Shaving Legs

Good Morning Stana, 

Hope you're well and it is finally getting warm back East. 

Question??? At what age did you start to shave your legs? Did parents catch on? Smooth skin was a big revelation for me. Stockings on smooth legs is just a wonderful look and feel. Once you shave you can't go back. I had to wait till I moved out and after the Army.

Have a great Day

Bobbie

👠👠👠

Hi Bobbie,

Spring is finally springing forth in Southern New England. The daffodils and forsythia are in bloom and the snow piles have finally disappeared.

I was about 16 years old when I shaved my legs for the first time.

I had been crossdressing for about 4 years. Leg hair began sprouting about Year 2. By Year 4, I could not stand the look of matted hair under my nylon stockings, so I took a razor to my legs and removed all the hair from the hem of my miniskirt to the tips of my toes. And I continued to regularly remove my leg hair ever since.

My parents never mentioned it. My crossdressing was closeted, so they never saw my shaved legs en femme and I avoided wearing shorts en homme in the warm weather because I did not want to reveal my secret. When I first appeared among the civilians en femme for Halloween in Year 6, my shaved legs were probably the least of my parent's worries when they saw their 18-year-old son dressed like their 16-year-old daughter.

The first time anyone ever mentioned my shaved legs was when I attended a Halloween party in office girl drag in my mid-20's and the hostess was so surprised that I shaved my legs that she announced it loudly for all the party-goers to hear. I didn't care because earlier at that same party, a female party-goer asked who was the woman not wearing a costume! (She was me!)

Thank you for the great questions, Bobbie.

Wearing Etienne Aigner (Source: Etienne Aigner)

Early 20th Century professional femulator of stage and screen, Julian Eltinge.

The Seamy Side of Crossdressing

Is Marlo Thomas laughing at Ted Bessell's crooked seams?

I have to get something off my chest.

A male gets dressed as a female on a television show or in a film. When he is finished, someone comments that his seams are not straight. In response, our hero checks out his gams, notices the unseemly seam and proceeds to adjust his hosiery to fix his fashion faux pas.

I think the first time I saw that scene was on the television show That Girl. On that show, Marlo Thomas's hapless boyfriend, played by Ted Bessell, had to dress as a woman for some reason and Marlo's father, played by Lew Parker, noted Ted's crooked seam(s).

Since that time, I've seen this scene repeated numerous times and each time I see it, it bothers me.

Why?

Because there are NO SEAMS!!!!!

I admit that you can still find, buy, and wear seamed hosiery (I know it, I've done it), but in every instance in a film or television show where the seam scene plays out, the crossdresser is not wearing seamed hosiery.

After I saw this scene a few times, I thought I was missing something and started looking for seams in my seamless hosiery! When I could not find any seams, I realized that the seam joke was just a carryover from the days when women and crossdressers wore seamed hosiery; I assume the writer(s) think that the joke is so funny that they continue to use the crooked seam joke despite the lack thereof.

Seamless hosiery began replacing seamed hosiery about the same time I started crossdressing. I distinctly remember that the first few pairs of stockings that I borrowed from my mother had seams, then suddenly, she started buying seamless stockings, and not much later than that, she switched to pantyhose that were also seamless.

By the way, this tirade was set off by a photo on flickr that I viewed earlier today in which a crossdresser is straightening his seams (according to the photo caption), yet he is wearing seamless hosiery.

I'm glad I finally got that off my chest. Now I feel better!

Wearing Alexis Kirsten.

Steve Schepis on stage in La Cage Aux Folles.

Unbared Legs

Susan King, Femulate Contributing Editor of Transitioning into Tomorrow fame writes about how we clothe our legs.

In the 1960's, I remember how wearing my mother's stockings and garter belt felt so good and along with her shoes, were my first foray into "crossdressing."

Now it seems that stockings are out of style unless it's a formal affair or a dress code requirement. That's too bad because I love wearing them. I still wear tights and legwarmers in the winter, but I have a drawer full of stockings that I have not worn in a decade. I should throw them away, but I can not.

I do remember in the 1980's through the 2010's, wearing off-black sheer stockings, not only in the house, but out in public. Hopefully, stockings will come back in style, but I doubt it as woman are dressing more casually everyday.

