Someday Funnies

Wearing Tanya Taylor

Trans activist and pioneer Alison Laing out and about (circa 1960)

(Alison and I became friends when we stayed at the same B&B during Fantasia Fairs. She was a sweetheart and our community misses her so.) 

Gabi Interviewed, Part 2

By Paula Gaikowski

While scanning the transgender subs on Reddit, Femulate contributor Paula Gaikowski became intrigued by a girl named Gabi, who worked at a bank presenting as a woman a few days a week. 

One of my dreams was to work while presenting as a woman. My company and bosses supported my dream, but except for regular Halloween and Christmas party appearances en femme, I did not follow my dream. So I was fascinated by Gabi’s success working as a woman. And lucky for us, Gabi has kindly agreed to an interview about her working life, which was conducted by Paula. 

Part 2 of the interview follows (Part 1 appeared here on Wednesday).

Femulate: I believe you spent as long as a week working as Gabi. How did you feel at the end of that week?

Gabi: I think working one day as a woman and the next as a man kept me grounded in the sense of making it not that difficult to be in boy mode. But I definitely thought of transitioning often and I still do. At the time, going back and forth didn’t have any negative consequences on my psyche because it was all so new and exciting. 

It was also the most I had ever been able to express my femininity outwardly. Over time, I do wonder if going back and forth maybe stunted my possibilities of transitioning. I wonder if maybe it gave me just enough femininity to ease those urges and still enough male privilege to keep that attractive enough. Being away from a job where I dress since then, has been difficult. It was hard going back to more exclusively boy mode.

Femulate: How did family and friends react to you working as a woman?

Gabi: My family never really discusses much in the first place and they have never brought up my dressing. I do live very far away from them and I didn’t really advertise my dressing on the social media that they use. I will say that I did make a second, Gabi only, Instagram account. My long-time domestic partner has always had mixed feelings about my dressing and I do understand that it can be confusing and difficult for those around us. A lot of my friends, mainly female, embraced Gabi. Others have never really brought her up

Femulate: Your employer and colleagues were amazingly positive and supportive. Did you experience any trans-phobic comments or actions? A follow-on question would be did you experience any misogyny?

Gabi: I never received anything but support from my coworkers, which was absolutely amazing. I did have a customer speak to the guy version of me about Gabi where he described her as a man in a dress or something along those lines. I was very lucky to not have to face any of that while I was Gabi at work. 

I was in a store one time and my friends told me that some guys were mocking me behind my back while I was shopping. 

But honestly, I have been incredibly lucky with how safe I have been in my work environment, when shopping, eating and enjoying nights out. In many ways, I have always tried to be extra safe. I have stayed in public places and been alert. Some nights spent in Italy could be a bit worrisome as it got darker later, but I always did my best to be as safe as possible.

On the issue of misogyny, I will say that women are often treated much differently. I have had men tell me to smile. Here is a good word of advice to any men – don't do that. It is annoying and patronizing. I had male customers treat me like I didn’t know anything or how to do my job. Some of those guys were assholes to my male side, but in a more aggressive way, I suppose. 

When in Italy, while I was looking at my phone outside of a lingerie shop, I had a guy creepily ask me, “Voi (do you want)?’ while pointing at a lingerie set in the window. I have been followed by men on the streets asking to hang out with them. I had a man try to invite himself to my hotel room and follow me late at night. Men in Italy are much more aggressive in some respects. That isn’t to say some haven’t politely asked me to dinner, but I never agreed to go since I was in a relationship and I also did not wanting them to figure out I wasn’t born a woman. You never know what could happen with some people, so I am extra cautious.

Luckily, in the professional setting, so many people are women and that was as very true at the bank branch I worked at that, so I felt no workplace misogyny.

Femulate: What did you learn about living as a woman and yourself?

Gabi: I think I learned more about how deeply my feminine side runs. How it is a center of joy and light. How even during the worst times, it still feels right and comfortable in some ways. And I gained even more empathy for others doing so. I always say that everyone should crossdress at least once.

Femulate: What advice would you give to someone who wanted to try working as a woman?

Gabi: Number one: Make sure you are comfortable with your co-workers and the environment. If it is a potentially hostile or unsafe work environment, it might not be the best place to try to reveal and try to live something that for so many is deeply personal and important.

Number two: Make sure you are comfortable with yourself and where you are along your journey. Confidence is the most important thing to being able to function while dressed as a woman in society when you weren't assigned as one at birth. Be happy with your skill level with makeup and make sure that you have enough appropriate clothes for the job you are going to be doing. Early on we think of “passing” as the be all and end all, but there are so many women out there in all shapes and sizes. There is no set parameters for passing. How you hold yourself, your poise, your confidence, your joy, your inner spark, that is what will make your choice of presentation acceptable to most people in the world. Honestly, most people see the clothes, hair and makeup to such an extent that it is easier for them to code you as a woman.

