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.

My Store is Open!

In my last post, I mentioned that some readers asked how they can support the blog monetarily. One way is via Amazon. You buy something you want or need and the blog gets something, too.

Some of my blog posts have links to Amazon. If you click on one of those links that takes you to Amazon and you make a purchase, the blog receives a percentage of your payment.

I have also opened Stana’s Femulate Boutique, an Amazon aStore, where you can purchase items on Amazon that I use and recommend. I started populating my boutique with items to buy this weekend and I will be adding new items everyday.

If there is anything you want and don’t see in my boutique, let me know and I will add the item(s) as soon as possible.

Thank you for supporting the blog.

Wearing Etienne Aigner.

Marek Kaliszuk femulates Li'l Kim, Katarzyna Skrzynecka impersonates Christina Aguilera and Stefano Terrazzino femulates Pink on the Polish version of television's Your Face Sounds Familiar.

Weekend Wanderings

Source: Amanda Hawkins' TG Toons and Artwork

This cartoon from Pinterest makes me chuckle because something similar happened to me.

One spring day, while I was walking on Fifth Avenue in New York City, a group of young males approached from the opposite direction. As I passed them, one of the males remarked, "Dyke."

He had no idea how good that made me feel!

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Tammy wrote...

I am a big fan of your site. I look at it every day and I love the yearbook collection, especially the pictures from the 70's when I was in high school. I never participated in a womanless pageant so it's fun to live vicariously through the pictures.

Is there an easier way to see just the new photos rather than going through each letter of the alphabet and then going to the end of each album? In the past, you had one large collection with the most recent photosat the beginning, so it was easier to see the new additions. No matter what, Thanks for posting them!

I replied...

flickr made some changes and the other option did not always work reliably, so I decided not to mention it. Maybe it is working today, so if you want to try it, click here and hopefully the newest pictures will be at the beginning of my Photostream.

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Readers ask me how to support the blog monetarily.

One way is via Amazon. Some of my blog posts have links to Amazon, for example, here is a link for Avon makeup wipes. If you click on the link and purchase the makeup wipes or anything else on Amazon, the blog receives a percentage of your payment.

That is a very painless way to support the blog; you get something you want or need and the blog gets something, too.

So, support Femulate! And thank you in advance.

Wearing Elizabeth and James.

Zac Efron femulating in the 2017 film Baywatch.

Coming in April: Transgender Lives

The 11th Annual Transgender Lives Conference: The Intersection of Health and Law will be held on Saturday, April 29 from 8:00 AM until 5:00 PM at the UConn Health Center in Farmington, Connecticut.

This year's keynote speaker is Nicole Maines.

I will attend and present a workshop titled "Makeup Basics for Trans Females." In addition to mine, there will be more than 40 other workshops; here is a description of them all. There will also be a trans families track (four consecutive workshops) by PFLAG and a drop-in clinic by GLAD to help anyone change his or her birth certificate.

This conference is a full day concentrating on transgender lives, that is, concentrating on You. Admission is only $25 and includes a free lunch if you register before April 24 (who says, "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.")

The UConn Health Center is located half way between Boston and New York City (about 110 miles either way) just off I-84 Exit 39, so it is an easy drive for folks living in the Northeast.

I hope to see you there. I'll be the 6-foot-2 blonde in 4-inch heels – you can't miss me!

Wearing Venus.

Dylan Stephens, male womenswear model

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

Wednesday Wanderings

Twisted Viewpoint

My perspective of the world around me is heavily influenced by being a transwoman.

A few days ago, one of the e-mail fashion newsletters I receive (The Cut) featured an article titled, "I’ve Started Dressing Like My Mother." You can guess what came to mind when I read that title, whereas a civilian would likely interpret that title very differently (and correctly).

So Retro

While I was touching up my makeup in the ladies' room at UConn on Friday, a young woman remarked, "I love your earrings!"

After I thanked her, I laughed to myself because I was wearing a big old pair of clip-ons, which I am told are so old school when compared to the pierced variety.

Good Reception

My friend Diana is active in various LGBT organizations and as a result, she gets to attend GLAD's annual "Justice for All" reception in Hartford. The reception attracts many of the makers and shakers of Connecticut's LGBT community as well as Governor Dan Malloy and other state politicians.

Diana invited me to attend the reception. Of course, I accepted her invitation and am very excited about the prospect of rubbing elbows with the Governor, who has been a big supporter of trans and gay people.

So what does a girl wear to a Sunday afternoon reception that the Governor will be attending?

Wearing Talbots.

Still femulating at the 2017 Night of Stars in Austria.

Tuesday Tips

In the past, I recommended baby wipes for removing makeup. After all, if it's safe enough to use on a baby's bottom, then it should be safe to use on your face.

Friday evening, when I was ready to take off my makeup, I discovered I was out of baby wipes. I remembered that in the recent past, I had acquired a package of Avon makeup wipes that had been bundled with some other cosmetic products I had purchased.

I found the package and used three wipes to remove all my makeup including my eye makeup and the foundation and powder on my neck. The wipes did a better job than baby wipes. With baby wipes, I always had to use Avon eye makeup remover on my eyes, but the makeup wipes handled my eye makeup without any added help.

That sold me on makeup wipes.

By the way, after removing makeup, I always moisturize and you should, too.

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When I did my "Makeup Basics for Trans Females" presentation on Friday, there was one tip that surprised a lot of the girls in attendance, so I thought I would pass it on to the girls who read Femulate, too. It is no big revelation. It is something I learned long ago – probably during my first makeover. I assumed it was common knowledge, but my assumption was in error, so here it is.