(Stana's Two Cents: If you have legs that look good without hosiery, then go for it. As for me, I am "old school" and always wear hosiery and probably always will. Although my legs look good without hosiery, they look better with hosiery and better is better.)  

Here is a nice infographic of all the different types of legwear.

Wearing Madeleine.

Gender role reversals at Delta (Ohio) High School in 1998.
(Thank you, Starla, for the image!)

The Sisterhood of the Panty Girdle

Back when I started femulating in the early 1960s, most women wore girdles.

"Girdles were considered essential garments by many women from approximately 1910 to the late 1960s. They created a rigid, controlled figure that was seen as eminently respectable and modest. They were also crucial to the couturier Christian Dior's 1947 New Look, which featured a voluminous skirt and a narrow, nipped-in waistline, also known as a wasp waist.

"Later in the 1960s, the girdle was generally supplanted by pantyhose. Pantyhose replaced girdles for many women who had used the girdle essentially as a means of holding up sheer nylon stockings. Those who want more control purchase "control top" pantyhose. Many women forgo wearing girdles, stockings, and pantyhose entirely." (source Wikipedia)

I know for a fact that all the females in my household wore girdles when I began femulating and I wore a girdle, too (usually my mother's). It held up my stockings, held in my belly, and helped give me a feminine figure. 

When panythose replaced stockings, I continued to wear a girdle and still wear one today, although today, they call it "shapewear." In addition to shaping my body, it provided another function that became very important when my femulation took me out of the house: a girdle provided an effective way of hiding my private parts. It was more effective and more comfortable than wearing a gaff.

Today, few women wear girdles. I know for a fact that none of the females in my household wear girdles or shapewear, but I still do. My guess is that a lot of other "girls" who started femulating back when I started still include a girdle or two in their wardrobe.

Long live the Sisterhood of the Panty Girdle!

Wearing Luisa Spagnoli.

Marek Kaliszuk, Katarzyna Skrzynecka and Stefano Terrazzin femulate Lady Marmalade on
Polish television's Twoja Twarz Brzmi Znajomo. Note that Kaliszuk (left) and Terrazzin
(right) are femulators, while Skrzynecka  (center) is cisgender female.

Second Time

After donning my mother's nylon stockings and high heel shoes and discovering that I was able to emulate the shapely legs of a woman just like the female impersonators of the 82 Club in New York City, I just had to push the envelope further.

The next time I was home free to explore my mother's wardrobe, I repeated my first time, that is, I slipped on a pair of her nylon stockings and high heel shoes.

I was well aware of the options available to women of the early 1960s to keep their nylons up and their seams straight. In my mother's case, she used the garters that were attached to a girdle.

I found her stash of girdles in a drawer of her bureau and had to choose from a variety of styles: open bottom, panty brief, long leg panty, high-waisted panty and high-waisted long-leg panty. I figured I needed all the help I could get, so I selected a high-waisted long-leg panty model.

I unzipped and unclasped the girdle, stepped into it and tugged it up over my legs, hips and waist. When I was finished squeezing into it, I closed its clasps and zipper with some difficulty. When I was done it felt like half of my torso was in the grips of a rubber vise.

After I attended to the nylons - straightening their seams and attaching them to the garters of the girdle - I swung open the closet door, viewed myself in the full-length mirror and concluded that the picture was incomplete.

The girdle had redistributed my "baby fat." As a result, my waist was narrower and my hips were wider, but above the waistband of the girdle, a ring of displaced fat encircled my body and ruined the picture.

I was sure I knew how to fix it --- it was time for my first bra!

My mother had a small selection of bras to choose from and they were all similar in style and size, so I randomly grabbed one and tried to figure out how to put it on.

I struggled unsuccessfully to close the bra's clasps while wearing the bra with its cups in front. So, I slipped the straps off my shoulders, twisted the bra around with the clasps in front of me, closed the clasps, twisted the bra back around, and slipped the straps over my shoulders --- and that’s the way I have been putting on a bra ever since.

