More Women at Work

Two Femulate readers went to work as women on Halloween, Alison and Patty O. Their stories follow and their photos are below in the Femulator slot.

Alison

I decided to partake in what I affectionately call, "Take Your Authentic Gender To Work Day." I dressed en femme as Alison. I wore a long skirt from Dress Barn, along with a two-layer top by Studio 1940. My shoes were simple black flats, along with knee socks. And since it was Halloween, I wore earrings that looked like jack o' lanterns. The accompanying picture was taken by our office manager.

Since I had an issue to take care of at a transmitter site (I'm a broadcast engineer), I initially wore my usual boy "costume" in the morning. But I when I got back to the office before noon, I changed into my "office girl" outfit. In the afternoon, I attended a small Halloween party in the break room. The reactions from my co-workers was all positive and supportive.

After leaving work at the end of the day, I stopped to get gas. Then as previously arranged, picked up my wife at home and we went out for dinner at a local Mexican restaurant.

I can hardly wait until next Halloween to be able to do this again!

Patty O

Like Stana, I love to dress at work on Halloween. After doing it for several years, it’s fun to see how accepting my colleagues are. The women accept me as a part of their conversations, complimenting me on my makeup, and admiring my boots and skirt. Even the guys are more accepting.

Usually for Halloween I dress up in a costume that I might wear as a woman at work, so I’ve dressed in Goth black, and Junior High School Assistant principal skirt suit (now that is scary!), but this year I decided to just dress as I would have as a woman in my job. I spent a few days watching what the other women were wearing and decided that I would dress on the femme side of average. I chose a classic suede skirt and found some boots on sale at DSW, I’m still looking for a perfect tight sweater to show off my curves better and I see a shopping trip in my future.

One of my fashionista friends commented that my look reminded her of her 4th grade teacher. That made me smile since I am a teacher, then she added "...and I thought she dressed sexy." That made me laugh out loud. I find I smile and laugh a lot when I’m dressed.

On my way home I stopped at my local mall to browse the stores. I noticed that I was being checked out by other shoppers and sales associates as well and received warm smiles and hellos. I also swung by my hair salon to show off my look. The stylsts beamed with pleasure when they finally figured out who I was. My usual stylist loved my choice of hair style. The women in the chairs beamed wonderful smiles at me as well.

It was another fun day en femme and it makes me look forward to more in the future.

Wearing Lucky dress and booties.

Alison at work

Patty O at work

Woman at Work: Final Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed my live blog yesterday. The extraordinary high hit count (almost 8,000 pageviews) indicates that many of you checked back to keep up with the progress of my day. I thank you for your loyalty and interest.

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On the way home from work, I stopped by the Meriden Westfield mall. This once vibrant mall has declined like so many other malls and it was depressing to be there.

Since I bought a new dress and suit at Dress Barn during lunch, I really was not looking for more clothes. Rather, I was looking to buy something to address a skin issue I have. So I went to Ulta for a solution, but all they offered was something to hide the  issue rather than correct it.

Next, I looked for help at the makeup counters in Macy's, but I could not find a sales associate to assist me. So I high-heeled it out of there and drove home.

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When I arrived home, I tried on the suit that I bought at Dress Barn. Ever since I walked out of the store with that suit, I had buyer's remorse. Usually, I don't like the way I look in suits and I was not completely sold when I tried the new suit on in Dress Barn. But I was caught up in the moment and bought the suit anyway.

Trying the suit on at home confirmed my doubts and I will return it today for a refund.

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So why do I do go to work presenting as a woman on Halloween?

As I wrote last year, I love doing it, but there is a small ray of hope that someday I will be able to go to work (and go everywhere else) as a woman all the time. My Halloween fling is a test for me and my co-workers for when that wonderful day finally arrives and I think we all passed.

Wearing Eloquii.

Contestants in a North Carolina womanless beauty pageant in 1955.

Live Blog: Woman At Work

I should start live-blogging around 8 AM EDST.

8:10 AM POST

I got ready in record time!

Out the door at 6:50 AM. If I went straight to work, I would be about 20 minutes later than my normal arrival at 7, but I had to stop at the gas station to fill up.

I went to the gas station I normally go to. There were no other customers, so I pulled up to the gas pump I usually use, filled up and walked inside to pay up.

