my guilty pleasures.

Seeing the gorgeous disco fashions in that film got me thinking about what I am going to wear to a banquet I will be attending in three weeks.

Most of my banquet wear is for the cooler weather, but I am sure I must have some things in my closet appropriate for the summer (like the number I am wearing in the photo).

Worse comes to worse, I can always buy something new!

 

 

 

Wearing Burberry (dress), Edie Parker (clutch) and Bulgari (jewelry).

 

 

 

Actor Howard Itzkowitz femulating in the 1978 film Thank God It's Friday.

Color Me Upset

Colors

This week, Daily Makeover had an excellent article, "How to Find the Most Flattering Makeup Colors for You." The article is short, but full of excellent tips about finding your best colors. I learned a few things after reading it and I am sure you will, too.

Upset

On the way to work today, two rabbits, a turkey, and a turtle crossed my path. The rabbits and turkey were not an issue and went on their merry way into the woods after crossing the pavement in front of me, but I dunno about the turtle.

When I came upon the turtle, he was half way across the road. I slowed down momentarily to see if could do anything to accelerate his crossing, but the road is narrow, heavily traveled and worse, there was no place to pull over to park. I did not know what to do except continue on to work, but I was upset (and I am still upset) that I wasn't able to help this guy.

I hope I don't see his carcass on the way home this evening.

Depression Femulation

Courtesy of Pat, here is a page from the 1934 Montgomery Ward catalog that femulators of the Depression probably studied carefully.

Item A, the “Inner-Belt,” was quite a contrivance – I wonder how well it worked!

By the way, a 1934 dollar equals $17.65 today.

 

 

 

 

Wearing Badgley Mischka.

 

 

 

Actors Patrick Page, Reed Birney and Gabriel Ebert
femulating on stage in Casa Valentina (2014).

Boys Will Be Girls

"Girls will be boys and boys will be girls" is a line from a 1970 song titled "Lola" by The Kinks, which describes a close encounter with a drag queen of the same name.

That line has been taken out of the context of the song and has been tossed about to describe the phenomena of gender role reversal for the past 44 years.

I have been very aware of gender role reversal even longer than that. From nearly five decades of experience, it is my opinion that either there are more gender role reversals today than in the past or the gender role reversals are more public about it today than in the past. I believe that it is a little of the former and a lot of the latter.

In the past, that is, before 1965, gender role reversals were very closeted. Girls being boys and boys being girls were invisible. There were places where the reversals could meet and socialize, but those places were very private and unknown to the majority of the general public.

Personally, I found out about two of those places around 1968 after I had been dressing in the closet for about 5 years perfecting my femulation and itching to explore the world as a woman. Through Darrell Raynor's 1966 book A Year Among the Girls, I found out about a transwoman getaway that I later learned was called "Casa Susana.” Through the 1968 film documentary The Queen, I discovered drag beauty pageants. Both of those places were out of reach for the 17-year-old girl I had become, but it was reassuring to know that those places existed.

Today, it is almost laughable (and kind of sad) to consider the lack of places that were available to gender role reversals in the past. Now we are everywhere --- even on the cover of Time magazine!

Our increased visibility has encouraged other gender role reversals to leave the closet behind and explore the world for themselves. And their new visibility encourages still others to become visible and on and on and on.

So, "the gender role reversals are more public about it today."

Our increased visibility has also encouraged others to try gender role reversal for themselves. Here, I am referring to people who would have been clueless without our increased visibility. They would have gone through life lost in between genders, trying hard to adhere to the definition of their birth gender, but not succeeding  and not knowing where to turn because as far as they knew, there was no place to go.

Thus, "there are more gender role reversals today than in the past."

 

 

 

Wearing Harley Viera Newton.

 

 

 

Orloff, an early 20th Century professional femulator

I want one of these!

Heck, at only $4.98, I’ll take one in each color!

 

 

 

Wearing Christian Dior.

 

 

 

Actor Sam Littlefield femulating in a 2002 episode of television’s V.I.P.