After adjusting the straps of the bra, I was astonished that my breasts nearly filled the cups of the bra! My "boy boobs," which were the object of ridicule by my peers, now had a safe place to call "home."

And when I revisited the full-length mirror, the picture was now complete; there was the body of a shapely woman in the mirror's reflection.

 

 

 

Femulator in 1965 street style.

 

 

 

Wearing Romwe.

Thursday Revisits Tuesday and Wednesday

Aniコレ 5 Battle

Kasumi e-mailed me about the Japanese television show, Aniコレ 5 Battle, that I wrote about here on Wednesday. According to Kasumi…

Aniコレ is an abbreviation of two words put together. "Ani" is short for "aniki," which literally means "big brother," but in this case is used as a playful counterpoint to "onee," or "big sister," which is a slang for femulators (it is, in turn, short for "oneesan," which is the conventional term for elder sister). In Japanese, kinship terms like big brother and big sister are commonly used to refer to young men and women in general. It's clear from the context whether one is referring to one's own relatives or (with "onee") to a femulator or a female. 

コレ, or "kore," is short for "korekushon," i.e., the English word "collection." This is because the females in the "battles" were part of a group called Tokyo Girls Collection. The 5 is, I think, because there were five contestants on each side. Writing the Japanese "ani" in Romanization and the English "collection" in Japanese is the kind of linguistic fun and games one often sees in Japanese--there's no particular deep significance.

The show in which this segment appeared was organized around the theme of "What if..." What if you had to eat a bunch of really hot peppers? What if you were a comedian forced to pair with someone other than your regular partner? What if you had to wear women's clothes and engage in a beauty battle with a female celebrity?

Thank you, Kasumi, for that information. It ties up a lot of loose ends regarding the television show.

Dreamwear

A reader took me to task about Tuesday's "Dreamwear' post, thusly:

Your post said you dreamed of wearing a 'panty girdle and longline bra' but the photo is of a woman in a full, long girdle (panty girdles are only panty length on the bottom) and a regular bra.

My excuse for the photo is that I could not find an image in my vast collection of a woman (or a man) wearing a panty girdle and a longline bra. The handful of longline bra images I have were all combined with open bottom girdles.

Since I could not find a panty girdle - longline bra combo, I used a panty girdle - non-longline bra image that I liked. (Today I proffer a longline bra image that I like.) 

With reference to the reader's contention that the girdle image I used on Tuesday was a "full, long girdle" and not a panty girdle, "panty girdles are only panty length on the bottom," well, allow me to retort.

There are two basic kinds of girdles: open-bottom girdles and panty girdles. Any girdle that has a crotch is a "panty girdle" no matter how long or short the legs may be. You can look it up.

Open-Bottom

I have not worn an open-bottom girdle in a very long time. I never owned an open-bottom girdle, so the only ones I ever wore were my Mother’s and that was 40 years ago.

Wearing an open-bottom girdle is a different experience.

If the hem of the girdle is long enough, it comfortably hides your private parts while providing a very smooth crotch area, which is perfect for wearing a tight skirt.

You must wear stockings with an open-bottom girdle and attach them to girdle’s garters. This prevents the hem of the girdle from riding up your torso, as well as keeping the stockings from slipping down your legs.

What fun!

I’m getting a hankering for an open-bottom girdle, longline bra, and nylon stockings combination for the next time I wear a retro outfit.

How You Polled Your Leg

Last week's poll asked "When you femulate, what kind of hosiery do you usually wear?" and after a week's long poll with 679 respondents, the results are:

• 62% (424 respondents including myself) usually wear pantyhose or tights

• 30% (204 respondents) usually wear stockings

• 7% (51 respondents) usually wear no hosiery at all

I was surprised that 3 out of 10 usually wear stockings. Before the poll started, I guessed that femulators would be more likely to wear stockings than genetic women, but I did not expect that figure to be that much more likely. Personally, I don't know any genetic woman who usually wear stockings, so that 30% result is amazing!

There are some comments to the original post that explain some of the respondent's votes and non-votes; they have only a miniscule effect on the 62-30-7% results.

Dear Stana, Why is it so?

