Finding Girls & Boys

In October 2017 (can it be that long ago!), I wrote about Girls & Boys, "a short 2015 Swedish film that depicts high school life in a matriarchy, 'a world where girls are hunters and boys are the catch.'" There is a trailer and a teaser for the film online, but nowhere could I find how to view or purchase the film itself.

Over the weekend, my post about the film received an anonymous comment indicating that the film was now available for rental and purchase from Vimeo for $3 and $6 respectively. I immediately went to Vimeo, purchased the film, downloaded it and watched it.

Girls & Boys is not a crossdressing film per se; rather it is a gender role reversal film with males dressing and acting like 21st Century females and females dressing and acting like 21st Century males except that no one reconfigures their body to emulate the opposite sex as crossdressers do; males do not wear falsies and hip pads and the females do not bind their breasts.

The film was as good as its trailer and teasers suggested. And it had English subtitles for those not Swedish-conversant.

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

One of the boys in Girls & Boys, a 2015 Swedish film

Girls & Boys

Girls & Boys is a short 2015 Swedish film that depicts high school life in a matriarchy, "a world where girls are hunters and boys are the catch."

I had never heard of this film and only discovered it while Googling something else on a rainy day this past weekend.

When I viewed the trailer for the film on YouTube, I was floored. See for yourself.

Yes, the boys are the ones in long hair, makeup and high heels, while the girls are in trousers and short hair.

The film's "teaser" on YouTube made me want to see more.



I searched for more and found the film's Facebook page and one short clip from the film, but nowhere can I view or purchase the film. If anyone has a lead on where to buy or see the film, I would appreciate it.

Wearing Boston Proper (Source: Boston Proper)

Poster for the film Girls & Boys (that's girl, girl, boy, girl, girl, boy, boy and boy in the photo)

If sugar and spice and everything nice was a boy thing

Stephanie Sometimes wrote, "Some time ago you posted a movie trailer for a Swedish film called Girls & Boys. The premise was that girls wore jeans, tees and Keds while the boys wore skirts, dresses, heels, hose and makeup like the boys in the photo from the film (above).

"My question is if I was living in that reality being a guy in silk satin and lace, would I still desire to wear the clothing of the opposite sex like I do in the real world I exist in now. I wonder if your followers have opinions on this subject.

"I know I would be in heaven to live in that alternative reality, but would my desire to be the opposite sex drive me into the drab 'boy' clothes that the girls wear in the film?"

Comments, opinions, what say Femulate readers?

Wearing Bebe (Source: Bebe)

Janek Traczy femulates Lana Del Rey on Polish television's Your Face Sounds Familiar (2018) 

Stopping and Shopping

On Wednesday, my post was another very short one, so I will expand on the day here. 

I dressed to blend rather than bend on Wednesday because I planned to go to Stop & Shop and buy some groceries and makeup. I wore my sleeveless argyle sweater tunic, black leggings, and black Mary-Jane flats.

Stop & Shop was a leisurely ten-minute walk through a residential area of town. On the way, I passed contractors remodeling the outside of a home and one of them made a pass at me, which I ignored, but relished nonetheless.

At Stop & Shop, I bought some bottled water, gluten-free trail mix, and liquid foundation. Both Scarlett Thompson and Hera Navassarian recommended a liquid over the powdered foundation I had been using. (I thought the powder was too dry and they agreed.)

I found the foundation Scarlett recommended (Revlon PhotoReady) and spent some time trying to find a shade that matched my skin color. It was not an easy task because there were no samples and I had to try and match my color to the color of the foundation contained in a thick bottle. But I believe I picked the right shade because I wore it the rest of the week and my skin tone looked the same as when I used the powder.
I am not sure if my attempt to blend worked in Stop & Shop. Most of the people in the store ignored me, but a couple of guys could not take their eyes off of me. Go figure!

I returned to my B&B to leave my purchases, then I walked to Commercial Street, which is the main drag of Provincetown.

None of the morning workshops interested me, so I decided to go to the beach, see the sights and take some photos like the one above.

It was a beautiful day. I enjoyed the walk and worked up my appetite for noon lunch at Napi's Restaurant, another one of my favorite restaurants in P-Town. I sat with a group of girls --- some I knew and some were new --- and we girl-talked our way through lunch. 
    