A final point that goes along with confidence is be ready for bumps in the road. Some days your makeup will feel off. Some days someone might clock you or say something that is hurtful. You have to be able to handle that just as well as you would if they did that to how you normally present yourself.

I am not exactly sure what the future holds for Gabi honestly. I am hoping to find a way to work as her again. And who knows, maybe I will transition. That always feels like an option honestly. Now I need to see if that is what feels right.

For more about Gabi, click here to visit her Reddit page. 

Wearing Rue La La

Richard Gibson (left) femulating in British television's ’Allo ’Allo

Someday Funnies

Wearing Brooks Brothers

Lovely ladies night out

Gabi: A Working Woman Interviewed

By Paula Gaikowski

While scanning the transgender subs on Reddit, Femulate contributor Paula Gaikowski became intrigued by a girl named Gabi, who worked at a bank presenting as a woman a few days a week. 

One of my dreams was to work while presenting as a woman. My company and bosses supported my dream, but except for regular Halloween and Christmas party appearances en femme, I did not follow my dream. So I was fascinated by Gabi’s success working as a woman. And lucky for us, Gabi has kindly agreed to an interview about her working life, which was conducted by Paula.

Femulate: How did the opportunity to go to work as Gabi come about? It’s a big step to come out at work and you only worked some days as Gabi.

Gabi: Well, first I had been working at the place for a few months beforehand. That can have its positives and negatives. One of the big negatives is you can feel awkward and trapped by people knowing your male persona. But a huge positive is that you can gauge how people are and if you are comfortable with sharing this part of your life with them.

Once I determined that I felt comfortable with the environment and my coworkers, I began showing pictures of myself as Gabi. I was saying that I wanted to dress up for International Women’s Day to show my support. I had done so as a teaching assistant in graduate school so I had those pictures to help show I do it seriously and professionally.

For whatever reason, I didn’t end up doing it for International Women’s Day that year, but a few months later, I was away in Italy on an archaeological dig and messaging one of my coworkers. We had become good friends and I will actually be her maid of honor for her wedding this September! She happened to be ordering name tags for the bank branch and we were joking that it would be awesome if she ordered me a Gabriella name tag so I could dress as a woman for work. She ended up actually doing it and then had to explain to my boss who the tag was for. Luckily, my boss already knew about my dressing and is the single coolest lady I have ever known and such an inspiration. My boss handled telling the rest of the branch that it might be happening. 

When I returned home from Italy, I began to work as Gabi. I settled into a routine of working as her Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and in guy mode Tuesdays and Thursdays. The way my facial hair grows, it is difficult to shave close enough to dress for hours in the daylight on consecutive days. I also found that if I wore something that covered up my body a bit more on Wednesdays, I only had to shave my body Mondays and Fridays.

Femulate: How would a typical day as Gabi start?

Gabi: A typical day started waking up much earlier in the morning than I would have to as a guy. For my job, I usually started at 10, so I would wake up around 6 to give myself plenty of time. Mondays and Fridays consisted of shaving my body and my face. Then I would go about putting on my makeup. I actually made a YouTube video showing exactly what I do, which I learned from a professional makeup artist. 

I generally had my outfits already picked out in my head so I could kind of coordinate the makeup with them (I loved wearing a purple lipstick with a purple dress). Once I finished my makeup and clothes, I would just go to work and probably pick up a smoothie or something drinkable for breakfast so that I didn’t mess up my makeup too badly.

Femulate: What are some of your more memorable moments working as Gabi?

Gabi: There were lots of memorable moments. I will always remember how absolutely cool my co-workers were with the whole situation. I marched in the local Pride parade (my bank  happened to be the main sponsor of Pride in Buffalo). I felt really comfortable as Gabi there, in general. 

I always found it funny when people would talk with my guy side about Gabi without realizing we were the same people. One time a customer insisted that my male persona had worked with Gabi on a previous occasion. For example, “That girl in the purple dress, you were here.”

I had one customer compliment my sultry voice, which was a huge confidence boost because who among us hasn’t worried about that? 

A Filipino woman once asked me when my baby was due. I was in such shock that all I could reply was, “Not for a while.” That gave me very conflicting feelings, as you can imagine. 

I also saw firsthand how differently men can treat women in  very annoying and rude ways like telling them to smile.

That concludes Part 1 of our interview with Gabi. Part 2 will appear here real soon now. 

For more about Gabi, click here to visit her Reddit page.

