Yesterday, I thought we were going to have a shut out two years in a row — 7:30 PM and no kids and then the doorbell rang. I answered the door and found two girls dressed as cheerleaders. I guessed that they were middle-school age — on the cusp of being too old to trick or treat. They were both very pretty, but when in unison they said, "Trick or treat" I realized that the pretty girls were actually boys!
Great femulations!
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| Wearing Boston Proper (Source: Boston Proper) |
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| Betty belly-dancing for Halloween. |
Hmmm.....two young boys, a few years past the usual trick-or-treating demographic, dress up very convincingly and go door-to-door candy begging not in a group or with parental units, but alone. My read is that we're dealing here not with "civilians," but a couple of budding young members of the "sisterhood." (I always wondered what it would have been like to have a friend at that age who was a fellow traveler in the Pink Column.)
ReplyDeleteThey probably figured Halloween gave them "cover" and plausible deniability - an excuse for dressing that would be innocent and benign. No such luck. As Stana can probably attest with her yearly work femulations, if you do too good of a job or exude too much enthusiasm over your allegedly one-shot innocent "costume," people are going to probably suss that you are not an amateur.
I saw a YouTube video once in which a professional Drag Queen was giving funny, but trenchant advice to her straight "vanilla" crossdressing friends who thought they could get away with dressing for Halloween. At one point, she said, "You need to at least have a plausible concept for your costume. 'Woman' [air quotes] is NOT a concept." If you dress as a famous female or one who is in the news recently, or something like that, it might possibly be seen as a cute, innocent lark. But I think guys who dress as a "generic female" who simply looks like a feminized version of their usual self are pretty quickly figured out by their friends and/or co-workers.
Decades ago (damn, I got old fast), when I was a Tri-Ess enthusiast, I had a sis there who femmed up for Halloween at work. The quality and detail of her warpaint and garb had the whole office buzzing, giggling and exchanging knowing glances. She went up to her best buddy at work - their receptionist, an African-American lady who, she lovingly joked, was the epitome of every token SBC ("Sassy Black Chick") in 80's movies, and asked her how she liked the costume. She eyed her up and down for a sec, and proclaimed "Honey, when you look that good, that ain't no costume - that's a lifestyle." (BUS-ted....LOL.)
Perhaps Halloween was cover, so to speak, but I've also noticed that the younger generations don't have the same stigma against it as much, however.
DeleteI heard an interesting analysis on TV recently, which goes, essentially, President Dump and his "MAGA" crowd--who in general are older and white--are so virulent because they are trying to win politically because they've already lost the culture.
The question, Were they civilians or sisters?
ReplyDeleteFor their effort to get to your remote location and for the effort they made to do such wonderful femulations (not to mention the courage to use their guy voices) I hope you gave them extra candy.
ReplyDeleteBack when we had the house in the woods we had very few trick or treaters and some years none. There were two years where I dressed as a tall woman all in black to greet the bell ringers and I was blanked out both times.
Since we downsized to a condo we get flooded with trick or treaters. It is easy pickings for them to go up and down the block with units every few yards and short driveways. One of the neighbors sets up tables and we all gather at their driveway and put out our bowls for the kids. It is one stop picking for the kids and the adults sit around, order pizza and drink.
After the action abated (about 7:30) I went home showered, shaved and dressed all in black (dress, hose, pumps, etc) and went for a ride. As I drove through downtown I noted that there was a showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I parked and since the movie had been running for about an hour I was not even charged to go in. It was my first time at a movie house showing of this classic. I had only seen it on TV.
I was one of the more conservatively dressed in the movie house. It was a fun outing.
Pat
I suppose it would have been to much to ask them to pose for a photo.
ReplyDeleteI did "generic woman" one Halloween my junior year in high school, but as an actor I already had a reputation for doing wild and outlandish things, so I don't think I raised any red flags. The closest I came to outing myself that day was when I was at my friend's house picking out the dress. She had a few selections and we quickly decided on one, but when she left the room I had to see what the others looked like on me. Her Mom noticed, but I was able to cover it with my actor's desire for perfectionism - making sure we had selected the right one.
My take on your two Trick or Treat Femulators was they picked a 'safe', definitely out of the way house to try out their femulation tech. If things went 'south', (and by your account, the effort went well) little was exposed in the pride/shame department. Perhaps after the dry run, there was a bigger party to attend... We all had to start somewhere in the femulation dept.
ReplyDeleteImagine someday one of the tricksters happens upon your blog, and makes the connection.......
Velma
I would imagine the young femulaters took selfies They hopefully will email Stana in the future
ReplyDelete