On tap next was the daily Keynote Address at The Crown & Anchor. I had missed the Monday and Tuesday Keynotes and did not want to miss another especially since Wednesday's Keynote was going to be a video and slide presentation by photographer Mariette Pathy Allen. I have her book Transformations, have seen her presentations before (at Fantasia Fair) and looked forward to seeing more.

I was not disappointed and the time flew by watching her video and slides.

My friend Melissa was doing a workshop at the Boatslip Resort at 3 PM with another girl (Phyllis Randt), who I did not know. Titled "New England Girls Out and About," it was intended to be a roundtable discussion about how easy it was to go out en femme among the civilian population. I participated in the workshop and added my two-cents worth to the discussion.

We were on our own for dinner Wednesday night, so Melissa and I decided to go to Lobster Pot to dine.


After freshening up and changing outfits at my B&B (I wore my new animal print crepe knit dress from ideeli), I met Melissa and we walked to the restaurant.

There was a 15-minute wait for a table, so we went to the bar and met up with other Fantasia Fair attendees. I guess Lobster Pot was the favored choice for the Fair crowd that night because the restaurant was full of girls and boys from the Fair.

Yes. I wrote "boys." This year, transmen were present at the Fair unlike my previous two Fan Fair trips and it was nice to see them there. A few even participated in the Fashion Show later that evening.

We were seated next to a couple, who I assumed were father and daughter. He was a senior citizen and she was middle-aged.

As we sat down, the woman turned to me, complimented me on my outfit and remarked that I was dressed better than she was! I was surprised by her unsolicited compliments and was almost speechless, but managed to thank her.

I had the same thing I had the other time I ate at Lobster Pot: crab cakes with a lobster meat topping. And just like the previous time, the meal was very filling and I could not finish it.

After dinner, we walked to The Crown & Anchor for the Fantasia Fair Fashion Show. Seventeen boys and girls, most of them first time Fantasia Fair attendees, each modeled three outfits, so it turned out to be a long show (three hours plus).

Some of the audience got out of Dodge during intermission, but I stayed to support the models because I recall the time I modeled in the show. It was a dark and stormy night and as a result, attendance was light and I was disappointed that the audience was small for my modeling debut. So my fanny stayed seated to the very end.

End of Feminine

Jenifer asked, "What do you think will become of femulate, when there is nothing female left to emulate. We all seem to be in jeans and T-shirts these days. As a 40-something girl, I find it very had to pass or blend in with my female counterparts as they are either slobs in leggings and baggy tops or trying hard to be 18 again in skinny jeans and crop tops.  A few of my female friends don't even own a dress or skirt. There is just no elegance left."

I guess this is where we separate the girls from the boys who just want to dress like girls.

The boys who just want to dress like girls will continue to seek out and wear the feminine styles from the last century. In the future, it may become difficult to buy those styles off the rack and the boys will have to resort to buying from specialty shops to buy their dresses, skirts and shoes just like the sissy crowd does today.

On the other hand, the girls will dress like cisgender girls no matter what cisgender girls are wearing. That is, to a point; tastes vary and some girls will not wear certain styles no matter how popular they may be. And whether all girls will abandon "feminine" styles completely remains to be seen.

Personally, I have yet to femulate in jeans and a baggy top because I seldom femulate in scenarios calling for very casual wear. However, if I lived full-time as a girl, I am sure jeans and baggy tops would be a part of my wardrobe.

And for what it is worth, I have shopped for women's jeans, but could not find any that fitted properly. Also, I do own and wear woman's slacks in a variety of styles, so I do not shun bifurcated womenswear per se.

 

   

Actor Sean Bean femulates in British television’s Accused, 2012.

 

Wearing Equipment (sweater), Current/Elliott (pants), Rag & Bone (belt),
Diane von Furstenberg (shoes) and Golden Lane (clutch).

Girls on YouTube

Sunday some friends and relatives stopped by for dinner (deep fried turkey with all the fixings) and to watch the NFL playoff games.

After the company left and we cleaned up, I collapsed on the couch and surfed the channels looking for something entertaining and/or trans-related. I ended up watching Boat Trip figuring it had some femulating potential. There was some drag in the film, but nothing to write home about.

With my laptop lap, I began surfing the Internet looking for any womanless pageants and male-to-female transformations that I have not seen.

