Kids

Nathan Janak on Nickelodeon’s All That

Commenting on Friday’s The Iceberg post, Paula wrote that the Crossdressing Subreddit has over 235,000 subscribers – mostly younger, late teens to 20’s. What’s interesting is the taboo seems to be lifting. Many are out to friends; even more out to their girlfriends. The other thing I noticed is these crossdressers are really good at what they do – very pretty and passable.

I occasionally visit the Crossdressing Subreddit, but not too often because viewing the girls there makes me consider turning in my Official Femulator membership card. 

For starters, all the girls are young (much younger than I) and as a result, their femulations are exquisite (they all pass).

Many of the girls have no inhibitions regarding their crossdressing. They go out crossdressed everywhere, all the time and don’t think twice (it’s alright).

I read about one girl who was going clothes shopping and needed something that could be easily removed in the fitting room, so he/she borrowed a front buttoned dress from his/her wife! Remarkable!

Makes me wonder if the mainstreaming of crossdressing inspires young femulators to crossdress. Of course, there is the RuPaul franchise, but youngsters are more likely to watch Nickelodeon and that network’s All That, which includes some excellent young femulators.   

Anyway, visit the Crossdressing Subreddit and be inspired by the young femulators you will find there.   

Exquisite 

I checked the online Google dictionary to make sure I spelled exquisite correctly in the above piece and found this archaic definition for the word: a man who is affectedly concerned with his clothes and appearance; a dandy. 

A Milestone

On Friday, the blog’s daily hit count reached an all-time high of 16,798! The previous all-time high (15,042) was recorded the day before.

By the way, 25,810,329 is the total hit count since this blog went live. 

Wearing Bebe

Ryan Alessi femulating on Nickelodeon’s All That.

Patterns

Saturday morning, I stopped by my sister's apartment to drop off her Avon order and found her going through a box of stuff from my mother's apartment. (Mom died years ago, but only recently has my sister begun going through Mom's stuff.)

"Here – this is yours," my sister said to me and handed me a stuffed manilla envelope.

"What is it?" I asked.

I opened the envelope and withdrew its contents: five old dress patterns for styles from the mid- to late-1960s.

"What do you mean these are mine?" I asked.

"Mommy bought them to make dresses for you," she explained.

"Huh!"

"She even made one dress for you – this one," she said, as she pointed to one of the patterns I held in my hands.

"She was going to give it to you as a birthday gift. But then she changed her mind because she didn't want to embarrass you."

(Note that although my sister and I are very close, she does not support me much on the trans front.)

"So, she knew," I replied.

"Dad knew, too, and he talked her out of giving the dress to you."

I always suspected that my parents knew and now my suspicions were confirmed.

"Wow! What happened to the dress?" I asked.

"I have no idea," my sister replied, "Let's change the subject."

I don't know what was the next subject because my mind was still on the dress my mother made for me and how my life might have been different if I had only confided in her.

(Caveat Emptor. This is a rerun of an old Femulate post about an event I had completely forgotten about in my old age.)

Wearing Eloquii

Rob Stone femulating in a 1989 episode of television’s Mr. Belvedere. Watch it here.

What Were You Made Of?

Among the books I owned as a child was a volume of nursery rhymes. That book included the following verse.

What Are Little Boys Made Of?

What are little boys made of? 
What are little boys made of? 
Frogs and snails, 
And puppy-dogs' tails; 
That's what little boys are made of. 

What are little girls made of? 
What are little girls made of? 
Sugar and spice, 
And all that's nice; 
That's what little girls are made of.

As a child, I found frogs and snails repugnant and I was afraid of dogs. On  the other hand, I loved sugar and spice. Also, I preferred things that were nice versus things that were not so nice, which often seemed to be preferred by my male contemporaries.

I was a little girl, but I did not know it. Luckily, I figured it out after I grew up to be a big girl.

Wearing New York & Company

Some Boys Already Wear Dresses

The accompanying slideshow is a compilation of male models wearing dresses, skirts and other female finery. Most are shown while on the job modeling womenswear on the runway or posing for catalogs or fashion magazine spreads. While others are candid shots taken while on the job or not?

One thing they all have in common: they all are flat-chested. Some wear bras, but there are no breast forms or other paraphernalia to femulate female breasts.

Tall and thin male models are used to model womenswear because they conform to the ideal female model profile, i.e., tall, thin and flat-chested.

Okay – I get it. But why are these guys showing up off the job still wearing makeup, hairdos and female finery? Are they transgenders or trendsetters?

Some admit to being the former. Others might be transgender, too, but are unwilling to reveal that fact.

Can I assume that the rest are trendsetters, who prefer to adorn themselves using the wardrobe options that are available to females?

The lack of falsies indicates that they aren’t femulators, so I assume they are trying to blaze a new trail in the world of male fashion.

Take Phillipe Blond (Slide 25 above), for example. He is an American fashion designer, who always appears in public wearing “women’s” clothing, yet his given name, flat chest and male voice are assurances that he is a boy.

