Independence Day and the Gender Gap

July 4, 1776

Today celebrates the 236th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence of the 13 North American Colonies from the Kingdom of Great Britain.

The 13 colonies were Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. At the time of the signing, Vermont was part of New York and Maine was part of Massachusetts.

Vermont declared its own independence on January 15, 1777 and became The Republic of New Connecticut*. Vermont became the 14th United State in 1791

Maine seceded from Massachusetts in 1820 and became the 23rd United State on March 15, 1820.

* Thanks to Wikipedia, I learned something new today.

Gender Gap

The article "10 College Majors With the Biggest Gender Gap," jives with my 34-year work experience as a technical writer in the electrical engineering and computer science fields where males dominate (91% and 85%, respectively).

I wish there was a need for technical writers in the fashion world!  

Gender Debunked

Read an interesting interview of gender theorist Kate Bornstein here.

The Opposite Sex

When I do outreach, one question that often comes up is which sex is attractive to me.

Since I look, walk, talk, and behave exactly like a woman, the expected answer is "men," so when I say I prefer women, the audience is thrown for a loop .

Your mileage may vary, but most of the transfolks I do outreach with are attracted to their same gender, that is, the male-to-female transfolks prefer women and the female-to-male transfolks prefer men. When they changed genders, their sexuality did not change; they were still attracted to the sex they preferred before transition (which affirms the proposition that sex and gender are separate issues).

On the other hand, I know transfolks who not only change genders, but also change teams after they transition, that is, transwomen who preferred men and transmen who preferred women.

But most of the transfolks I know personally do not change teams (again, your mileage may vary). I admit that I know more crossdressers than transsexuals, still, most of the transsexuals I know personally did not change teams either.

Getting back to me (isn't it always about "me"): I prefer women... always did. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but sex with a man never interested me.

However, I have never had sex when en femme. My spouse will have nothing to do with me when I am en femme and since I am committed to my marriage, I have never sought sex outside of it.

But don't think it has not crossed my mind.

Sex en femme with a woman is very attractive, but that is a moot point because I have never encountered a woman who seemed "that" interested in my femulated self.

On the other hand, sex en femme with a man would be a piece of cake. I have encountered numerous men interested in my femulated self. Some were "tran admirers," some were not. In either case, I rejected their advances because I was a good girl, faithful to my spouse to the end.

But since my spouse will have nothing to do with my femulated self, does that give me license to seek sex outside the marriage when I am en femme? Should I give into the advances of those guys who desire me? And if I did give in, should I have sex like other woman (if you know what I mean)?

What I Thought

I found this quote by feminist Susan Brownmiller, “Women are all female impersonators to some degree. “

That quote is dangerous because it got me thinking. After thinking, I wondered if it mean what I think it means…

That females have to consciously act femme in order to fit into the gender role that society specifies. And so it goes that males have to consciously act butch in order to fit into the "male" gender role.

Admittedly, over time, females and males become so acclimated to acting femme or butch that they do so automatically without a conscious effort. Nevertheless, if they chose not to consciously act femme or butch, would they end up somewhere in-between femme and butch? And is that in-between state actually their natural gender?

Meanwhile, some people are naturally inclined to be feminine and some masculine.

Everything is hunky dory if a female-bodied person is naturally feminine and a male-bodied person is naturally masculine.

The "problem" occurs when a female-bodied person is naturally masculine or when a male-bodied person is naturally feminine (like me). To meet society’s specifications for female-bodied and male-bodied persons, the problem people must become male or female impersonators to one degree or another.

If they reject society's specifications and embrace their natural gender, they will likely have a difficult time in society. To fix their gender incongruity, they may live their lives as female-bodied men or male-bodied women or they may change their bodies to match their natural gender.

Anyway, that's what I thought.

Male or Female? It Depends

Old certainties about gender identity are disappearing as fast as a woman in a Maserati, writes Stephen Bayley for The Telegraph.

"Traditional determinants of gender identity in the clothes we wear and the products we use are blurring fast. When asked to tick a box on one of those annoying local authority questionnaires that demands to know whether you are male or female, I am always tempted to avoid a straightforward yes/no answer and write: 'It depends.'”

You can read the whole article here.

(Thank you Gwen for the heads-up about the article.)

Dr. Phil Is A Pill

Read why here.

Andrej Pejic to Model En Femme Again

This just in: Andrej Pejic will model in Yoana Baraschi's 2011 Fall fashion show. He will wear one of the designer’s signature feminine looks for the February 13 show at Lincoln Center’s The Box during New York Fashion Week.

Read all about it here.

