Yearbooks and More

I hope you are enjoying the revived flickr Yearbooks Collection. There have been nearly one million views since the Collection went live on Monday, so it seems to be a big hit.

Since I have unlimited storage, I also posted some personal photos on flickr. They are under three categories: Stana Cosmopolite, Stana Fashionista and Stana Office Girl. I will probably add more categories in the near future.

You can access all the contents of the Femulate Image Library using the links in the blog’s sidebar (under the heading Flickr Image Library.)

Wearing Joie

Lovely Phillip Sacks struts his stuff at Downey (California) High School.
A sample from our flickr Yearbooks Collection.

Thank You

Thank you so much for your generosity. 

Reader contributions to the Femulate Coffee Break! fund were sufficient to cover the Flickr Pro annual fee. So I subscribed to Flickr Pro and rebuilt the collection of photos that Starla Trimm culled from online high school yearbooks. The photos represent womanless school events from 1929 to the present – mostly womanless beauty pageants, Halloween festivities, gender bender days and stage productions.

The 4500+ photos are arranged by the name of the school and sorted into 26 albums, A to Z, but not X (there is also an Unknown Location folders for a handful of images whose location are not known).

There are some duplicates in the collection and I am slowly weeding them out.

Anyway, without further ado, click here to access the Yearbook albums.

And thank you again.

Revisiting Henri

Tropical storm Henri was a bust. Contrary to the weather forecasts, it never reached hurricane status and remained a tropical storm as it spent most of Sunday working its way across the Southern New England dumping just 1.8 inches of rain on my weather station. Its winds were not bad and we never lost power, although other parts of the state were not so lucky.

Wearing J.McLaughlin

Femulating at Pike-Delta-York High School in Delta, Ohio.
A sample from our flickr Yearbooks collection.

 

A few words about the film School for Seduction

Stana Goes to the Movies

School for Seduction is an entertaining film and I enjoyed it despite the British accent language barrier.

Here is the storyline from IMDB: “When gorgeous Italian temptress Sophia Rosselini's School for Seduction arrives in Newcastle, four friends – each hoping to release their inner sex goddess-sign up for an education in the ‘seductive arts.’ Taking their cue from sultry Sophia, the newly confident women unleash themselves upon their unsuspecting partners with lustful abandon.”

A crossdresser is also one of the students attending the School for Seduction.

The film can probably be classified as a chick flick comedy, but it’s treatment of the crossdressing subplot was not the target of comedy. The cisgender females treated the crossdresser as one of the girls, not a man in a dress, which was refreshing. (See the film’s trailer on YouTube.)

And in addition to the crossdressing subplot, femulators might pick up a few tips on how to better present as a woman. I know I did.

Wearing Bebe

Actor Ben Porter femulating in the 2004 British film School for Seduction

The Non-Civilians

In my previous post, the Femulator slot featured Mr. Phillips, a Colorado Springs high school teacher, who showed up at a school Halloween function dressed to pass. He looked very convincing, perhaps too convincing and my trans-radar screamed “not a civilian.” (Reminded me of a guy who showed up at work every Halloween in very convincing office girl drag!)

Mr. Phillips’ image reminded me of a post I wrote a few years ago about guys showing up for school dressed as gals, who also looked too good to be civilians. Since we are on the cusp of Halloween, I updated and added to that post and present it to you today for your enjoyment.

Whenever Starla sends me a new batch of femulator images that she culled from online school yearbooks, I try to pick out the femulators who are not civilians, that is, girls like us and not one-time femulators dressing up for their school's womanless event.

It may be due to all those years operating the trans radar, but there is something about certain womanless participants who give off vibes that they are in it for the long run. And sometimes, there are other clues that confirm those suspicions.

Such is the case with Sean Caufield (above). She is exquisite! Her hair, makeup and jewelry are perfect. And the extra clues move her out of the civilian realm. For example, her thin eyebrows en femme and en homme and the fact that dressing as a female is her choice for a Halloween costume and is not a femulation for a womanless event. 

And she is not alone.

I always suspect that something is up when a faculty member femulates along with the students like the student-teacher (above), who “shows off his feminine side on Halloween.” Does Miss Waugh's perfect wig, cleanly shaved legs, tailored skirt suit or slingback pumps hint that she shows off her feminine side on other occasions? Just wondering.

I was also wondering about Coach Ed (above), who goes by "Edwina" during her frequent forays in frocks, when she successfully passes among her students.

