Intriguing Internet Images

Coco Layne's "Warpaint," a photo project about gender
presentation within the masculine and feminine spectrum

"Just A Boy" by TraeCrae

Wearing a dress in a Los Angeles jail, circa 1945

Gender Switch Day

Professional femulator Jimmy James as Marilyn Monroe
in Greg Gorman's 1990 L.A. Eyeworks campaign

Beautiful Boy George

Wearing Venus.

Andrew Semuel, male womenswear model

FF femulating Kate Bush on Portugal television's Your Face Sounds Familiar.

Treasure Hunt

Frequent on-screen femulator John Ritter
in a 1977 episode of The Love Boat.

Writing this blog is not all there is to writing this blog.

Daily, I search the usual suspect websites for new trans-related stuff that I can use here. That search includes looking for new images to fill the Femulator slot down below.

New femulation images are plentiful. Seems like every guy in the world who has a craving to be girly is giving into those urges and dressing en femme. And they take selfies of the event for posterity and post them on the Internet for little old me to grab.

Old femulation images are not so plentiful, but I do manage to find a new old nugget here and there.

What surprises me is uncovering old femulation images from the movies. By now, I thought I had unearthed every femulation that has ever been recorded on film, but then a new one shows up and I know my work is not done.

For example, today's Femulator image is one I found a few days ago. In this case, the femulator is actor Jack Haley, who is famous for playing the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz.

I don't know about you, but I always found Mr. Haley to look and act effeminate (not that there is anything wrong with that) and I am a little surprised that there are not more occasions en film of Mr. Haley en femme.

Which brings up another thought... What's up with males who appear frequently in roles en femme?

My take is that they are femulators off the screen, too. I know if I was in that spot, I would accept every role that allowed me to be dressed up and made up by the best talent Hollywood. But that's just me.

Wearing Brahmin.

Actor Jack Haley (right) femulating on film in George White's Scandals of 1945. 

Being a Modern Lady

Tuesday evening, I watched a new television show, a sort of a modern day My Fair Lady or Pygmalion, titled Selfie.

Here is its plot according to IMDb: "After being the subject of an embarrassing viral video, a self-involved 20-something enlists the help of a marketing expert to revamp her image in the real world."

Before her revamping, the young woman's wardrobe featured tight micro-miniskirts, revealing blouses, and sky-high heels with makeup and hairdo that reflected her wardrobe. She reminded me of some of my trans sisters and I admit that I saw some of myself in her image.

It got me thinking about my image. Is it not lady-like? Is it too immature? Too slutty? Too transy?

I can hear some of you responding, "Yes, yes, yes, yes!" But I am not so sure. I believe I am lady-like in general, but a little "if you got it, flaunt it" in a Kate Middleton way.

Just in case, I perused the Internet for assistance and turned up a couple of websites that can fine-tune being a lady: "Ten Tips for Being a Modern Lady" by Taryn Cox on The Daily Love and a wikiHow titled "How to Be a Lady."

 

 

 

Wearing Madeleine.

 

 

 

Grayson Perry, artist and femulator

Which Way?

Let’s Get Graphic!

The womanless beauty pageant photo above is from a Relay for Life event that took place in Cucamonga, California last year. The four contestants on the left are typical for this kind of event, but get a load of the contestant on the right. Wow! If she didn’t win the pageant, she was robbed.
Years ago, I participated in local Relay for Life events, but none of them had the womanless beauty pageant component. I was robbed!

If I didn’t know better, I think my mother slipped BUDS into my brassiere when I wasn’t looking! (My mother always called it a “brassiere,” never a “bra.”)

In the past, William Meldrum had some cool graphics at anokorok.deviantart.com. Sadly, that Deviantart account is gone, so there is nothing new coming our way. Nevertheless, the above is my favorite Meldrum piece.

And I close with the above graphic. Don’t you love it? It expresses my sentiments exactly.

Pinned

I visit Pinterest daily. Its cornucopia of images stimulates my creative side and occasionally it is a source of ideas for this blog. I have my own Boards on Pinterest where I pin images that I find interesting both the images of others and my own images.

Below are some transgender images that caught my eye today.

