And so it goes

Thursday at 12:36 PM, my dog died after being euthanized by our veterinarian. My heart is broken and I need a few days off from blogging, so catch you later.

UPDATE: Readers have asked, so here is some basic information about my dog. She was a cockapoo (half cocker spaniel, half poodle) and was just three weeks shy of her 16th birthday (human years).

I had her put down because she was so arthritic that she could no longer go up and down stairs and her back legs collapsed under her frequently each day. She was also blind from glaucoma.

I had her since she was 3 months old and we were very close, so putting her down was one of the most difficult things I have ever done.

Thank you all for your condolences.

Barbie Dolls For Sale

Marie wrote.

"Was intrigued by your recent article about Barbie dolls. I happen to be the custodian of approximately 50 Barbie dolls. They ended up in my spare closet as a very good lady friend of mine had bought them over time for her daughter. They are all in perfect condition and in their original boxes.

"The daughter does not want them and the mother is getting tired of hauling them around, but does not want to merely discard them or give them to Goodwill. She has agreed to sell them for $18 each plus shipping."

If any Femulate readers are interested, they can contact Marie at oaklandbbaikensc@hughesnet.com with the "Barbie Name" or Type of Outfit" they are interested in and she will e-mail them a photo of the doll if she has it.

Wearing Boston Proper (Source: Boston Proper)

Rachel, a Femulate reader visiting Orlando

The Real Thing

As I wrote here on Monday, I bought a Spanx brand high-waisted brief online on Black Friday.

I mentioned that I have purchased a number of Spanx clones in the past, but never the real thing. Therefore, I was anxious to find out how it compared to the clones, so when the mailman delivered my order, I wasted no time stripping off my clothes to try on my Spanx.

The reason I had purchased the clones in the past was because they were less expensive than Spanx. Well, with regard to Spanx and its clones, you get what you pay for. Simply stated, the clones work, but the Spanx work better at smoothing and sculpting my body.

Comparing the construction of Spanx to the clones, there is more to the Spanx (a front bonded panel for a flatter stomach and side panels for "squeeze-free slimming and easy movement"), so I assume that is why it works better.

It also has a feature that I have not seen in any of the clones I have purchased: it is lined at the gusset with a hook-and-eye closure to allow you to relieve yourself without having to remove the Spanx (something I would dread doing in the tight confines of most ladies' room stalls).

Anyway, I like the high-waisted brief so much that I ordered their Oncore open-bust bodysuit, too.

Wearing Michelle Mason blouse and A.L.C. skirt (Source: Intermix)

Joanna, a sister blogger and pretty woman

Over or Under

If you are like me and wear a girdle to slim your waist and tummy, but also wear a padded panty to enhance your hips and derriere, do you wear the padded panty under or over your girdle?

My guess is that you should wear the padded panty over the girdle, otherwise the girdle will compress the padding and negate the enhancement provided by the padded panty.  But I could be wrong, so let me know what you do if you do.  

I fell in love with this Dress Barn outfit and had to buy it when I discovered it was on sale (40% off) on Cyber Monday.

Pretty in polka dots, Annastasya, out and about in Nuremberg (Source: flickr)

Black Friday

Thank you all for your comments and emails regarding our Black Thursday. I was overwhelmed by your support and it truly helped me get past that day.

Needless to say, we slept late Black Friday morning, which was no loss because we do almost all of our holiday shopping online and avoid the brick and mortars during the days leading up to December 25.

Leaving our troubles behind temporarily, I decided to do some online shopping for my wife and daughter at Macy's. One thing led to another, as it often does on the Internet and I found myself checking out the deals on Macy's shapewear webpage.

If you have been following along, you know that I am a big fan of Spanx clone shapewear. I own a about a dozen Spanx clones, but I don't own one genuine Spanx item. Now I do!

Perusing Macy's Black Friday sales, I found an excellent deal for a Spanx brand high-waisted brief and added it to my online shopping cart. Macy's has already shipped it and it will probably arrive shortly after this post appears. Then I will let you know how it compares with the clones.

Wearing Hanes (Source: Hanes)

Alan Cumming femulates in British television's The Runaway.

Someday Funnies

Wearing New York & Company (Source: New York & Company) 

Alex Veit, male womenswear model

Black Thursday

I spent most of Thanksgiving Day in the emergency room with my wife. 

A cat scan Wednesday morning showed something that concerned her doctor and he told me to take my wife to the ER Thursday morning. So we watched the parade, dog show and Godfather I and II from the "comfort" of a room in the ER, while the nurses and doctors needled my wife in various places trying to find out what was wrong.

Good news was that after nearly 8 hours in the ER, they did not find much. Bad news is that we go back next week for a biopsy to look some more.

After leaving the hospital, we had a late Thanksgiving dinner at my sister's, then called it a day around 8:30 PM. Arriving home, we discovered a huge mess involving urine and feces created by my old blind dog. After cleaning the mess and bathing my dog, I went to bed and tried to fall asleep while thinking about having to put down my dog real soon.

It was not a good day.

Wearing Veronica Beard blazer (Source: Intermix)

Dokzi Couture, male womenswear model

Thanks, But...

We celebrate Thanksgiving Day on Thursday.

"Traditionally, it is a time to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude in general," according to Wikipedia.

No harvest here, so I guess I express “gratitude in general.”

Mom and Pop are deceased, but I know that they are around in a spirit-in-the-sky kind of way, so I want to thank them for raising me and not interfering with my feminine ways when I was growing up.