And he is not alone.

Wearing Unique Vintage

Julie's Christmas femulation

All Boys Will Wear Dresses

Following up with my recent “All Men Will Wear Dresses” posts (here and here), I learned about Primary, an online children’s clothing store that sells dresses for girls and boys!

I assume there must be a demand for boys’ dresses, otherwise, why would Primary bother. Admittedly, this is not a big investment by Primary because they offer the very same dresses to girls. Primary may be just testing the waters, but if their test pans out and there is a demand for more boy’s dresses, the future of fashion may be interesting.

When dress-wearing boys grow up, they will want to continue wearing dresses as adults. And I can imagine future clothing stores not divided by sex (women's and men’s departments), but by age (children’s and adult’s). I hope I live long enough to see it!

Wearing New York & Company

Angela is posing pretty for Christmas!

Novice Femulator

That's me in the photo 28 years ago. I was 40 years old and had just started going out among the civilians.

Damn – I looked pretty good back then! My eyebrows need shaping and I don't know about the blue eyeshadow, but overall, my presentation was pretty good for a novice femulator. I even painted my nails, which is something I have not done in a long time since discovering stick-on nails.

Although I was out of the closet, I was not really out among the civilians that much because I was sure my height (5-ft 14-in) would be a deal breaker and every citizen in the State of Connecticut would know I was a man in a dress.

But looking at my photos from that era, I realize I was wrong; I was passable and could have been a contender.

Wearing New York & Company (Source: New York & Company)

Blond femulator in the 1969 film The Gay Deceivers

Where's Billy?

Billy and I were best friends throughout grammar school. I can't remember how we became friends, but we had a lot in common and that is probably what drew us together. We were both Polish, which was a rare commodity in our neighborhood, we both went to the same church (a Polish parish, needless to say), we were both artists, which put us on the outs with the school's "in crowd," and we both were fascinated in the opposite sex. We had crushes on certain girls, but we both were also scared of them and never did anything about our crushes, at least not in grammar school.

Around puberty, maybe in the 7th or 8th grade, I remember Billy hinting that we dress as girls for Halloween. At that time, I knew something was up with me gender-wise, but I didn't know what. The idea of dressing as a girl for Halloween was very attractive, but I was also in public denial about my gender issues and told Billy that I had no interest in his Halloween costume plans.

I don't remember what I wore for a costume that Halloween, but I do recall that I went out with my usual Halloween trick and treat partner in crime, my other best friend, who lived across the street.

In school the next day, Billy mentioned that he did dress as a girl; he trick and treated at my house and was disappointed that I was not home to see him in his costume. Note that Billy never before trick and treated my house, so he made a special effort that night to show me his girl costume.

Around this same time, I remember that one of us decided that we should adopt girl names (why - I don't know) and for days, he addressed me by my girl name, which was "Susan" and I addressed him by his girl name, which I cannot recall now.

As I mentioned above, we were both artists. He was very good at painting and I was a very good at sketching. As an outlet for my budding trans psyche, I spent a lot of my free time back then sketching males wearing female clothing.  One day, Billy mentioned that he had been doing something similar and another day, he showed me some of his sketches. My reaction was to feign disinterest.

But my real reaction was fear. I was in uncharted waters; I did not know what was going on with him (or me). I had enough trouble sorting out what was going on with me without having to deal with what was going on with my best friend, so I basically ignored him and I think that was the beginning of the end of a beautiful friendship. We hung out less during our last days in grammar school and ended up going to different high schools. After a few years, we were both out of each others' lives.

I think Billy was reaching out to me. He probably was just as confused as I was and maybe he thought we would be better able to work things out as a team rather than solo. If that was the case, he was probably correct and I very much regret not reaching out to him and trying to work out together what the heck was going on. And so it goes.

Over the years, I learned through a mutual friend that Billy got married and lives two towns away, but our mutual friend said nothing about anything trans and I certainly did not ask.

But I often think about Billy and wonder if he really was trans (or was it just my 'magination) and if he ever did anything about it. I often hoped that one day he would show up at my support group and we could become best friends again except that this time we would be girlfriends.

(This post originally appeared in September 2008.) 

Wearing Joie (Source: Joie)

Movie poster for the 1967 double feature She Man and Queens At Heart.

Kids

I don't know if you noticed, but femulators are getting younger and younger!

High schools used to be the site of womanless beauty pageants for the under-20 crowd. Over time, middle schools joined the competition and now we are seeing grammar school boys donning dresses, heels, wigs and makeup to see who is the prettiest gurl in the first grade!

Then there is the latest craze: pre-teen drag queens who are emulating RuPaul instead of Roy Rogers.

(Yes, I am so jealous of today's youthful gender benders. If I had the opportunities during my youth that young gurls have today, I am sure I would legally be a Miss today.)

