Nailing It

I am not full-time, although I wish I was, so I can’t wear my fingernails in a female fashion 24/7. Instead, I wear pre-glued, press-on nails when I femulate. They go on fast, stay on forever and they look good – so good that I have received many compliments on my nails.

My go-to pre-glued, press-on nails were the Kiss brand. I bought and used Kiss nails for years, but Kiss kissed off the product and they are no longer available except for sellers of old stock (and those are drying up, too).

When I learned that Kiss pre-glued, press-on nails were going away, I stocked up, but my stockpile is dwindling and I have been searching for a replacement.

StyleCaster posted an article by Nikki Brown, Best Press On Nails 2020: Stunning Picks for When You Want an Express Mani, that features 10 brands of press-on nails. They are very attractive and I decided to take a flyer on one of the less expensive brands (H&M). I will review them here when I have an opportunity to wear them

Caveat Emptor: Obviously, the fake nails are sized for women. If you have wide nails, the fake nails may not be large enough to cover your natural nails. I am lucky to have feminine fingers and all the fake nails I have ever tried cover my natural nails, but your mileage may vary.

Wearing Zimmermann

C is for crossdressing, civilians and Coppell, Texas, where in 1996, Matt Garber’s prom appearance at is hands-down one of the most outstanding Not a Civilian? presentations of all time! By the way, if Matt was “the only male to wear make-up to the junior-senior prom,” it begs the question: Did other male students attend the prom en femme, but without makeup?

Wearing JustFab button front sweater dress and JustFab Sofie peep toe pumps for my May 6th photoshoot

Femulate Illustrated

Wearing Lela Rose

Moving up the alphabet to the letter B, today’s lovely “Not a Civilian?” laddy hails from Bryant (Arkansas) High School. He (or she) is Wade Barnes, who was the winner of the high school’s 1972 “Miss America” pageant.

Wearing Boston Proper vegan leather dress and Nine West “Bliss” pointy toe pumps.

Wednesday morning, I had to decide whether to move three yards of loam outdoors or photograph myself wearing pretty new outfits indoors. It was a difficult choice and you can see the results of that decision above.

Non-Civilians in Womanless World

Jasmine Bond commented on my previous post:

“Womanless events was something I never heard of until I've been reading your blog. This concept is somewhat interesting but perplexing and I would like to learn more about them. Without having done the research, it seems like these events were not necessarily pro-trans but a way to exclude women and treat them like second class citizens, an unfortunate dynamic that has been too long a part of our culture. Just as unfortunate, this still exists today with women earning less for the exact same jobs as their male counterparts. While there is a certain appeal for the woman in me in that these events occurred, I also can't help feel that they were a way to suppress women. It's too bad that we don't have events like these that promote trans women and are supported by cis women who would provide education, a loving environment and support to trans women like us. I'd be interested in hearing your take, Stana, on my thoughts.”

I have never attended or participated in a civilian womanless event. However, I have seen countless videos and thousands of photos documenting womanless beauty pageants, weddings, fashion shows, etc.

I am of two minds regarding womanless events.

The Bad

I hate the way some of the participants parody women. Shaking their asses, flaunting their boobs and in general, acting like boobs is disrespectful of women. Is that how they think their wives, mothers and sisters act?

I find it difficult to believe that any wife or mother would be OK with their husband or son acting that way. The audiences seem to be very amused by the antics of some of the participants, which doesn’t say much for how the audience respects women, too.

By the way, the younger the womanless participant, the more respectful they seem to be. Grammar school “girls” are well-behaved ladies compared to their middle and high school sisters.

The Good

Womanless events give non-civilians an opportunity to express their feminine side in public with a safety net – the safety net being the event itself where it is OK for guys to be girls temporarily.

I recall my high school’s basketball team crossdressing to perform in my school’s annual Irish Minstrel. I was so jealous and wished I had the opportunity to do the same in public with some kind of safety net. If my school had a womanless event, I believe that I would have mustered the courage to be a participant and I feel that most non-civilians would be similarly inclined.

Womanless events have their good side and their bad side. Does the bad side outweigh the good side? I dunno, but from the perspective of a non-civilian, I believe I would put up with the bad to take advantage of the good.

Source: WhoWhatWear

Austin High School, Decatur, Alabama, 1985

As I wrote in my previous post, I killed my flickr account (for economic reasons). Besides a handful of personal photos, the account also included thousands of photos from womanless events that Starla culled from school yearbooks. 

