My Kind of Birthday Party

“Private Birthday Party is a private collection of found photographic slides that depict Kansas City’s early drag ball culture throughout the 1950s and 1960s. With over 200 images, this collection is a rare, important look into the rich history of mid-century drag ball culture in middle America.”

You can view a sample of the collection here and read a Cut article and interview about the collection here. Thank you Aunty Marlena for the links!

The photo above is very telling. Which femulator passes best? The three girls in glamorous attire or the girl in street clothes?

 

 

 

A Kansas City femulator and her friend in 1964 (from the Private Birthday Party collection).

 

 

 

Wearing Spense.

UConn’t Sleep

I am a UConn graduate, Class of ‘73, and the past few days have been very exciting. It's not often that a school wins NCAA championships two days in a row! Go Huskies!

But there is a dark side; I am sleep-deprived.

The late games kept me up past my normal bed time. And there is no catching up because I still have to get up at 5:30 AM to feed the cats and get ready for work. I have been very tired the last few days and I look like something the cat dragged in due to the loss of beauty sleep.

I am in awe of people who can party all night, get little or no sleep and still look great in the morning. I see that phenomena occur whenever I attend conventions or Fantasia Fair. Most people are like me --- we suffer when we don't get enough sleep, but there are a few people who can get away with it.

Maybe it is similar to how some people can eat and drink everything in sight and not gain a pound, whereas I have to be very careful about my diet in order to maintain my girlish figure.

Go figure.

They say, "You can never catch up on lost sleep." But I'd like to try.

 

 

 

A proud mother and her trophy-winning femulating son at a vogue ball, circa 1985.

 

 

 

Wearing Hayden.

My Sin

How often have you heard older transwomen say that they wished they were growing up today? I have said it many times myself.

Actually, I enjoyed growing up when I did. The only reason for wishing I grew up today is that there is a huge body of accessible knowledge about transgender folks that did not exist when I was young. Back then, all I had to go by was one sentence in our family's encyclopedia that mentioned transvestism.

I had no idea why I crossdressed. All I knew was that I liked it, but was ashamed of it and told no one about it. My shame and guilt convinced me that what I was doing was very wrong and that I would go straight to Hell (do not pass go) when I died. So I made up my mind to confess my big "sin" the next time I went to confession.

Since I went to a Catholic high school, that opportunity presented itself quite regularly. So the next time our class marched to church for confession, I will never forget how nervous I was. But I had made up my mind and when I entered the confessional I was read to spill the beans to be absolved and never crossdress again.

I quickly confessed my venial sins, but I just could not confess my big one. After I hemmed and hawed for awhile, the priest figured out that something was up. He said that if I had a sin that I was too embarrassed to confess that all I had to do was admit to that fact and he would absolve me.

What a deal!  He was offering me a free pass! But I was so embarrassed that I did not take him up on his offer and I left the confessional with my big sin still weighing me down.

 

 

 

Actors Richard Deacon and Adam West femulating
in the 1980 film The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood.

 

 

 

Wearing Basix.

Starla's School Stars

I had not heard from Starla since last year and I figured that the well had run dry — that there were no more student femulations to be dredged up from the online high school yearbooks. So it was a surprise to receive an e-mail from Starla over the weekend with 106 new photos attached.

Hands down, Miss Todd Matlock (pictured right) wins the Most Likely to Still Be Femulating Today Award from this latest batch of photos, which are now posted on 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.

Two femulators out and about in 1978.

Wearing Madeleine.

Pejic Speaks

Transcendent fashion model Andrej Pejic sat down for an interview with Isabel Wilkinson for New York Magazine's The Cut.

Four years ago, when model Andrej Pejic walked in the John Paul Gaultier show, people weren’t sure what to make of him: Here was the prettiest woman they’d ever seen — with long blonde hair and high cheekbones — who just happened to be a 19-year-old boy from Serbia. 

Over these last few years, Pejic — who now identifies with female-specific pronouns — has landed major jobs in the fashion world: walking in men’s and women’s shows, and modeling in countless editorials. And around her there have gradually been more images of gender diversity in the fashion world, with models like Casey Legler and Lea T rising to fame, as well as Barney’s much-lauded transgender campaign.

Now Pejic is branching out — and, as many models do, building her brand. Last night at the Gilded Lily, she launched a line of minimal 3-D-printed jewelry in a collaboration with the brand Sam H Snyder. Next, she is shopping an almost-finished autobiography around to literary agents, filming a documentary about her life, and plotting a move into modeling cosmetics. She spoke to the Cut about building Andrej Pejic Inc., how the industry has become more open to gender diversity — and the work that’s still left to be done.

Read the entire interview here.

Circa 1920, a West Point cadet femulates in a stage production at the academy.

Wearing Robert Rodriguez.

Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb

Attend any transgender event and this scene is not out of the realm of possibilities.

Personally, when I am en femme at a transgender, LGBT or civilian event, I refuse to use the men’s restroom or even the family restroom. Instead, I always sashay my derrière to the ladies’ restroom when nature calls or for those Max Factor moments.