Then there is Matt Garber (above), who "was the only male student to wear make-up to the junior-senior prom," which begs the question: Did other male students attend the prom wearing prom dresses, but without makeup? (How gauche!)

Finally, there is lovely Phillip Sacks (above), who dared to be different, but my guess is that she is different more often than one day.

Mr. Wallace donned a French maid costume to fool his drama class students at Eisenhower High in Rialto, California. 

Outed?

Femulating at Airline High School, Bossier City, Louisiana, in 1982

In case you don’t read comments that follow my blog posts, Paulette had this to say about Friday’s All the Pretty School Girls post.

I hesitate to cast a cloud over anything you do on this site, having been a big fan for many years. 

(Now comes the 'but'...)

However, have you considered the possibility that these old buried cross-dressing photos (aka womanless beauty pageants) are better left undisturbed? In today's fevered environment, being outed on the internet could be most unwelcome. A dusty schoolbook yearbook is - thankfully for many - lost to history. And despite our prurient fascination in others like ourselves, we have no right to dig up potential problems that will strike 40-50 year olds and their families, like a proverbial bolt from the blue.

Just sayin'

On more than one occasion, I have considered Paulette’s point, but fter writing about and posting over 4,000 womanless images from online school yearbooks, I have never received a complaint that someone has been outed. I believe there are primarily two reasons for this:

Although we like to think differently, most of the people in the images are not femulators. Their high school femulation was a one time occurrence, so there is nothing to be outed about.

About half of the images do not name the people captured in the photo; their anonymity provides protection from being outed.

If anyone ever complains, I will delete their photo immediately.

Wearing Metisu.

Femulating in the 1984 Italian film Cop in Drag.

SaveSave

All the Pretty School Girls

Lara, Maureen and Curly Joan are just three of the pretty girls captured in a new batch of photos that Starla uncovered in on-line school yearbooks. In case you are new here, the girls are really boys crossdressed by their mothers to participate in womanless beauty pageants (or other gurly events) put on by their respective schools.

Starla came up with 53 new yearbook images and they are now available on flickr, where you may view the new photos by opening one of the Yearbooks sets (A through Z). There you will find the newest uploads at the end/bottom of the set. (The oldest uploads appear at the beginning/top of the set.)

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.

By the way, if you participated in your school's womanless beauty pageant or attended some other school activity en femme, I would love to post your photos along with any description you would like to provide. For example, here is my photo attending my school's Halloween party in 1976.

Say, "Cheese!"

Wearing Parker dress, Oscar de la-Renta earrings and Michael Kors Collection sandals.

Zackary Drucker femulates in a recreation of Blondie's classic 1978 album cover.

Back to School

Femulating in the Yale School of Drag Show (left) and at Belleville Township (Illinois) East High School (right).

I am back at school today, so I offer you two batches of school femulations.

৹   Starla’s latest online school yearbook discoveries

৹   Aunty June’s images from the Annual Yale School of Drag Show

Flickr is home for both collections, but they are located in different neighborhoods.

Aunty’s Yale images are in her Guys to Gurls on Stage and Screen Group.

Starla’s school gurl images are on my flickr page. You may view Starla’ 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 my 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.

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.

Wearing Bebe.

Harry S. Franklyn, femulating professionally in 1929.

A fish out of water

By Paula Gaikowski

Reading Stana recollections about the growing up transgender and being part of the Young Marines brought back some memories of my own childhood.

Oh yes, abusive coaches and youth leaders. As baby boomers growing up, we all experienced some pretty bizarre and offensive behavior from our teachers, coaches and youth leaders. Standards and expected norms were to say the least, different back then.

I was tall and in gym class, I was expected to be a good basketball player. Not being very comfortable in the competitive male environment, I didn’t excel.

One amongst many humiliating experiences was when the coach put me in front of the gym class and had me do a lay-up. I failed terribly and he then screamed out, “Look at the fish!” For the rest of middle school, he called me “fish. Another coach liked to call me “banana.”

Looking back, I just can’t comprehend the thought process in an adult teacher’s mind to pick one of the weakest and vulnerable children in your care and then torment and humiliate them? Even with times being different, I still say that’s one sick bastard! Even a few years later, when I went through military boot camp, the taunts and heckling were less vicious and done to encourage effort.

“Gee whiz, I wonder why I never liked sports?”