The woman who runs the place recognized my car, so she knew who I was underneath my feminine finery, but she said I looked "spectacular" and that she would date me!

I drove to work and arrived at 7:30. Walked in unnoticed, dropped my computer bag in my cubicle and went to the ladies' room to check my self out.

Then I went to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee. There I encountered two male co-workers. One jokingly called me "honey" and asked if I was going to Walmart during lunch. My retort was that I was going to Dress Barn!

9:15 AM POST

10:00 AM POST

Friend who knows that I am trans stopped by to see if I was presenting as a woman today. He was happy to see my outfit and remarked that everyone expects me to show up on Halloween en femme.
I said, " I would never let them down!"

The fellow who is in the next cubicle walked by my cube on the way to his and then returned to remark that every year when he walks by my cube on Halloween morning, he wonders who is using my cube!

The director of engineering walked by and remarked that I looked good and that I outdo myself every year.

I am wearing dangly earrings today and each time I move my head, I hear them jangle. I love it!

10:40 AM POST

I stopped by the office of the senior vice president's administrator. She is one of the few women in this location (there are 7 counting myself). She loves my outfits and is someone I would feel very comfortable coming out to.

When I stepped into her office, she said she was just coming over to see me because she was dying to know what I was wearing today. I did not disappoint her ― she loved my outfit.

I can't believe how fast the morning is flying by. I am very busy doing work and very busy being a fashionista!

12:45 PM POST

I did go to Dress Barn during lunch. But before I did, I visited their website to see if there was anything to die for. And I found this: a Cable Knit Buckle Sweater Dress.

I fell in love with the dress and drove to the nearby Dress Barn with hopes of scoring the dress. As I walked into the store, I immediately spotted a rack containing that dress, found a size 16 and asked a sales associate to open a dressing room to try it on.

The sales associate was Laura, a woman who has waited on me many times at Dress Barn. Like an old girlfriend, she asked me how I had been and made some small talk as she escorted me to a dressing room.

The dress fit like a glove, so I hung it on the Buy rack.

Laura asked me if there was anything else I'd like to look at and I mentioned that I needed a suit.

She worked with me as I tried on different sizes of skirts and blazers. Eventually, we ended up with a size 16W blazer and a size 14 skirt... both in black and very professional-looking.

A different sales associate rang up my order and with all the coupons and Dress Barn perks I had, I saved over 1/3 off the sales price. While she was ringing me up, she complimented me on my dangly earrings while we chatted about buying more fashions than we can wear.

Then I drove back to work.

1:30 PM POST

It is a quiet afternoon.

A few co-workers stopped by after lunch to check me out. One fellow asked if I brought flats to walk the parking lot (three loops of the lot is a mile). I did bring flats just in case, but my outerwear (a light cape) is inadequate for the weather conditions (50°F with a steady 15 MPH wind), so I told him I would not be walking today.

By the way, approaching hour 7 in heels and my tootsies are fine, although I admit that during 6 of those 7 hours. I have been sitting.

I plan to stop at the mall on the way home. Macy's and Ulta are calling out to me.

2:10 PM POST

Pat asked what shoes I am wearing, so here is a run-down on everything I am wearing: JustFab black sweater dress, Payless nude Janine pointy toe high heels, Berkshire nude thigh high stockings, Avon silver necklace, bracelet and watch, dangly silver clip-on earrings (have no idea where they came from) and unmentionable shapewear undies.

2:50 PM POST

Stana is leaving the building, so this will be my last live blog post. I will catch up with you all later.

Wearing Self Portrait.

Stephen Carr femulates in a 1952 episode of television's Adventures of Superman.

Counting

The Mean Gurls at Hamshire (TX) High School in 2010. 

The Femulate hit counter at the bottom of the right sidebar broke the 12 million mark this past week!

I have had the StatCounter hit counter running on this blog since the first post. I am not sure what goes on behind the scenes at StatCounter, but they claim the blog has had 12,000,000 hits.

On the other hand, Blogger counts "pageviews" and according to their current count, Femulate has had 13,169,090 pageviews.

So, I guess Femulate has had about 12 or 13 million hits/pageviews, give or take a million.