At the Grocery Store

Saturday, I am the little househusband and among other things, I do the grocery shopping for the following week. I buy what I can at Aldi, then go to Price Chopper to pick up the things that Aldi did not have.

Most of the people I encounter in the two stores are in grocery shopping drag… very casual to very grubby. However, while I was in Price Chopper, I encountered a pretty young woman wearing what I thought was a navy blue dress covered with white polka dots, a dress not very different from the navy blue polka dot dress I wore on a few occasions this spring. She also wore cute navy blue flats and little or no makeup. Her short bob was a deep auburn.

The woman was shopping with an older woman, who I assumed was her mother, who unlike her daughter, was in grocery shopping drag like the rest of us. The “mother” was taking her time going up and down the aisles while the “daughter” scurried around the store picking up items and depositing them in her mother’s shopping cart.

As it turned out, I kept bumping into the daughter in various parts of the store as she scurried about. It was actually a little amusing that we kept bumping into each other and during one of our bumps, she smiled at me in recognition of the ridiculousness of the chance encounters.

Anyways, all these numerous encounters revealed a few things.

Her navy blue dress was not festooned with white polka dots. Rather, it was covered with little white crosses — a navy blue cross dress!

As I wrote above, she wore little or no makeup and on closer inspection, she had very thick almost bushy eyebrows, which brought my trans radar to attention and she struck me as being a pretty boy dressed as a girl.

My last encounter was as I passed her depositing yet another item in her mother’s shopping cart. I actually heard her speak to her mother ...in a distinctly male voice!

Wow! It made me very happy to see her out and about and with a supportive parent to boot! Very, very cool.

Wearing Daily Look.

Actor Brian Charles Rooney femulating on stage in Bedbugs!!! (2012).

and Dad lent me the purse

 

 

 

Wearing Tom Ford (sandals), JAR (earrings), Jil Sander (top)
and Amarcord Vintage-Fashion (pants).

 

 

 

Actors femulating on stage in Pageant: The Musical in New York City, 2014.

Got Support?

Jan Brown passed along a valuable online tool for folks seeking GLBT support and resources: GLBT Near Me. Enter your ZIP Code and how many miles you are willing to travel from your ZIP Code to get support. Then select a category, for example, "Transgender, and click on the Search button. In response, the web tool returns a list of resources that fit the parameters you entered. Very cool and very useful!

 

 

 

Wearing Daily Look.

 

 

 

Recent womanless beauty pageant contestant.

Beatlemania

I loved The Beach Boys' music first, then I fell in love with The Beatles' music. I have been a Beatlemaniac ever since.

During the height of Beatlemania, I acted indifferently towards The Fab Four. My indifference was part of my disguise.

I worried that if I showed any interest in The Beatles, people would perceive that as a girly thing. Next thing you know, they would put two and two together and figure out that if I was doing girly things, then I must be girly. The fact that I had feminine speech and mannerisms would just confirm their conclusion.

In my late teens, I abandoned my disguise (because it was not working) and was completely open about my Beatlemania. I bought all their LPs, 45s, EPs, tapes, CDs, DVDs and as many bootlegs as I could find. When I visited the UK in the mid-1980s, I found Abbey Road and had my photo taken crossing the famous crosswalk. And on and on and on.

Anyway, I finally saw The Beatles in person on Saturday night! Well, more like one-quarter of The Beatles or one-half of the surviving Beatles.

Ringo Starr performed at a local concert hall and I had almost a front row seat to see the show. I had a wonderful time and enjoyed the show immensely.

Two things stuck out in my mind about the show.

• Ringo is petite. He is short and amazingly thin. When he came out on the stage, I thought that he looked more like a college kid than a 72-year-old.
• Although most of the audience were my peers, there were a lot of younger people in the crowd who seemed to be big fans. For example, in the row in front of me there were three girls in their late teens or early 20s who twisted and shouted throughout the show and knew all the words to all the songs --- not just the words of The Beatles' tunes that Ringo sang, but his solo hits and non-hits as well!

So, goo goo g'joob.

 

 

 

Wearing Brahmin.

 

 

 

 

Femulate reader Fiona femulating at Royal Ascot.