At the same time, I was struggling with gender identity issues. I started crossdressing at 8-years-old and by middle school, I was dressing secretly several days a week. In retrospect, I am startled by the harshness of the situation. Here I was a young, impressionable person trying to come of age and instead of support, I was being harassed.

I remember just feeling bad about myself. I thought, because I was such a bad athlete and didn’t fit in that I deserved to be called that name. I never thought to tell my parents or other school officials because I didn’t want my Dad to be disappointed in me and I thought the school officials had the same opinion of me. I was after all a “banana.” I was a banana who was also secretly a sissy and a fag. Talk about developing low self-esteem. I felt like a girl and was trying to fit in, and trying to fit in with the boys, but received nothing but mistreatment when I tried.

So would start the cycle of shame, guilt and anxiety that would propel the different stages of my life. Doing always what was expected of me at that point of my life and inside, feeling compromised.

In 2009, I was emerging from the darkness of yet another purge. But as any transgender person knows, purging doesn’t work. My need for feminine expression had returned with a vengeance. I had tried to solve the problem by myself for 50 years. I tried reading all the books and websites, wrote countless e-mails to peers and posted on all the forums.

Finding an objective and informed person to discuss, share and solve your issues with was a key ingredient in my journey. In my case this was a therapist. I’ve grown a lot over the last few years. I no longer see being transgender as a problem to be solved. I am not doing anything wrong. I’ve cast off society’s condemnation of being transgender and realize that I am a good person, and that part of my personality and character involves being transgender. Attributes I see missing in many men, such as nurturing, kindness, compassion and cooperation are parts of my personality that I believe come from my feminine side.

It dawned on me one day and I wrote this statement a manifesto of self-acceptance: I am 50-years-old. I am hard-working and have a successful career. I am financially successful. I am a dedicated spouse and parent. I give back to my community and I am active in my church. I strive to be caring, kind and thoughtful. I don’t drink or abuse drugs. I am honest and trustworthy. This is a part of my personality that has caused me shame and anxiety for years. There are medical and biological reasons for this. It doesn’t make me an awful person, it means I’m different. I won’t feel bad about myself anymore.

Oh yeah, one more thing.

“Coach, my self-worth is not determined by how well I play basketball nor is it determined by you.”

 

 

 

Wearing Le Redoute.

 

 

 

Fred Armisen in television’s Portlandia (2014).

Back to School

It won't be long before the kids are back to school and once back, they will be hatching plans to dress the males as females for a variety of womanless functions, all of which bypassed me in my school days, gosh darn it!

Looking forward to those womanless school days, Starla sent me another batch of femulators that she discovered in online school yearbooks. I thank her again for her finds - 100 in all - and I have uploaded them to the yearbook femulations gallery on flickr.

You may view the new images 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 Hard Knox High School would be in the Yearbooks H set.

 

Frockin’ around the Christmas tree.

 

Wearing DailyLook.

Having a Ballet

Thirty-five new online high school yearbook images illustrating a variety of femulations now grace our collection on flickr thanks to Starla.

I uploaded the new images to flickr and they are now ready for your viewing pleasure* including the four ballerinas pictured above, who donned tutus way back in 1949.

One of my first girly moments was related to the ballet. When I was 5-years-old, my mother enrolled my younger sister and I in a dancing school. My class had about 15 girls and one other boy. Once a week, we practiced tap and ballet for an hour under the tutelage of young female instructors.

I have no memory why my mother enrolled us at dancing school. I could understand enrolling my sister, but why did she immerse me, her only son, in that world of femininity? It certainly was not going to make a man out of me. Maybe she detected the girl in me and thought that I would enjoy participating in such a girly activity.

If that was her plan, she was correct. I enjoyed every minute of it!

I loved learning dance and being treated like the other girls. The young instructors became my role models. I even recall dreaming (both day dreaming and sleep dreaming) about dancing as a ballerina, wearing a pink leotard, tutu, ballet shoes, and makeup with my long blond hair put up in a pony-tail.

Due to tight family finances, we only took dance classes for one year, but that one year immersion in femininity left a life-long impression on this girl.     

*  To view the latest additions to the collection:

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 my 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 Hard Knox High School would be in the Yearbooks H set.

A Transgender Child’s Victory

A third-grader in New Hampshire scores one for trans equality in the elementary-school bathroom. Read the whole story written by Mary Elizabeth Williams in Salon.