“ALICE - all boys”

Stilettos

“Boyfriend wearing my dress by theashleymartin on Flickr”

 

 
“Inadvertant Twins by prettysissydani on deviantART”

“My personal trainer, Csilla Javorszki”

 
“Pavel Arambula as a girl”

Prom Missed

Femulate Lite

I am taking some vacation time this week, so Femulate might be a little light and even invisible the next few days.

Sometimes, you don't have to ask

People occasionally ask me where I find a particular image that I have used in the blog. If I remember the source, I usually code the source information with the image so that if you mouseover the image, a pop-up will appear indicating the source.

On target

The photo at the top of this post was taken by a shopper at Target. Makes me wonder what is hanging on the racks in the Men's Department at that particular Target!

 

Tom Martelle, professional femulator, circa 1925.

 

Wearing 3.1 Phillip Lim.

Back Problems En Femme

Yearbook Femulations

As I mentioned here before, Starla regularly sends me clippings of femulations from online school yearbooks.

Today, I uploaded all 951 of her clippings to flickr, organized them, and opened the collection to the public.

This is the link to the collection. There is also a link to the collection in the left sidebar of this blog.

There are 25 sets in the collection; one set for each letter of the alphabet except X, which is a little ironic. The files are organized according to school name and include the school's location and the date of the yearbook the image came from. There are a few unknowns in the collection; if you can provide any of the missing information, please let me know.

Starla sends me new clippings frequently, so you can expect the collection to grow.

Two Weird Ones

I often search eBay looking for images that depict femulation.

Occasionally, some of the images I find are so weird that I cannot figure out what was the intention of the image or what was the image actually depicting.

I came across two such images during my eBay search this week.

Here is the first one.

It is a postcard from the 1930s or 1940s. Both persons are wearing male clothing except for their shoes, which are women's high heel pumps. The person on the right is wearing what looks like a Zoot suit. Both persons have male haircuts and both look like they are wearing makeup. "Myrtle" is folding a handkerchief, which I assume is object referred to in the text "I Know What It's For."

My guess is that the postcard depicts two female-to-male crossdressers getting ready to go out and one is telling the other that she knows what a handkerchief is for.

Does anyone have a better idea what this is all about?

The second image that baffled me this week is a photograph from the UK circa 1920.

It depicts a group of men in white dresses, hosiery, and shoes. They have men's haircuts that have been feminized by combing the hair over their ears.

The seller on eBay states that the outfits may be "women's tennis clothes," but I see no evidence of tennis equipment.

I have no clue about what this image depicts --- do you?

I'd Order A "Pink Lady"

Maybe a skirt-suit would’ve been more appropriate

Viewing "And Her, Too" in Full Screen Mode

Yesterday, I added the following note below the And Her, Too image: (Viewing in Full Screen mode is best!)

The Full Screen mode provides a big enhancement to the video. It is like the difference between night and day --- I highly recommend it.

To enter the Full Screen mode, click on the button (image above) in the lower left corner of the And Her, Too window.

To exit the Full Screen mode, press the Escape key (ESC) on your computer's keyboard.

Help Femulating

Since most us played on the other team most of our lives, femulating can be challenging. We try to be mature women, yet we are still learning the basics that young women take for granted.

Personally, I willingly accept all the help I can get. One source of help I find very useful is Ginger Burr, an image consultant, who I had the pleasure of meeting last fall. Ginger runs Total Image Consultants, an image consultant business  in the Boston area and has both cis and transgender women as clients.

Ginger also has an online presence. She writes a blog and sends out sage advice via e-mail.

Today her blog asks "Do You Have a One-Dimensional Wardrobe?"

Ginger writes, "Here’s something to ponder: There’s a fine line between ‘knowing’ yourself (for instance, feeling genuinely confident that harem pants are not for you) and ‘limiting’ yourself, and your style when it’s not necessary.

"Many women pigeon hole themselves into a prescribed way of dressing and thereby limit their options and often squelch their sense of delight. Their wardrobe becomes functional and one-dimensional — devoid of any personal style and their boredom level escalates."

I highly recommend reading the rest of the article; you can find it here.

You can also subscribe to Ginger’s e-mails here.

And may your weekend be femulating!