Maybe they could have been a little more encouraging by buying me some dresses to wear around the house (so I wouldn’t have to borrow my sister’s) and buying me some dolls of my very own (so I wouldn’t have to borrow my sister’s). It probably would have made my sister happy, too; I wouldn’t be borrowing her stuff and she would have had a sister to play with.

On the other hand, it could have been a lot worse and they could have forced me to be masculine!

So, thank you Mom and Pop for letting me be me.

(Caveat Emptor: This is an update of a post I wrote for a previous Thanksgiving.)

Wearing Veronica Beard (Source: Veronica Beard)

I don't know much about this image except that it was posted on a crossdressing Pinterest page. My guess is that it is from the mid-20th Century and that the girl in front is a femulator, but I am not so sure about the girl in back. Is she another femulator or a female friend or relative of the femulator? Your guess may be better than mine.

Transitioning

In response to my standing offer to answer anything you ask me, Julie Shaw wrote the following.

I'm getting tired of coming up with answers to "well meaning" people asking me when I'm going to start transitioning. I don't WANT to transition. I'm a heterosexual male-to-female crossdresser and have NO desire to change that.

My question for you is "how would you communicate this to those sisters on social media who all but berate me for not being true to yourself." I have run out of words.

It seems to me (with emphasis on "to me") that the meaning of "transition" has changed over time.

In olden days when I still lived in a closet, transition meant that you took hormones, had surgery and did all that the law allowed to officially change your name and sex designation.

Today, the definition of "transition" is a lot looser. You don't have to take hormones and/or you don't have to have surgery and/or you don't have to legally change your name or sex designation. You don't even have to live full-time in your trans gender.

So I guess I transitioned some time ago and didn't even know it!

At Fantasia Fair in 2014, I attended Natasha Wilkie's presentation "Planning Your Transition." The most important thing I took out of the presentation was that you do it at your own pace... a pace that you are comfortable with.

As the presentation ended, Natasha left us with a metaphor... Transition is like riding a train. You can get off at any stop and you can get back on the train whenever you wish and in some cases, you can go back to a previous stop.

So when quizzed about when am I going to transition, I can honestly say I have transitioned already.

Wearing Boohoo (Source: Boohoo)

Homer Simpson in drag on the Werking Mom episode (11/18/18) of The Simpsons.

Barbie Fashions for Real Dolls

Remember playing with Barbie dolls when you were a young girl?

I did not own a Barbie doll, but my sister did and occasionally, I would spend some girl-time playing with my sister's dolls. As a budding transvestite, I once dressed her Ken doll in Barbie's clothes. But just like in the real world, Barbie's clothes did not quite fit right on Ken, so I abandoned crossdressing Ken and stuck to dressing Barbie while dreaming about dressing myself in her high fashions.

Turns out, I can now dress myself in Barbie's haute couture. According to Parade, "Barbie’s celebrating the big 6-0 next year with a collaboration available now: Barbie x Unique Vintage, a new apparel line turning iconic 1960s Barbie outfits into real women’s clothing."

Even better news: Unique Vintage's Barbie line is available in larger sizes for girls like us. Also, Unique Vintage offers other retro style clothing from the 1920's to the 1970's with many items available in plus sizes. And for you California gurls, you can sashay down to their brick and mortar store in Burbank.

Personally, I think the Unique Vintage line of Barbie apparel looks nicer than the original Barbie clothing. And I hope to find out for myself as soon as I can make up my mind which Barbie outfit to purchase.

Wearing Boston Proper (Source: Boston Proper)

The always lovely Hannah McKnight

Someday Funnies

Wearing Bebe (Source: Bebe)

A womanless beauty pageant's "Best Smile"

Awareness, indeed!

This is Transgender Awareness Week.

The Week concludes with Transgender Day of Remembrance  (TDOR) on Tuesday, November 20, when we remember our trans brothers and sisters who died because they were trans and did not pretend they were something else.

I discovered that TDOR events are scheduled all over the calendar because TDOR falls during Thanksgiving week this year and some of the people who might normally attend, will not be available. For example, some colleges and universities are on vacation next week, so they have either scheduled a TDOR event this week or simply cancelled their TDOR event this year.

Getting back to Transgender Awareness Week, the GLAAD Trans Week webpage states that the Week is intended "to help raise the visibility of transgender and gender non-conforming people, and address the issues the community faces."

Over the years, I think I have done my share of making civilians aware of transgender people. It was actually kind of easy once I overcame my fear of mixing it up with civilians. Once I found out that I had nothing to fear except fear itself, I loved going out and finding new venues in which to strut my stuff as a woman, trans or otherwise.

It was "easy" because almost all of my friends and acquaintances, who knew the male me accepted the female me.

My former co-workers knew the male me long before they were introduced to the female me and things did not change when they were made aware that I was trans; I was the same old Stan, but with an improved fashion sense.

Strangers were almost as easy. I assume that I passed some of the time because no one pays much attention to old women like me, so old transwomen can fly under the radar and not be closely scrutinized.

On the other hand, I also assume that some civilians suspected that I was a trans, but they did not make an issue of it. The worst experience was the use of wrong pronouns, but I can live with that especially in the cases when the person using the wrong pronoun corrected himself/herself.

Doing outreach at colleges and universities was different because going in, the students knew we were trans, so there was no fooling them. On the other hand, I think we probably enlightened some of the students. How many of them expected over-the-top drag queens to show up and were surprised when we appeared just like other civilians? Awareness, indeed!

Wearing Madeleine (Source: Madeleine)

I found this before and after photos to be fascinating. (Source: Pinterest)