You All at Hamvention

I should have kept a log, but I estimate that 20 Femulate readers stopped by my booth at Hamvention to say "Hello." About half were repeats, girls who I had met during past Hamventions, while the other half were new encounters.

Some of those new encounters were so similar that it was scary.

Guy walks up to me while I am staffing the booth and says, "I read your blog."

I ask, "My ham radio blog?"

(I write a low-traffic, low-schedule blog related to radio and other non-trans interests, so I assume that the guy in front of me is a ham, but not necessarily trans.)

Guy responds, "No."

I respond, "Oh, that blog."

And then we proceed to discuss trans things!

Over half of the newbies never introduced themselves and their name tags were out of sight, so I amclueless as to who were the new girls I met.

One guy who did not introduce herself on Friday came back in girl mode on Saturday and introduced herself as "Tammy." And Tammy even wrote something for the blog, which I am happy to present to you now.

I thought I'd share my observations on the convention Stana attended last week. I also attended that convention ― one day en femme. In addition to attending the convention, I did travel three days as well as spent two evenings out eating and shopping en femme.

Just a little background ― the convention has about 260 vendor booths (one of which Stana staffed) and about 1441 electronic flea market spaces, so it's a pretty big event. About 25,000 people attend this convention ― I'd guess about 90% being men. 

The first day I attended in “boy mode” to get an idea of the lay of the land so to speak. I found the booth Stana was working and instantly recognized her. She was wearing an attractive business dress and heels appropriate for vendors working at the convention. She blended in with the rest of the vendors ― just a typical woman doing her job. We had a nice short visit and promised to exchange emails in the future.

On the second day of the convention, I attended en femme. Since I was not attending as a vendor ― just one of 25,000 people attending, I had to decide what to wear. My goal was to attend and blend in like any other woman attending. So here's how I made my decision ― starting with my feet and working up. 

Shoes ― I did not see any women (that were not vendors) wearing heels. All were wearing comfortable shoes suitable for a lot of walking. I decided to wear light colored running shoes. I did change the shoe laces to orange laces to make them a little more feminine. 

Next was dress, skirt, shorts, or slacks ― It was rare to see any women wearing a dress or skirt and none of them were wearing anything you would consider stylish (except for the vendors).  Any dresses worn by just someone attending would have fit right in at WalMart ― if that helps you figure out the “style factor.” I decided to wear black jeans.  The women's cut of the legs made them a little more slimming and stylish that your average “boy” jeans. 

The top was the hardest to decide on. There were a lot of women wearing T-shirts and light blouses. Comfort was the name of the game here so I wore a short sleeve, high neckline, light colored blouse. 

Most women attending were not wearing makeup ― maybe just a few were wearing lipstick. so I went with the minimum here also. A good foundation with setting powder, light eyebrow coloring to match the hair, just enough blush to add a hint of color and a lipstick just a little darker than my lips. The goal was for someone looking closely from a few feet away to think I wasn't wearing makeup. Jewelry was also kept simple ― silver hoop earrings and a silver watch ― similar to the other women attending.

How did it go? 

Great!! I had a wonderful time. I think I fit right in, maybe just a little nicer clothes than the average woman. I did have to get used to men opening doors for me, waiting for me to get out of my seat while getting off the bus, and suggesting I go first when waiting to buy something. 

When addressed in a gender specific way, I was usually called Ma’am. But I also got a “sweetie,” “hon," “honey” and “young lady” just like any other woman visiting the flea market spaces. Since there were so few women attending, I did have to get used to other women coming over to me to ask questions, get directions or just to chat about the convention. 

Even on the way home, I'd get women at rest stops starting conversations about where I was going and if I was going to do the trip in just one day. I stopped to see Stana at her booth the second day and I'm not sure she instantly recognized me ― although I'll bet her “radar” for these things is pretty good. 

What's the moral of this story?

Conventions and trade shows are good places to get used to dressing en femme as long as you don't dress too far above or below the average woman attending. If there's a good mix of men and women, you might not have to talk much. If there's a lack of women and you “pass," you'll probably find other women wanting to talk to you.

Street Style, Spring 2015

Womanless beauty pageant contestant.