To make up for that loss, I decided to feature some of Starla’s photos in this new “Not a Civilian?” slot. 

During the next 25 posts, I intend to sort through all of the photos in alphabetical order (alphabetized by school name) and each day, feature the “girl” who in my humble opinion, is most likely not a civilian (just like you and me). Boys who dress up as girls on Halloween get 2 bonus points and boys who attend proms en femme get 5 bonus points. On the other hand, boys with leg hair, lose 2 points and boys with facial hair lose 10 points.

Kicking off “Not a Civilian?” with the letter A is the lovely Johnny McLemore from Austin High in Decatur, Alabama.

I Killed My Friend flickr

A femulator at Hanford High School
(Richland, WA) in 1981 

I killed my flickr account.

Because of the vast quantity of images I had posted on flickr, I needed a “Pro” account, which only cost $25 per year when I signed up for it back in 2015. Last year, the price increased to $50 per year.

Friday, I received a PayPal receipt indicating that flickr was now charging $7 per month ($84 per year). That was the last straw and I killed my Pro account as quick as a Playboy bunny.

I actually had only a few dozen personal photos on the site, but I also had nearly 5,000 photos of womanless events that Starla culled from online high school yearbooks. I hope to find a new, less expensive home for those images real soon now.

Source: Beyond the Rack

A womanless wedding, circa 1910, put on by the Boys Club in Waterbury, Connecticut. Not the greatest femulations, but I am posting the image for two reasons: (1) Waterbury is my hometown and (2) womanless weddings in Connecticut were rare – in fact, this is the only Connecticut womanless wedding I am aware of.

Someday Funnies

Wearing Cynthia Rowley

Pretty femulators in the kitchen, circa 1965

Never Gets Old

Five Days in Ohio

I am tapped out, so I am repeating a post I did on a previous May Day. I hope you enjoy it despite it being a rerun.

Velma wrote, “Your comments on having two days out en femme in one week brought a recollection from one of our recent support group meetings. Several of us had concluded that they feel satisfied, grounded, calmed and focused after about two days out femulating per week. More time out than that did nothing to increase the changed feelings, but additional femulation almost became burdensome.”

Burdensome?

Hardly.

Sure, it feels good to kick off my heels and take off my girdle after a day out as a woman, but I am always ready to do it over again the next day and the day after that.

Why?

Despite my body parts, I am a feminine being and femulating fulfills the need to express that femininity that I had hidden in a closet for most of my life.

And I disagree with the statement that “More time out than that [2 days] did nothing to increase the changed feelings.”

Quite the contrary, every additional minute that I am out en femme just confirms my being as feminine. My feminine reaction to every little thing that occurs when I am out just adds to the pile of confirmations that indicate that I am indeed a woman.

Velma also wrote, “I am aware you have mentioned that you would dress full time if possible. Did you always feel this way or did this desire grow and evolve through time? How many days have you gone dressed en femme on a continuous basis?”

Once I discovered that it was possible to live full time as a woman, I had a strong desire to do so. My commitment to my wife is the only thing holding me back, so I try to fulfill that desire as best as I can  by living full time as much as possible in those chunks of time that do not involve my wife.

My longest continuous chunk of time en femme was seven days the four times I attended Fantasia Fair for the full week. But in my opinion, that does not count because it is not a real life experience. Most of the civilians you encounter in Provincetown are aware that the Fair is in progress and assume every tall woman is a femulator.

So I feel that my longest real life experiences en femme were my five days attending a workshop in New York City and my annual five-day trips to Ohio to attend Hamvention. There most of the civilians are unaware of my origins and I can genuinely experience life as a woman.

Wearing Bebe

Teri Hatcher and David Spade on a 1996 episode of Saturday Night Live.
You can view the skit on YouTube.

My Wednesday

My Fair Lady Dept.

Quarantined, I am watching the first season of The Sopranos on HBO. Being a late adopter, I missed the first year and a half of the series when it was originally broadcast back in 1999, so these episodes are new to me.

I also watched “NYC Subway Front Window View - The Manhattan-Bound 7 Express Line” on YouTube. Basically, this subway line travels between Flushing, Queens and Manhattan passing by the site of the 1964-65 World’s Fair.