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Speaking of counting, I counted ten pounds less on the bathroom scale this morning. My goal is to lose ten pounds more and two or four dress sizes.

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Meanwhile, I counted 32 new files in Starla's collection of womanless high school doings.

Long-time Femulate readers will recall the huge collection of womanless  images that Starla clipped from online high school yearbooks in the past. She sent all her findings to me on a regular basis and I mentioned them here, then posted them on flickr. 

Starla took a break in mid-2015 and I did not hear from her until recently when she began sending me womanless images as she found them. I collected her new findings and have uploaded them to flickr.

You may view the new photos in two ways:

Method 1: Open one of the Yearbooks sets (A through Z) and you will find the newest uploads at the end/bottom of the set. (The oldest uploads appear at the beginning/top of the set.)

Method 2: Open this photostream and you will find the newest uploads at the top of page 1. The uploads get older as the page numbers get higher with the oldest uploads on the last page. 

By the way, the contents of the Yearbook A through Z sets are organized according to school name, for example, the photos from Sacred Heart High School would be in the Yearbooks S set.

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Don't forget that the Femulate At Work is counting down to Monday when I will attempt a live blog during my day at work as a woman.

I hope that like me, you will enjoy your weekend depilating in preparation for a Halloween femulation!

So Veet on!

Wearing A.L.C.

Nino Manfredi femulates in the 1966 Italian film Adultery Italian Style.

Live Blog Monday

My favorite working girl photo.

Monday is Halloween (as if you didn't know) and I plan to go to work as a woman for the fifth consecutive Halloween (seven Halloweens overall).

Like last year, I will attempt a "live blog." I will compose and post blog entries and photos throughout the day so that you will know how my day at work as a woman progresses.

The gang at work now expects Stana to show up on October 31 and I will not let them down (as if someone had to twist my arm). My feminine appearance does not garner the attention that it did in earlier appearances, but it is the one day at work that I can be me and I will not miss the opportunity.

Wearing Tanya Taylor.

The ten finalists in the 2016 Queen USA transgender beauty pageant.

Woman at Work: Wrap-Up

Three people noticed I was wearing a new wig, but no one 

noticed that I was wearing new glasses with burgundy 

colored frames!

I received a lot of positive comments about doing the live blog on Friday and plan to do it again if the opportunity arises and it makes sense to do it. Internet access is the key to doing it successfully, so doing it at work was a perfect scenario.

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Most of the live blog posts were short and I want to expand on what I wrote on Friday, so here goes!

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In the 10:05 AM Post, I mentioned attending a “gemba.”  When it was my turn to speak, I said “I had nothing” because I had no news regarding my part of the project under discussion. 

The moderator of the gemba, our Director of Engineering, asked me, “Are you sure there’s nothing you want to add?” 

Knowing him as long as I have, I am sure he was teasing me about my “costume.”

Anyway, after a long pause, I said, “No”, but after I thought about it, I wish I had said, “I guess you all figured out by now that I am transgender.” 

That would have been a gemba they would be talking about for years to come!

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When I went to show myself to my boss, I found her in her boss’s office (my boss and her boss are women and both know I am transgender, but now that I think about it, I bet that they don’t know that the other one knows because I came out to them separately).

Anyway, they were both wild about my “costume” and my boss’s boss blurted out, “You look better than (my boss)!”

I did not notice my boss’s reaction, but I think my boss’s boss might regret what she said. 

The truth is that although my boss is pretty and is about 10 years younger, I think I can modestly say that I compare favorably to her as a woman.

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Friday as a woman was more like two days as a woman: a day as a woman at work and a day as a woman outside of work.

Outside work, I felt like an invisible woman passing unnoticed among the civilians. When I interfaced with civilians like the sales associates at Dress Barn and Macy's, they treated me like a female customer. I sometimes suspect and detect that such treatment is due to the $ in the word cu$tomer, but on Friday I think the treatment was genuine. At least it appeared genuine to me and that is what counts.

At work, everyone knows me as a guy the rest of the work year who does a good job looking like a woman one day of the year. Five co-workers know what's really up, but I don't know what the other 70 people think.

Comments like "you look too good" or "you do it too well" infer that they suspect something is going on beyond a Halloween costume. And those are just the folks like our CEO on Friday, who are vocal to my face about it. Others probably have similar opinions, but keep their thoughts to themselves or amongst themselves.

