All Play and No Work Makes Jack a Dull Girl

Lavern Cummings

I received an e-mail from Carollyn in response to my "who would I want to femulate?" post. She picked female impersonator Lavern Cummings as the woman she would femulate.

Carollynn wrote, "She was amazing and an icon among the female impersonators. I could never imagine, when I was a teen, how beautiful a man could be when dressed as a woman... and what a performer too."

I was similarly amazed as a pre-teen when I first saw photos of the female impersonators (in newspaper ads for New York City's Club 82). Today, having achieved a somewhat passable female presentation myself, I am less amazed. It is just a lot of hard work.

Just like anything else, if you want to achieve something, you have to work at it. To be a successful femulator, just putting on a dress and lipstick will not cut it. You have to study the subject thoroughly, practice what you have learned in your studies, then go back and study some more.

Just like a woman, you have to become an expert in cosmetics, fashions, hair care, etc. You have to follow fashion trends and read fashion magazines.

In addition, as a man trying to be a woman, you have to become an expert in impersonating a woman and learn all the tricks on how to hide the guy and bring out the gal. And once you achieve the look of a woman, you have to learn how to act, walk, move, speak and have mannerisms like a woman. And you have to practice, practice and practice some more.

I am sure that Miss Cummings did not become a femme fatale overnight ― she had to work at it.

And yes, it's a lot of hard work. But the first time a woman compliments you on the way you look or when a man makes a pass at you, you will feel wonderful beyond compare and know it was worth it.

Wearing Boston Proper.

Michael Nesmith femulates in an episode of television's The Monkees (1966-1968).

Mother and Daughter

My Mother's Daughter

Yesterday, I mentioned that Kim Kardashian is someone I would not want to femulate. That begs the
question, who would I want to femulate?

Over the years, there have been many.

Early on, Jacqueline Kennedy, Jean Shrimpton and April Ashley inspired me. Later on it was Jacqueline Bisset and Jaclyn Smith. Today, Elizabeth Banks, Kate Beckinsale and Olivia Wild are very femulatable. And old movie stars still inspire me today: Ann Sheridan, Hedy Lamarr, Dana Wynter and Janet Leigh to name a few.

Marian commented a short list of her favorites including actress Katherine Heigl.

It has been awhile since I watched a Katherine Heigl film, but over the weekend, I happened to catch two: Knocked Up and Killers. They reminded me how beautiful and voluptuous she is, which is atypical for actresses these days who tend to be anorexic thin.

Today, Katherine Heigl is probably near the top of my list of women I would want to femulate.

Then there is my mother.

A beautiful woman in many ways, she is easier to femulate than my other inspirations because I look a lot like her. If we were ever seen together, there would be no doubt that we were mother and daughter.

Wearing ISSA.

Actor Marty Thomas femulating on stage in Pageant - The Musical (2014).

Another Heroine

My transgender heroines are no-surgery, no-hormone transwoman who identify as either transsexual or transvestite, live full time or part time as women, and more importantly, do not hide their male roots. For example, people like Paul Whitehead, Grayson Perry,  Andrej Pejic, Miqqi Gilbert and Eddie Izzard among others are my heroines.

They are who I want to be.

I recently discovered another: Vladimir Luxuria (photo above) who, according to Wikipedia, "is an Italian actress, writer, politician and television host" and "the first openly transgender member of Parliament in Europe, and the world's second openly transgender MP."

"Although Luxuria lives exclusively as a female, she has not undergone sex change surgery and she remains legally male. She has stated on occasion that she perceives herself as neither male nor female."

Me, too.

 

 

 

Wearing Badgley Mischka.

 

 

 

A womanless beauty pageant contestant (2014).

Inspirational

While waiting to wait on my wife, I sat down in front of the telly, smoothed out the skirts of my maid's uniform and turned on the set to see what I could see. I came upon Heartbreakers, a film about a mother and daughter team of gold diggers. It is an amusing film and features some delicious outfits worn by the gold diggers, Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt. And Ms. Weaver's rendition of Back in the U.S.S.R. is worth the price of admission.

Sigourney Weaver has always been an inspiration to me because we have some things in common.

She is two years older and two inches shorter than me, and like me, she is not exactly waif-like. Her measurements and mine are exactly the same proportionally when I am girded properly. And although she is a senior citizen like me, she does not dress like a senior citizen, nor look like one.

I know I will never be mistaken for Sigourney Weaver, but she is someone worth femulating for big girls like me.

Professional femulator Michelle DuBarry (left) poses with The Gream Imposters,
one of Toronto's original professional femulator troupes (circa 1970).

 

Wearing Wow Couture.

Inspiration

The 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination is coming up and the media is commemorating the event in many various ways. I was just 12-years-old at the time, but I was very political even then and JFK was my hero. I campaigned for him as best as a kid could and I was thrilled to see him in person both times he visited my hometown of Waterbury. JFK was my hero, but Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy was my idol. During that time, girls and boys with girlish inclinations were fascinated by the Jackie's beauty, style and grace. We all wanted to be just like her. I never wanted to grow up to be President, I wanted to grow up to be First Lady and I femulated her for Halloween one year. Jackie was not only a fashion plate, she was also a style-setter. I recall in 1967 that people were scandalized by a news photo of Jackie wearing a skirt that revealed about six inches of leg above the knee. How could a woman of her stature and a certain age (she was 38) dress like that? What a floozy! But next thing you know, everywhere you looked, fashionable women of a certain age were wearing skirts with hems hovering well above the knees. She was classy and elegant until the very end. What an inspiration!

 

Professional femulator Steven Brinberg as Barbra Streisand.

 

Wearing Yoanna Baraschi.