Andrej Pejic in Lipstick and Swimsuit

Andrej Pejic continues to confound the gender police. His latest run in with their laws is her “first beauty spread” in the Spring/Summer issue of The Block Magazine where he appears en femme in feminine duds and cosmetics.

You go, girl!

Read and see more here on The Huffington Post.

Scalia's Surprise: Women Don't Have Constitutional Protection Against Discrimination

UPDATED BELOW

WASHINGTON -- The equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not protect against discrimination on the basis of gender or sexual orientation, according to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

For the record, the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause states: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." That would seem to include protection against exactly the kind of discrimination to which Scalia referred.

Read the rest of this shocking story in The Huffington Post.

UPDATE:  Scalia says the 14th Amendment protects only black citizens, not women. Oh, and a rich white kid named Bush

For another view on the matter, please read this piece by Joan Walsh from Salon.

2010: The Year of the Transsexual?

According to this article in today’s New York Times,  “2010 will be remembered as the year of the transsexual.”

“Not since the glam era of the 1970s has gender-bending so saturated the news media. The difference now is that mystery has been replaced with empowerment, even pride.”

Read the rest of the story here.

(Thank you, Sondra, for tipping me off about this article.)

Gender Stereotypes as an Affirmation

Celina Jacobson alerted me to a new article titled "10 Gender Stereotypes That Science Supports" that appears on the web site she works with.

The premise of the article is that "While on a whole, men and women are very similar both in their brains and in their abilities, there are some stereotypes that have held strong for a reason– because they are very often true. With new research, now there may even be modern medical science to back them up."

The article is an interesting read and I recommend it.

What I discovered personally interesting was that I found myself on the female side of seven of the gender stereotypes. Regarding the three remaining stereotypes, I could fall on either side of the driving skills and pain tolerance stereotypes, whereas I definitely fall on the male side of the drinking prowess stereotype, but I think that has more to do with my size than anything else (I am a big woman).

It all just affirms my belief that I am a woman.

gay marriage's transgender loophole

California allows a woman to marry another woman -- only because she was born a man, according to Tracy Clark-Flory’s “Broadsheet” article in today’s Salon. 

What Will Men Wear When Women Wear Trousers? - Part 4 of 4

Embracing my own role reversal

I truly believe what I have written in this four-part series.

Part 1 is historic fact - you can look it up.

Part 2 is also factual -- current events that I have witnessed and continue to witness -- but factual nonetheless.

Part 3 is conjecture on my part based on the trends I described in Parts 1 and 2. Some readers may feel that Part 3 sounds like something out of Fictionmania. Maybe so.

I can clearly remember when the thoughts of role reversal first entered my mind back in the early 1960s. Back then, the state of gender roles today was unimaginable.

Do you remember Cracked magazine? It was a Mad magazine imitation and when I could afford it, I would purchase a copy if there was no new issue of Mad to buy.

An article in Cracked issue #26, dated November 1962, titled "The Gradual Change in Men’s Fashions" had a profound effect on me.

The introduction to the article read, "Through the ages, female fashions have changed with incredible speed. A woman would buy a dress one day and the following morning, it would be out of style. It seems men’s apparel has gone through change also, but at a slower rate. Only recently, has the male really asserted himself in fashion.

"Cracked magazine would like to show what might happen if this trend in men’s apparel continues to gain momentum. Advertising, style, and products would all show the effects of competition with the women’s industry."

The article went on to predict what would happen in the future as the change in men's fashions accelerated. As a budding femulator in 1962, the article fascinated me and I wondered if any of its predictions would ever occur in my lifetime. I hoped that they would occur, but I doubted that they would.

It turned out that almost every prediction made in that article came true! Here are the predictions:

--- Men's slip-on shoes would morph into high-heeled and platformed styles that resemble women's high heel pumps with thicker heels.

--- Men's aftershave products would morph into men's perfumes or "colognes" as the manly men prefer to call it.

--- New products would be available for the male consumer: hand creams ("to keep your hands silky smooth" and "prevent dishpan hands"), hair color ("does he or doesn't he?"), a variety of hair shampoos and conditioners, underpants in a variety of colors, styles, and fabrics.

--- "Hair styles will alter greatly!" according to Cracked and they certainly did. In 1962, most males wore short hair. Need I describe the evolution of men's hair styles since then?

The article also predicted that "Men’s Fashion Ad Illustrations Will Shift." To demonstrate this, the article presented three images.

--- The first had a man, circa 1962 in a manly pose smoking a cigarette while wearing a suit and felt hat .