Dear Stana,

Regarding your advice on how to wear garter belts, you recommended wearing your panties over your garter belt, but I have seen pictures of girls wearing the garter belts over the panties and not under. Why is it so?

Susan


Hi Susan,

You see photos of girls wearing garter belts over their panties because it looks nicer; it looks sexier.

As a practical matter, wearing your panties over your garters makes it much easier to use the bathroom (or do anything else requiring panty removal). Just slip off your panties and voila, your private parts are free.

If you wear your panties under your garters, first you have to unclasp each garter (that's four or six clasps to undo) and then you can slip off your panties. Also, you will have to reclasp four or six garters after you slip your panties on again.

Best Wishes,

Stana

Do you need advice concerning femulation or other crossdressing-related matters, then e-mail me and I will happily give you my opinion on the matter. My e-mail address is stana-stana at sbcglobal.net.

Poll Your Leg

I’m curious. Maybe you are, too.

When you femulate, do you usually wear stockings, pantyhose, or no hosiery at all?

My guess is that femulators are more likely to wear stockings than generic women and that genetic women are more likely to go without hosiery than femulators.

Anyway, sate our curiosity by taking the poll located at the top of the right sidebar of the blog.

Dear Stana

Dear Stana,

How do keep a garter-belt and stockings or pantyhose from sliding down your waist and legs?

Susan

Hi Susan,

If you buy the correct sizes, you should not have a problem.

The garter belt should be large enough to fit around your waist, but small enough so that it does not slip down over your hips. You can adjust the size of the belt to accommodate your waist and hip combination, but do not make it too tight and create an unsightly bulge.

The stockings should be long enough so that their tops reach the clasps of the garter belt. You can adjust the length of the garters so that the clasps meet the top of your stockings. If the stockings are too short and need to be stretched to their outer limits in order to reach the clasps, you are likely to experience slippage as you move about.

You did not ask, but be sure to attach the stockings to your garter belt before putting on your panties.

Size matters with pantyhose, too. The only time I had problems with pantyhose is wearing a pair too small for me. The pantyhose must be large enough so that their waistband sits at your waist and is tight enough so that it does not slip down below your waist, but not so tight that it creates a bulge.

Like stockings, if you have to stretch the pantyhose to their outer limits in order to get them to fit properly, then the pantyhose are too small and they will slip down your legs as you move around.

Best Wishes,

Stana

Do you need advice concerning femulation or other crossdressing-related matters, then e-mail me and I will happily give you my opinion on the matter. My e-mail address is stana-stana at sbcglobal.net.

the seamy side of crossdressing

I have to get something off my chest.

A male gets dressed as a female on a television show or in a film. When he is finished, someone comments that his seams are not straight. In response, our hero checks out his gams, notices the unseemly seam and proceeds to adjust his hosiery to fix his fashion faux pas.

I think the first time I saw that scene was on the television show That Girl. On that show, Marlo Thomas's hapless boyfriend, played by Ted Bessell, had to dress as a woman for some reason and Marlo's father, played by Lew Parker, noted Ted's crooked seam(s).

Since that time, I've seen this scene repeated numerous times and each time I see it, it bothers me.

Why?

Because there are NO SEAMS!!!!!

I admit that you can still find, buy, and wear seamed hosiery (I know it, I've done it), but in every instance in a film or television show where the seam scene plays out, the crossdresser is not wearing seamed hosiery.

After I saw this scene a few times, I thought I was missing something and started looking for seams in my seamless hosiery! When I could not find any seams, I realized that the seam joke was just a carryover from the days when women and crossdressers wore seamed hosiery; I assume the writer(s) think that the joke is so funny that they continue to use the crooked seam joke despite the lack thereof.

Seamless hosiery began replacing seamed hosiery about the same time I started crossdressing. I distinctly remember that the first few pairs of stockings that I borrowed from my mother had seams, then suddenly, she started buying seamless stockings, and not much later than that, she switched to pantyhose that were also seamless.

By the way, this tirade was set off by a photo on flickr that I viewed earlier today in which a crossdresser is straightening his seams (according to the photo caption), yet he is wearing seamless hosiery.

I'm glad I finally got that off my chest. Now I feel better!