When you apply foundation, make sure you also apply it to anything contiguous with your face that will show. That includes your ears, neck, and whatever portion of your breasts and shoulders that will be visible. Otherwise, there will be an odd-looking mismatch between your face and yours ears, neck, etc.

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During my presentation, the girls were curious about what brands of cosmetics I use. Since I am an Avon representative, I use a lot of Avon products, but I do stray away from Avon for some of the makeup I use.

Here is a list of what I use currently (in the order I use them).

Moisturiser – Olay
Eye Shadow Primer – Urban Decay
Foundation – Make Up For Ever
Contour – Marc Jacobs
Blush – Avon
Translucent Powder – Laura Mercier
Eyebrow Pencil – Avon
Eyeshadow – Avon
Eyeliner – Avon ( I use black eyeshadow with an eyeliner brush)
Mascara – Lancome
Undereye Concealer – Avon
Lipliner – Avon
Lipstick – Avon

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Any questions?

Wearing By Bazaar.

Femulators at the 2017 Night of Stars in Austria.

"Girls'" Day Out

Friday, I attended the True Colors Conference and presented “Makeup Basics for Trans Females.”

The site of the conference is the UConn campus in Storrs, Connecticut — one of my life’s happy places — and it is always wonderful to return to my alma mater.

My presentation was at 1:15, so I did not have to get up early and rush to Storrs. Instead, I even had time for breakfast, dressed and left home at 9:30 arriving on campus an hour later.

I wore a dress rather than pants as I originally intended and I don't think it made much of a difference during the five-minute walk between the parking garage and the Student Union. What I really needed was a hat. The wind was so blustery that I thought my wig was going to go airborne, but I made it indoors in one piece.

(Fashion Note: I wore my black laser cut dress from Avon, nude pumps from Payless, fake white fur jacket from Fashion Bug, nude thigh high hosiery from Berskshire, big beige bag from Avon, jewelry from Napier and Avon and a variety of unmentionables.)

Indoors, I checked in and received my presenter’s package. The first round of presentations were underway, so there were not many students moving through the building. I took advantage of the low level of activity to camp out in one of the Student Union lounges to go over the presenter’s package and review my presentation. I found a window seat with a nice view of the quadrangle between the Student Union and the Benton Art Museum.

It is one of the few open spaces remaining from my days as a student on campus in the early 1970's. Most of the other open spaces have been taken over by classrooms, dorms and sports facilities (when I was going to UConn, we launched model rockets and played touch football in the space now occupied by the garage where I parked my car). That’s progress!

After doing some paperwork and going over my presentation, I thought I was in an excellent spot for a photo, but I did not see anyone I knew to designate as the photographer. A woman seating nearby was reading texts or e-mails with her iPhone, so I figured she would be a good candidate to take some photos with my iPhone. So I asked and she was very happy to shoot me.

Just as she began, one of my long time trans girlfriends, Angie, came into the lounge, called me “Beautiful” like she always does and that put a big smile on my face that is evident in the photos I posted from the conference. (It is amazing the difference between a posed smile and a natural smile.)

As the time for my presentation approached, I found my assigned room and settled in. Thirty-two people showed up. They were all school-aged (middle school through college) and I thought that some of them were already gorgeous and did not need any help from me; they could probably teach me something. It turned out that one of the “gorgeous” girls works part-time at Sephora. I asked her a question about lip gloss that she was happy to answer, so "they" did teach me something!

The presentation went well. There were questions, answers and a lot of give and take, but I don’t know. I wonder how valuable it is to teach teens and twenty-somethings makeup basics and tricks that a 66-year-old transwoman uses? Some of what I do is applicable, but I will have to make some adjustments to my presentation for any future young audiences.

After my presentation, I attended my friend Diana’s presentation on post World War II trans history. One goal of her talk was to counter the popular notion that there was no trans advocacy until recently. Her presentation showed that there was a lot of trans advocacy throughout the post-war era including Stonewall, where trans peeps have been written out of some histories of that uprising.

Diana and I planned to dine after her presentation, so we left UConn and rendezvoused a half hour later at a restaurant in Manchester, where we have dined after the previous two True Color Conferences. The big difference this year was that the conference was on St. Patrick’s Day, so the restaurant was busier than after past conferences.

Our waitress was the same as in previous years and she was as affable as before, but this time, instead of referring to us as “ladies,” she called us “girls.” That was different in a good way and made me smile.

After dinner, we went our separate ways and I arrived home at 7 PM, a little tired, but very happy after a productive day out.

Wearing Tumi luggage.

David Walliams (right) femulating in an advertisement for television's Britain's Got Talent.

SaveSave

A Thousand Words

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here is a photo from my Friday visit to UConn to attend the True Colors Conference. I will compose 967 more words about yesterday later.

At the True Colors Conference, UConn, Storrs, CT, March 17, 2017

Please standby

I am presenting at the True Colors Conference today. If I have time and energy, I will tell you about it later today, but more likely, I will tell you about it tomorrow.

Source: Harper's Bazaar

Romain Duris femulating in the French film The New Girlfriend.

Who Wore It Better?

I was up at 5:30 AM and the first thing I did was power up the TV to watch the weather and traffic reports.

I tuned to channel 8, WTNH out of New Haven and the talking heads (Keith Kountz and Laura Hutchinson) were at it. Suddenly I am wide awake as I notice that Laura is wearing the same Calvin Klein dress that I own –– the white cable knit sweater dress I am wearing in the photo at the top of the blog.

That is second time in the past month that I noticed a woman wearing the same dress I own. The other was Kate Goselin, who was wearing a Calvin Klein color block dress that I own.

I have to say that Laura and Kate have excellent fashion sense!

Wearing Veronica Beard.

Ryan Downey, male womenswear model