--- The second image labeled "Tomorrow" showed a thin man with a longer hair style wearing a short-sleeved shirt while smoking a pipe. His pose would be considered masculine, but he stood next to a flowery wall panel that feminized the image.

--- The third image labeled "Day after Tomorrow" showed another thin model in a unmanly pose wearing a striped T-shirt, a style that was not considered masculine in 1962.

--- The article concluded that "Social Customs Will Be Remodeled." It predicted that men will gossip (true), women will give up seats to men (untrue), men will go to bargain sales (true), women will dress alike (untrue), women will act like men (true to some extent), and women will make passes at men (true). (I used some of the images that accompanied this part of the article in Part 3 yesterday.)

And consider the things that the article missed that were totally out of the picture in 1962, but are male consumer items today: jewelry, purses, makeup, girdles, pantyhose, leggings, etc.

Some of my predictions may seem off-the-wall today, but who would have predicted ten years ago that a 21st Century female would ask a male for his hand in marriage, present him with an engagement ring, and after the wedding, the male would drop his surname for hers?

You never know!

Anyway, I recently read another fictional story about a guy, who loses a bet and has to live as a female.

Turns out that the guy enjoys living as a gal. One thing leads to another and he attends a meeting of the local crossdresser's support group.

During the meeting, one of the leaders of the group addresses the attendees.

"As more and more women become the leaders of our society and the breadwinners of our families, we have to fill the vacancies left by the women. Living in the 21th Century, it is our duty to serve. We must become the caregivers, the nurturers, and the housewives in the new women's world.

"As crossdressers, we already are well on our way to becoming the wives in the woman's world. So why not drop the other shoe and start living openly and full-time as a feminine male. By doing so, we will serve as role models of the new male and lead the way for other males to accept their place in the new world."

Wow! That's inspiring. I couldn't have said that better myself.

I believe that every time I go out en femme, I am making it easier for my sister femulators to go out en femme. The more of us that go out en femme makes it possible for more of us to go out en femme as the public becomes acclimated to seeing us.

Our public femulation may also persuade our sisters who are on the brink to come out en femme, too. How many of us were guys for the longest time before we finally sucked it up and acted on our pent up desire to be gals? How many potential gals will never be able to suck it up until they are encouraged to do so by seeing their sisters out there?

And if the world becomes a woman's domain, even better because we will fit right in.

What Will Men Wear When Women Wear Trousers? - Part 3

Roll out the role reversal

Are we on the brink of a gender role reversal?

If the changes in society (described in Part 2) continue on their current path, I expect that in the near future, females will control both the public sectors and the private sectors of our society.

Females will have broken through the old glass ceiling. In its place will be a new glass ceiling that will confront the males who do not have the education nor the status required to compete with females.

As a result, males in the workplace will be stuck with the jobs shunned by the better educated females or they will be working-in-homes-fathers (WIHFs) doing the cooking, cleaning, and child-rearing as females used to do.

Females will probably dress the same as they do today, that is, they will wear some kind of bifurcated clothing most of the time, but they will have the option to wear a skirt or a dress whenever they feel like it.

On the other hand, boys will dress to please and attract a female mate, that is, they will dress to expose and show off their physical assets, which they can best accomplish by wearing tight, revealing, skimpy, and sexy styles of clothing, similar to what females wore when they were in the same position.

When women become the dominant gender, they will act like the dominant gender. They will be strong, self-confident, courageous, assertive, vigorous, bold, virile, and loud (traits that we see in many females already).

Meanwhile, the subservient males will act like the subservient gender, that is, boys will be gentle, weak, submissive, passive, delicate, and soft-spoken (traits that we see in some boys – especially young boys – today).

There will be a turnabout in the gender roles. To what extent the turnabout goes depends on the females; they will be in control and it is entirely up to them how boys will fit in the woman's world.

For example, will females write males out of the Constitution just as females were excluded when the Constitution was originally drafted? Thus, males would lose the right to vote, hold public office, own property, speak freely, etc.; they would become their female’s chattel.

Another example, will female scientists develop a way for males to give birth and rid females of that burden? If male pregnancies are possible, will male breasts be able to become heavy with milk to feed their newborns?

Will the full-breasted male mother define the profile of the post modern male, which will lead fashion-conscious males to seek breast implants?

These and many other questions remain to be answered when the role reversal occurs.

(Part 4 of "What Will Men Wear When Women Wear Trousers?" will appear here tomorrow.)

What Will Men Wear When Women Wear Trousers? - Part 2

When the other shoe drops, it will be a high heel pump.

The predictions of the anti-suffrage propagandists described in Part 1 did not come to pass.

Or did they?