I will never forget attending an LGBT fundraiser a few years ago where they designated one bathroom for transgenders. I was insulted as were many of my trans-sisters and when we had to go, guess which bathroom we did not go to? The folks running the event got the message and never pulled that stunt again.

 

 

 

Boy George femulating as the cover girl for the December 1984 UK edition of Cosmopolitan.

 

 

 

I love this dress and the whole outfit. The image appeared in an e-mail from MyHabit on Thursday, but the dress was not available on the MyHabit website. It looks similar to some of Sue Wong’s designs, but I could not find an exact match. If they had it in my size and the price was right, I would have bought it.

A casa by any other name is still Casa Susanna

Casa Susanna was a guest house in the Catskill Mountains of Upstate New York where crossdressers dressed en femme during their visits in the 1960s.

Although not mentioned by name, My Year Among the Girls by Darrel G. Raynor published in 1968 documented one crossdresser's experience at Casa Susanna.

Casa Susanna by Michel Hurst and Robert Swope published in 2005 was a collection of snapshots found at a New York City flea market that depicted various crossdressers during their stay at the guest house.

I have mentioned both of these books here in the past. My Year Among the Girls was an eye-opener for me; reading that book when I was 17, I discovered that I was not alone.

Later this month, Casa Valentina opens on Broadway. It is a play written by Harvey Fierstein and is loosely based on the activities that occurred at Casa Susanna 50 years ago.

I hope I have an opportunity to see the play, preferably en femme.

 

 

 

Harvey Fierstein, circa 1970.

 

 

 

Wearing Madeleine.

The Many Aspects of Gender

By Romana

Romana wrote an interesting piece for Femulate, “The Many Aspects of Gender,” which describes her take on gender. Her article is long, so you will find it in its entirety on a separate webpage, but the introduction to her article follows with a link to the rest of the article. 

I have gained a lot of experience in my seven and a half years living full-time as a transgender woman. My Buddhist meditation practice has revealed many unexpected insights. My life has always been experiential, constantly trying new things out. I guess Asperger’s syndrome has enabled me to be quite bold. I have never been in the closet. My hormones had been out-of-balance for years, but that has been fixed, causing my entire psyche has come into focus. I am now legally Romana and legally female, without any gender-altering surgeries. Recently, I have been communicating with women just like another woman, so I think I now have a woman’s point-of-view. Women’s issues have become mine, and I have developed a true desire to improve women’s lives. I have reached, or aspire to reach all my recommendations.

I think that image and clothing is a catalyst that can provide a gateway to variations of gender expression beyond standard. New gender experiences can be liberating, because they can allow one to try out a diversity of behaviors that might otherwise have been severely restricted. that they can negotiate.

Read the rest of the article here.

 

 

 

The Raelle Sisters – sibling professional femulators circa 1972.

 

 

 

Wearing Madeleine.

A Little Class

There was interest in having a Femulate gathering at Fantasia Fair this year, so I completed the workshop proposal and submitted it to Dallas Denny, the Fantasia Fair Program Coordinator.

With the workshop proposal, I also had to submit a recent photo for publication in the Fantasia Fair Program Guide (in case my workshop is approved). Instead of submitting any old recent photo, I used Photoshop to insert a backdrop into a recent photo to give it a little class. The result appears to the right.

To make up for missing International Transgender Day of Visibility on Monday, I femmed-up my appearance for Tuesday with skinny jeans, a hip-length magenta tunic, black flats, and pink lip gloss.

Nobody mentioned my appearance. Either they did not notice or they were not surprised.

 

 

 

Claude André, a French professional femulator circa 1960

 

 

 

Wearing Red Valentino.

Her Suits Her Fine

Yesterday was International Transgender Day of Visibility.

I missed it. I would have dressed more appropriately for work on Monday if I knew beforehand. On the other hand, I am glad that I was dressed in boy mode on Monday.

I drove to work through a wintry mix of rain, sleet, and snow. As I parked my car at work, the wintry mix was no longer mixed and it snowed for the next three hours depositing 5 inches of heavy snow throughout my neck of the woods!

Like I said, I am glad that I was dressed in boy mode because I hate walking in heels through slush. However, I did display visible signs of my femininity yesterday.

Have I mentioned that I am letting my hair grow?

I have not visited my hairdresser since November and my hair is now the longest it's been since my college days. A woman engineer at work noticed my long hair the other day and said it looked "cool."

I noticed other people at work checking out my hair. Some of them may be thinking that my days as a boy at work are numbered and that I will be working as a lady real soon now. 

Meanwhile, no one on the home front has mentioned it, although my sister made a negative comment the last time I saw her. This is the same sister who is a big LGBT supporter with one exception: her transgender brother, so I took her comment with a grain of salt.

I am not sure how long I will let my locks grow. They are harder to hide under a wig now and at a minimum, they need to be neatened up by a professional.

And so it grows.

 

 

 

A West Point cadet (right) femulates in a circa 1920 stage production at the academy.

 

 

 

Wearing Robert Rodriguez.