Wearing AVAVAV

Eve catching rays at the Conrad Hotel in Fort Lauderdale

Someday Funnies

Wearing Venus

Víctor Palmero femulating on Spanish television’s La que se avecina

Summer of ’84

Summer of ’84, the ARRL sent me to Metairie, Louisiana, to speak at a ham radio convention. My wife came along, not to hear me speak, but to visit the world’s fair, which was next door in New Orleans. 

After the convention, we spent one day at the fair and another day seeing the sights in New Orleans. After walking around the French Quarter for a few hours, we rested our derrieres on a park bench in Jackson Square. And what to my wandering eyes should appear, but two femulators walking side-by-side through the park. They were dressed in “office girl drag,” that is, skirt suits and high heels with wigs and full makeup. 

Their presentations were convincing, but seemed out of place on that very hot and very humid summer day in the city of New Orleans. In retrospect, they were probably like so many of us – dressed to kill for that one day out en femme that they had been planning for weeks – the weather be damned.

I mention this sighting because it was the first time I had ever seen femulators out and about among the civilians. Until then, the only femulators I had seen were in books, magazines, films and television shows – never in the flesh.

Needless to say, I was impressed and a little jealous. My four public forays en femme were under the protection of Halloween. I never dreamed I would femulate in public on a day that didn’t close out the month of October. Yet, a few years later, I attended my first support group meeting en femme (see photo) and the rest is herstory.

Wearing SheIn

John D. Collins and Nicholas Frankau femulating on British televison’s ’Allo ’Allo.

Someday Funnies

Wearing Elisabetta Franchi

Paco León femulating for Spanish television's The House of Flowers

A Big Win at the Casino

Continuing with our Out and About theme, here is an outing that I completely forgot about until I was browsing through some old blog posts.

Friday, I went to the Mohegan Sun casino to play slots and have fun.

It was a miserable drive from my home to the casino with heavy rain falling the entire trip. The bad weather and slowed traffic added almost 30 minutes to the normal 75-minute trip.

I arrived at the casino at 11 AM and found it busier for midday weekday than it has been in awhile. Either the economy is better or a lot of vacationers abandoned the nearby Long Island Sound beaches for some dry indoor activities.

I played quarter slots for the first 90 minutes and was down about $10. After lunch, I switched to two-cents and one-cent slots and my luck improved. By the time I quit and headed for home, I had $248 more in my purse than when I arrived!

People-wise, I had one very interesting encounter. When I ate lunch – a glass of seltzer and a salad topped with grilled chicken – I sat at the bar rather than at a table in Big Bubba’s BBQ because I wanted to check out all the breweriana on display behind the bar.

Half way through eating my salad, I had a new real life experience! A middle-aged guy sat next to me, ordered a beer and began chatting with me.

I cleared my throat, spoke softly and held up my half of the conversation.

After about 10 minutes, I emptied my glass of seltzer and the guy asked me if he could buy me a drink.

“Where was this going?” I wondered. I did not want to find out, so I played the spoken-for card.

“No thank-you,” I said, “I’m happily married.”

“Is your husband here?” he asked.

“What difference does that make?” I asked.

“Well, he is a very lucky guy.”

“Thank-you,” I said.

"It was nice meeting you.”

“Nice meeting you, too,” I returned.

With that, he paid his bill and left the restaurant.

Wow!

Wearing Jonathan Simkahi

Jenny Shaw out and about at The Magpie Cafe in Whitby, North Yorkshire, England

(The Worst From) Someday Funnies

Over his panties

Wearing Badgley Mischka

Kandi Robbins out and about shopping at Talbots
(Be sure to read part 2 of my interview in Kandi's blog today)

Not Out and About

My previous Creative Cocktail Hour
appearance, October 2019

I was so looking forward to Thursday because I was planning it to be my first post-pandemic en femme outing among the civilian population of Connecticut. I even purchased a new dress and heels for the occasion and I have been dying to wear them out. 

My plan was to attend the first post-pandemic Real Art Ways monthly “Creative Cocktail Hour,” but I will have to postpone my coming out until next month.

For most of this year, I have had on and off pain and swelling in my private areas. I hoped it would go away on its own, but of course, it did not and it got worse as time marched on. So I finally visited my doctor last month and the diagnosis was an inguinal hernia. 

If I sit on my dupa all day, I am fine, but if I start walking around for a bit, the pain begins and lasts for hours thereafter. As a result, I have given up my daily one-mile hikes through the woods, as well as all outings en femme.

The good news is that I am having surgery to correct the problem later this month. My surgeon is using a new procedure that reduces recovery time to a few days, so hopefully by this time next month, I will be out and about en femme as Goddess intended.

Wearing Paige

Joey out and about in a big box grocery store