In the U.S., females got the vote in 1919, but they did not immediately drop their skirts and pull up trousers. A female in trousers was a rarity until World War II. During the war, switching from skirts to trousers was a practical choice for females who worked in factories in place of males who were fighting the war.

When females entered the workforce, they not only discovered fashion freedom, but they also discovered financial freedom, which decreased or eliminated their dependency on males for financial support.

After the war, females continued to work and wear trousers as a fashion choice. During the second half of the 20th Century, the popularity of bifurcated female clothing grew steadily.

Today, females wear pants more often than not. I know young females who do not own a skirt or a dress. My female boss has worn a skirted garment to work only once and that was on a "casual dress" day of all days! At all other times, she wears something bifurcated.

Meanwhile, on the male fashion front, most males continued wearing bifurcated garments.

Beginning in the 1960s (at about the time that the woman's liberation movement was put into motion), fashion designers began testing the waters of skirted male garments.

Every few years, a fashion designer or two would introduce skirts for boys. Each time, there would be some (or sometimes a lot of) press coverage about the new male fashion, but that was the extent of it because few males bought into wearing skirts.

Since the turn of the century, there has been a change because females are on the ascent, while males are on the descent.

In the last 30 years, females have replaced males in the workforce at an accelerating rate. This rate will continue to accelerate because more females graduate from college than boys do, so more qualified females will continue to replace the less qualified boys.

Females have the momentum, while the old boys are fighting to protect the status quo, i.e., the old status quo.

We are now experiencing the first generation of working in home fathers (WIHFs). The wihf movement started slowly, but gained momentum as the ascent of females gained momentum.

During the recent recession, more males lost jobs than females and during the recovery, fewer males were able to return to work than females. So even more boys resigned themselves to being a wihf, while more females became the sole financial support of their families.

As a result, there is a growing number of youths, who lived in families where the female was the breadwinner and the male was the homemaker. That is all they know and as a result, those young females believe that it is their duty to be the breadwinner, while those young males believe that being a wihf is in their future.

So, why should a young male bother going to college? All a boy has to do is bide his time and work at some job until a female takes him for her wihf. This is not a fantasy - witness the recent "fad" that finds females asking boys to marry them while presenting their future wihf with an engagement ring. And many a wihf has acknowledged his status in his relationship to his spouse by taking her surname when he marries.

To further affirm the ascent of females, our "father figures" are now female. A few generations ago, Walter Cronkite was America' s father figure. Today, Katie Couric sits in Walter's seat and her sisters proliferate the anchor seats in the majority of America's newsrooms.

And you betcha that it won't be long before a female is president.

Getting back to the fashion designers... they are a persistent bunch. They kept on testing the waters of "skirts for males" and finally, some boys took the bait.

This success spurred designers to offer even more feminized fashions for boys and the past few seasons have been full of runways with male models wearing skirts, dresses, and other items borrowed from milady's wardrobe.

Males also began wearing makeup, perfume, pantyhose, panties, girdles, bras, purses, etc. They might call these items by different names in order to give them a more masculine identity, but a "murse" by any other name is still a purse.

Admittedly, the number of males adopting these styles is in the minority, but the minority is growing, especially among the male youth. Boys now want to look attractive (in order to attract a mate). As more boys realize that their station in life is to attract a female in order to become her wihf, they will buy into the new feminized definition of masculinity.

Who would have thought that males would remove all their body hair because it fits the new definition? But there are products like Nair for males that are intended to remove body hair, not just leg hair.

Personally, what really surprises me are male high heels. If I had to choose the last feminine item that males would adopt as their own, I would have picked high heels just ahead of male tampons. But fashionable boys are wearing high heel pumps right off the shelves of the ladies' side of the shoe stores. If you don't believe me, visit the High Heels for Men blog to be convinced.

On my recent visits to New York City, I witnessed feminized male fashions everywhere, which is no surprise in the Big Apple. But, I have also noticed a growing number of boys in the suburbs of Connecticut dressing in a more feminine style.

Things are changing slowly, but steadily.

Meanwhile, the designers are in a frenzy fielding feminized male fashions like never before. The recent seasons have seen the runways full of boys modeling skirts, dresses and other feminine apparel.

The designers are trying to give boys more choices, but a lot of the choices are skirted. When a boy goes shopping in the near future, he may find nothing but skirted clothing for sale.

Visit The New Male Fashion blog to see what I mean.

(Part 3 of "What Will Men Wear When Women Wear Trousers?" will appear here tomorrow.)

What Will Men Wear When Women Wear Trousers? – Part 1

In the early 20th Century, anti-suffrage propaganda suggested that if women obtained the right to vote, they would not stop there; soon they would displace males in society and become the dominant gender relegating males to secondary status in society, that is, the subservient role previously occupied by females.