Anyway, if you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that I often feature femulations from the international Your Face Sounds Familiar television franchise in the Femulator slot below. Well I recently discovered that in the Philippines, there is a Kids spin-off of Your Face Sounds Familiar and yes, you guessed it, the kids are femulating, too!

A singing trio, the TNT Boys (Keifer Sanchez, Mackie Empuerto and Francis Concepcion), have femulated on the Kids spin-off a few times and they are very good. But they absolutely blew me away with their femulation of my favorite girl group The Supremes.

Now I am really jealous!

Wearing Boston Proper (Source: Boston Proper)

Jimmy Fay (center) femulates a Shirley Temple wannabe in the 1934 film Million Dollar Baby. (Thanks to Chrissy for the heads-up about this film femulation.)

Cathy's Initiation

Hi everyone, I'm Cathy from Los Angeles, and I'm so happy to share some of my story, along with photos recently found by my sisters while cleaning out our parents' home back in Pennsylvania.

This first photo is me on the back stoop, dressed up by my older sisters, Donna and Debbie.  It has "Sept 1960 - Willow Rd" written in pen on the back, so I'm two and a half years old (Donna 7, Debbie 5) and a younger sister, Dee Dee, was seven months. Along with our single mother, we lived with our twice divorced Aunt Catherine at her house where four kids shared bedroom.

Our very quirky mother, raised during the Depression, saved everything! So all the girls' old clothes were in two large steamer trunks in the basement. It was those dresses, lacy socks, panties, camis, slips, tights, jumpers and sweaters that introduced me to love all things girly and feminine.

It started as a private dress-up game, but then our mother saw me and passively allowed it, while our Aunt actively encouraged it and participated with my sisters in my femulations. What began as once or twice a week for maybe an hour each time, turned into four, five and six days a week and for an entire morning or all afternoon, even all day and into the evening when they switched me into baby doll PJs or a red plaid flannel granny nightgown with pink fuzzy slippers.

In this photo, they tried a barrette in my short hair, but over time our mother allowed my hair to grow longer, which made looking like a girl even easier.

More to come.

Wearing Express (Source: Express)

Actor Dylan Sprouse femulates in an 2005 episode of television's The Suite Life of Zach and Cody.

Youth

Leggy gurls from Texas, Virginia and Louisiana

When I attended my first True Color Conference in 2007, I do not recall any cisgender male students presenting as female. Maybe there were a few who passed so well that I did not detect their birth sex, but in general, the male students dressed like male students and the female students dressed like female students.

Fast forward 10 years and the situation is very, very different.

Thirty-two students attended my workshop on Friday and the majority presented as female or androgynous, while a minority presented as male. Most of the students presenting as female passed perfectly – if they were not attending my workshop (Makeup Basics for Trans Females), I would have never guessed that they were trans.

And I am still floored that one of the girls attending my workshop is a saleswoman at Sephora!

Wow – how the times have changed!

Meanwhile, cisgender boys are still turning up as girls in American schools for Halloween parties, gender bender days, womanless beauty pageants, etc., as evidenced by the latest batch of photos gleaned from online yearbooks by our intrepid yearbook gleaner, Starla.

You may view Starla's new photos on flickr by opening one of my flickr 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. (No one has taken me up on this offer, so far, but I am still hopeful and very patient!)

Wearing Lulus.

Enrie Scielzo, male womenswear model

Naturally Effeminate or Naturally a Woman

Recently, I proffered, "Ask me anything" and Pat asked, "Were you naturally effeminate as a kid and ever called a sissy while going to school?"

Yes ― I was naturally effeminate as a kid. I know it was "natural" because at the time, I was not aware that I was effeminate.

I was not intentionally acting effeminate, I was acting as me, myself, and I, and as luck would have it, me, myself and I was very effeminate. So much so that my peers let me know it by calling me names like "sissy," "twinky," "fairy," and worse.

At my first summer job, which was in a very macho environment, my nickname was "Zelda" in honor of my feminine ways.

At another summer job working in the receiving department of a department store where I unpacked and sorted women's clothing all day long, one of my co-workers suggested that it must be my dream job because I got first shot at all the new dresses and lingerie before it went on the floor for sale to the public. He even showed me a private backroom where I could try on the clothing that I might like to purchase.

At my high school graduation, some of the jocks asked aloud why I wasn't wearing a gold-colored graduation cap and gown like the other girls.

In college, the guy in the dorm room next door said I could borrow his girlfriend's bra that she left behind after one of their evening rendezvous.

Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

I never changed my feminine ways even when I figured out what was going on. I knew how to fix the problem, but I rejected manning up and becoming macho because doing so was so incompatible with my nature.

On the other hand, dressing in woman's clothing was a perfect fit. I already acted, moved, and spoke like a woman, so the clothing just completed the picture.

(Caveat Emptor: This is a redo of a 3-year-old post.)

Wearing Self Portrait.

 Italian actress, writer, politician and television host, Vladimir Luxuria