There was one pageant and one transformation that were worth noting (this pageant and this transformation), but the highlight of my late night surfing was this video of a tween-aged boy being transformed into a tween-aged girl at the hands of his sister. The boy's enthusiasm is addictive and his reaction to his transformation is priceless.

I don't have a clue if he is trans. He has a couple of other transformation videos online and at the conclusion of this one, he thinks he looks pretty and "wants to stay like this."

So, you go, girl!

Wearing Dion Lee (dress), Alice & Olivia (coat) and Rachel Zoe (shoes).

Boys will be girls, girls will be boys.

Vintage Drag Strips

Dotty Dripple was a daily comic strip modeled after Blondie. It ran from 1944 to 1974 in newspapers throughout the land and also appeared in comic books of that era. 

The above strip appeared in October 1953 in Horace and Dotty Dripple #32 and in my humble opinion, was the model for That's Our Dad, which appeared in National Lampoon Sunday Newspaper Parody in July 1978.

Wearing New York & Company

Boys will be girls and girls will be boys.

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

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!

Womanless Beauty Pageants

By Jasmine

I have discovered on various other sites the phenomenon known as the Womanless Beauty Pageant (WBP). Males of all ages, but the contestants seem to be predominantly boys of school age and younger, parade about in pretty dresses and heels and wear wigs and makeup in the hope of winning a tiara and sash.

The vast majority of them look very convincing as girls!

What a truly wonderful concept and what a great way to get boys into femininity! The hardest obstacle – initially getting a boy to wear anything that he associates as being girly – is overcome with gentle encouragement and the assurance that he won’t be the only boy wearing a dress. 

Once the boy is fully dressed up as a beauty queen, he will soon get used to the strange experience of suddenly having a skirt swishing around his legs, balancing and wobbling in high heels, having long hair, wearing clinking, pretty jewelry and wearing cosmetics and even find it fun, especially once he joins the other “ladies” and compares how he looks alongside them.

He will find out that he can be as pretty and feminine as any girl and will gain an insight into femininity. He may, hopefully, want to enjoy the experience again and, overcoming his embarrassment and male pride, be brave enough to ask his mother to furnish him with a new wardrobe for him to explore and appreciate his girlish nature. 

Boys (and men) of all ages should be actively encouraged to take part in a WBP. This is a great way to begin to get males to become more feminine and will perhaps give the significant females in their lives, seeing how pretty their men and boys can be with a little effort, ideas about keeping them that way! 

As far as I can see, the WBP was born and is practiced in the USA at present, but I hope that the WBP will soon be imported to the UK, Europe and the rest of the world. Imagine how much better the world would be with males concentrating on trying to be Miss World rather than trying to dominate the world. 

I for one would love to take part in one when they arrive over here and will happily put on my gown and high heels.

(This post originally appeared in Jasmine's blog, Gender Role Reversal.)

Wearing New York & Company

Eamon Farren femulating in the Australian television-film Carlotta.
You can view the entire film on YouTube (I highly recommend it).

Shopping During the Pandemic

This came over the Mojo Wire from CBS News a few days ago:

Ann Taylor and Lane Bryant's corporate owner filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Thursday, the latest retailer to do so during the coronavirus pandemic.

Ascena Retail Group of Mahway, New Jersey, which operates nearly 3,000 stores mostly at malls, had been dragged down by debt and weak sales for years. As part of its bankruptcy plan, the company said that it would close all of its Catherines stores, a “significant number” of Justice stores and a select number of Ann Taylor, Loft, Lane Bryant and Lou & Grey stores.

That’s bad news for girls like us and all girls, in general. I shopped at Lane Bryant when I was heavier, at Ann Taylor when I was lighter and I will miss them both.

Meanwhile, DressBarn, which closed all its stores’ doors last year keeps on chugging along via the Internet.

Initially, their Internet offerings were blah and did not interest me. But lately, they have been showing some edgier clothing – a lot of it intended for younger customers. Seems that they are now selling clothing from other sellers. For example, the dress in the photo above right is from SukiSo. (Click on the boutique menu on the DressBarn website to see what I mean.)

Meanwhile, my femulating is still quarantined. There is no place for a girl to go to show off her girl! Frustrated by it all, I keep buying more clothes that I can’t wear out yet! Two new dresses from Venus should arrive today and a new dress from Haband should be shipped real soon now.

And so it goes!

Olivia

Boys can can-can, too!