For example, an anti-suffrage postcard asked, “What will men wear when women wear (trousers)?”

A German postcard provided the answer. Titled “Modern Marriage,” it depicts a female wearing trousers standing besides a male wearing a dress. The female is holding a hairbrush in an intimidating manner as if she is threatening her spouse to keep him in line, meanwhile, the man is nursing a baby.

Another German postcard titled “Pictures from the Women's State,” portrays various scenes as the matriarchy makes progress in a post-suffrage world.

The left side of the postcard contains images of wives disciplining hapless husbands. In the upper image, a wife threatens her husband with a carpet beater, while he stands in the middle of broken crockery. In the lower image, a wife has her husband over her knee and is spanking him with a shoe, while their smiling daughter looks on being educated about the relationship of females and males in the post-suffrage world.

The caption accompanying the image in the center of the postcard reads, “While the women will wear trousers, the men will wear none at all.” The accompanying drawing shows two dapper women wearing suits with trousers. The women also wear hats (one a top hat, the other a felt hat), carry canes, smoke (one a cigar, the other a pipe), and have short hairstyles. Also, the cigar-smoking woman wears a monocle.

Standing nearby are two post-suffrage males in ankle-length dresses. One male wears a picture hat that matches his dress, which is trimmed with ruffles and lace. He also carries a purse. The other male is lifting the side of his dress slightly to reveal a blue petticoat (blue is for boys).

The scenes on the right side of the postcard depicts further role reversal. The upper image shows a female in a suit with a bowtie carrying her top hat and cane in one hand and a smoking pipe in the other. She is dressed like a professional and is either on her way to the office or returning home. Her husband stands by wearing a yellow blouse and red skirt while holding a baby.

The lower image shows two female chimney sweeps. Perhaps one is married to the househusband in the scene or maybe they have been hired by the househusband’s wife to clean the chimney. The househusband, in a white blouse and red skirt, stands over a wooden tub doing the laundry.

Postcards predicting the ascent of females and the fall of males were typical of the era. I have seen hundreds of postcards from that era sending the same message, but the postcard on the right kind of says it all:

Woman is doing the work of man,
So She’ll wear the trousers, if she can,
And it’s quite easy to prophecy,
What Pa will look like, by and by.

As you know, the anti-suffrage propaganda did not work. Females got the vote.

Folks viewing the propaganda today may find it quaint and amusing. But before you dismiss the anti-suffrage message consider the modern image on the right. Except for the updated wardrobes, there’s not much difference with the postcard above it, is there?

(Part 2 of "What Will Men Wear When Women Wear Trousers?" will appear here tomorrow.)

And, by the way, you can click on any image to enlarge it.

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.

genderfork and the boy-chick

I came upon Genderfork a few days ago and added it to my blog list.

Genderfork announces that it "explores androgyny and gender variance through artistic photography and other neat stuff."

And it is definitely "neat," but what interested me even more is that it is youth-oriented, more so than a blog like Femulate, which seems to attract a more mature crowd (not that there is anything wrong with that).

Genderfork provides an outlet for the young gender variant crowd, which I think is absolutely wonderful.

I am a little jealous because when I was young, there were no outlets for gender variant kids like me. For all I knew back then, there was something very wrong with me, so I kept my "problem" closeted for a very long time.

I wonder where I would be today if I was able to openly express my gender variance when I was young. Maybe I would have become a professional female impersonator. Maybe I would be living as a female 24/7. Maybe... maybe... maybe...

Anyway, I am very happy for today's kids. They have opportunities I never had and hopefully, they will use those opportunities to live their lives as they desire, not as society desires.

What is it that makes a woman?

For his final year degree show at London South Bank University, Lee Slaymaker asks, "What is it that makes a woman? Or for that matter a man? Gender is often argued to be a social construction, free of the constraints of biological sex, with the result being that the term ‘woman’ may just as easily be applied to a feminine male subject as it is to a female one."

For the project, Mr. Slaymaker created three photographic images titled The Woman As Homemaker, The Woman As Sexual Object, and The Woman As Chef (photo above).

In each photo, a male inhabits the feminine role, "thus calling in to question the rigidity of socially accepted notions of the gender binary: not only do these images seek to challenge representations of the feminine gender but also those of the male subject."

To see the entirety of Mr. Slaymaker's project, click here.

good luck raising that gender-neutral child

In this interesting Salon article, Lise Eliot explains how slight biological differences in boys and girls can turn into a yawning divide in adults.