Whatever their thoughts, they all seem fine with me. I have an excellent relationship with everyone in my office and that probably has made it easier for them to accept me or put up with me during my one day per year fling as a woman.

So why do I do it?

Of course, I love doing it, but there is a small ray of hope that someday I will be able to go to work (and go everywhere else) as a woman all the time. My Halloween fling is a test for me and my co-workers for when that wonderful day finally arrives and I think we all passed. 

Actor Alex Newell on the red carpet at the RuPaul's Drag Race party, February 2014.

Live Blog: Woman At Work

8:03 AM Post:

Up at 5 AM. Took care of the menagerie and began the transformation at 5:35.

I took my time doing my makeup (slow, but steady), so it took a little longer getting ready.

Out the door at 7:05 and I arrived at work at 7:40.

Although I only mentioned that I would be a woman at work to my boss, no one is surprised and expected me to do it.

8:30 AM Post:

When I walked in the building this morning, I asked our receptionist to take some photos. Here is one:

8:45 AM Post:

Three people noticed that I am wearing a new wig!

8:48 AM Post:

The receptionist just called me "Staci," which is the name I used before switching to Stana. She also asked me how I tied my scarf and I gladly showed her.

9:15 AM Post:

There is a bit of a lull here, so here is another photo (sans glasses and cape) taken by the guy who sits in a cube adjacent to me. Instead of an iPhone, he used a Canon digital SLR camera.

10:05 AM Post:

I just attended a "gemba" (reps from various departments stand in a circle and update the group about the status of a project). The Director of Engineering ran this gemba and called me "Caitlyn." He is always impressed with my "costume" and was impressed again this year.

A few other people did wear costumes today. 

10:20 AM Post:

A number of women complimented me on my outfit and they love my shoes (I do, too)! They are also amazed on how well I navigate in them... just like a woman.

I bought these shoes from Nine West two years ago, but I never had the opportunity to wear them until now because I did not have an outfit that went with them.

So far, they have been very comfortable despite their 4-inch heel.

11:05 AM Post:

Going to Dress Barn in a little while. The sales associates wanted to see how the dress they sold me on Monday looks on me today.

12:35 PM Post:

I went to Dress Barn and the sales associates who sold me the dress on Monday were not in the store; they work later in the day today.

Not to waste a Dress Barn visit, I browsed the racks and took a half dozen items to the dressing room. Some things looked and fit better than others. 

One dress fit perfectly and looked great: a simple figure-hugging black sheath dress with a gold front zipper that makes the dress. I bought the dress and returned to work.

1:00 PM Post:

As I got ready to leave Dress Barn, my feet started complaining loudly and when I got to my car, I switched to my black medium height wedges. 

1:15 PM Post:

Another lull, so it is time for another photo. My boss' boss took this one on her iPhone as I stood in her office doorway. 

1:53 PM Post:

It is very quiet here. Friday afternoon and things are winding down.

I am very tired. I went to bed late watching the Patriots, got up early to femulate and did not sleep that well in-between because I was excited about today. 

One of my biggest fans here just stopped in to ask me how it is going. He goes out of his way to use the proper pronouns when I am a woman and he once said that I missed my calling and should have been a professional female impersonator.

2:50 PM Post:

This will probably be my last live post for awhile because I am leaving work and going to the mall to shop for a new evening gown. My next post will probably be from home this evening.

7:30 PM Post:

I was successful at Macy's at the mall. I bought a Connected sequin-lace cowl-neck sheath in purple. The photo on the website does not do the dress justice; the sequin is not apparent in the photo, but it makes the dress in person.

My feet had recovered by the time I arrived at the mall and I switched back to heels for my mall tour.

I am going to bed early tonight. I am exhausted!

Live Blog Tomorrow

Friday, Halloween Eve, I plan to go to work as a woman as I have done the previous three Halloweens.

Last year, I composed blog entries throughout the day and posted them all in a single blog post afterwards. This year, I will attempt a "live blog," that is, as well as composing blog entries throughout the day, I will also post them throughout the day, so that you will get a better feel as to how my day at work as a woman in going.

And, yes, I will post photos, too!