It is very nostalgic trip for me because we took this line the first time my family visited the Fair in 1964. It is also a reminder that I wanted to revisit the site en femme for a photoshoot at the Unisphere and other remnants of the Fair. Maybe I will be able to pull that off in the fall or next spring after things return to normal.

My IMPOTUS Dept.

I received an email that opened with “WHY...are you biased against the President?”

Besides being intellectually and psychologically unfit for the job, IMPOTUS has waged a nonstop onslaught against the rights of trans people since the day he took office.

There are too many battles and skirmishes in Trump’s War on Transgenders to enumerate here. The National Center for Transgender Equality keeps track of such things and you can view the complete list here.

Anyway, for the life of me, I cannot understand how any trans person can support someone who is working hard to limit and/or eliminate their human rights.

My response to “WHY...are you biased against the President?” is “WHY ...are you not biased against the President?”

Wearing Karen Kane

I love this photo. Looks like a classroom, so I assume it is a gender switch event that middle and high schools sponsor on occasion. Typically, the boys and girls crossdress to emulate middle and high school girls and boys, but in this case, the femulators look like they are emulating adult  women, perhaps their teachers!

Go Figure

This presentation moved one of my
friends to ask if I was on hormones!

I mentioned in my previous post that I lacked a female derriere. And I gave up trying to do something about it because the results were not satisfactory and more trouble than they were worth. I will forgo the padding and femulate with the narrow waist and wider hips that my girdle and long-line bra assimilate.

Although I lack a female derriere, Goddess has blessed me with female breasts. I assume I have Gynecomastia, but I never sought out medical help for the “problem,” so I don't know for sure.

Personally, when it comes to Gynecomastia, it has been a cup half empty or cup half full scenario.

In my youth, the cup was half empty.

My peers abused me and bullied me because I was a feminine boy, which was bad enough. Revealing my breasts just gave my abusers more ammunition, so I avoided participating in any activities that involved going topless because when I went topless, it did not always go well.

For example, I will never forget a game of touch football at a family picnic. I was unlucky enough to be on the skins team and my breasts were bouncing around during every play and became the object everybody’s attention (so it seemed). When one of my uncles made a crack that some of the players needed bras, I was so embarrassed that I had to hold back the tears.

However, as I got older and began to embrace my womanhood, I learned to appreciate my feminine body. When I wore a revealing blouse, I discovered the joys of Gynecomastia ― add some push-up bra inserts and a little makeup and my breasts rivaled many women’s breasts.

Today, I am proud of my breasts. They bring me joy because they so represent being a woman and I am proud that I am a woman. Even when I am in boy mode, I just have to touch my breasts to remind me that I am a woman and it brings a smile to my face.

So, as an adult, the cup is half full (actually, the cups are nearly full).

Wearing Ann Taylor

The girls give Shia LaBeouf a makeover in a 2000 episode of television’s Even Stevens.
You can view the episode on YouTube.

It’s Monday (In Case You're Losing Track Like I Did!)

More Bad News Dept.

Fantasia Fair has been cancelled this year due to Trump Virus. Jenn relayed the bad news to me and as luck would have it, we both were making plans to attend Fan Fair this year (first time for her, first time in six years for me).

Sadly, “Wait ’til next year” is becoming an all too familiar refrain this year.

Something Lacking Dept.

I lack a female derriere. Viewing head-on, I have a reasonable facsimile of a female figure (created with the right combination of foundation garments), but viewing my profile, there is something lacking.

I tried to simulate a female derriere with padding (both homemade and store-bought), but have never been satisfied with the results. It was more bother than it was worth, so I decided to abandon the effort and go natural.

I will continue to narrow my waistline and widen my hips with a high-waisted girdle and long-line bra, but just as I have no padding in my bra, I will have no padding in my girdle.

Worth Reading Dept.

I loved T-Central's pick on Sunday – a post from Susan Miller’s blog titled “Friday night Susan time, and who I am.” I so identify with what Susan wrote and I highly recommend it to all. Click here to read it.

Wearing Venus

Toby Sawyer and Lucy Liemann crossdressing in the 2006 British film Private Life.
You can view this short film on YouTube (part 1 and part 2)

Someday Funnies

Wearing Boston Proper

Mihau Traistariu femulates Thalia on Romanian television’s Your Face Sounds Familiar.
You can view the femulation on YouTube.