Eureka Drag!

In my late teens and early twenties, I would occasionally take the train into Manhattan and explore The City. During one of my explorations, I was taking in the huge display of magazines and newspapers on sale at the newsstand in Grand Central Terminal, when what to my wandering eyes should appear, but a magazine titled Drag.

Now, this was not the typical drag magazine I was used to seeing back home ― magazines that featured hemis, gassers, headers, blowers, mag wheels, Garlits, funny cars, Moon parts, etc. No, this drag magazine featured guys in gowns, boys in bras, men in minis, fellows in fishnets, males in marabou, etc.

Wow! I had found a magazine just for me!

I looked around me to see if anyone was looking at me looking at the magazine sitting on the rack. The coast was clear, so I reached for the magazine and flipped through it quickly to make sure it really was a magazine about trannies and not trannies. Satisfied, I handed it to the newsdealer and paid the exorbitant (for circa 1970) cover price of $3 (that's almost $22 in 2022 money).

As the newsdealer put the magazine in a brown paper bag and handed it to me, he gave me a dirty look. No fan of drag was he, but I did not care because I had in my hands something I hoped would expand my knowledge of the world that I seemed to be part of.

Drag never showed up on the local magazine racks, so I did not buy the magazine unless I was in NYC and could do so surreptitiously if I happened to have any company on those trips. As a result, I only acquired two or three issues of the magazine and cherished them until “The Great Purge of 1983,” when they went out to the trash with all my other girly paraphernalia.

Over the years, I saw clippings from Drag on various Internet places and I even saw complete issues for sale on eBay at exorbitant prices that I was unwilling to pay. But last week, Diana of Little Corner of the Nutmeg State fame, e-mailed me with some good news: complete issues of Drag were now available for downloading from Internet Archive.

So I plan to reverse “The Great Purge of 1983” and rebuild my collection of Drag.

Wearing Missoni

Femulators on stage in a 1984 Italian film titled Delitto al Blue Gay also known as Cop in Drag. Delitto al Blue Gay is jam-packed with femulators. You can view the film in its entirety on YouTube.

Someday Funnies: Shopping for “Her”

Wearing Bebe

Three’s Company all-male-cast, on stage circa 2016

Battle of the Bulge

Too often, I am surprised to see a photo of a lovely trans lady spoiled by an unsightly bulge below the waistline.

I am sure that sometimes a visible bulge is intentional, that is, for whatever reason, the “lady” wants viewers to know that she is really a he. On the other hand, most trans ladies prefer that the bulge be invisible.

If you wear a garment with a pleated or flouncy skirt, then hiding your boy parts is usually not a concern. Pleats and flounces hide the bulge, but nearly all other womenswear require that you attend to the bulge.

The ultimate solution is to have those parts surgically removed. But if you are not ready for the ultimate solution, there are other ways that involve tucking those parts out of sight and maintaining the tuck. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, so I point you to wikiHow's tucking instructions.

Personally, I have never used tape to maintain a tuck. For my preferred method of staying tucked, scroll down the wikiHow page to “Trying Alternatives to Tape.”

The tape-free method works as long as the garment you use to maintain the tuck is tight enough. Surprisingly, I found that a gaff performs a poor job. I bought a gaff in the last century and was unimpressed with its staying power. Maybe 21st Century gaffs are better ― I dunno.

On the other hand, I have had a lot of success staying tucked by wearing panty girdles and spandex bikini-style panties (not at the same time, and the tighter, the better).

And so it goes (and hopefully, doesn't show).

Wearing StyleWe

Grayson Perry, one of my heroines

Someday Funnies: Househusbands’ Day Out

Wearing Le Redoute

John Ritter femulating again on television’s Three’s Company. John was a frequent femulator on television and in film. There are many images of his femulations throughout the Internet, but his best femulation (in my opinion) is no where to be found. It occurred on his detective television series Hooperman. In a 1988 episode titled ”In Search of Bijoux,” Hooperman goes undercover as a transvestite to nab a slasher. I saw the episode when it originally aired and was impressed by John’s presentation, but I never saw it again and never found any images from that episode. And so it goes.

Catch Up

I took a 10-day break from blog writing, although I did keep the blog rolling with daily Someday Funnies. The break was health-related. Diagnosed with osteoarthritis, I was (and still am) exhausted from dealing with its symptoms.

During the break, I received some emails that have gone unanswered, but I promise to catch up and answer them this week.

On Thursday, I was evaluated for physical therapy and will begin sessions twice a week starting tomorrow. 

During the evaluation, I asked the therapist if I will be able to wear high heels again and she laughed at my “joke.”

When I indicated that my question was serious, she was noncommittal replying that it depends on how well my therapy goes. Then she asked if I really wear high heels?

I opened my iPhone and showed her a photo of me in heels. She was amazed and said that I will have to visit the office in heels after my therapy is over. 

Wearing Khaite

Actor Randy Thompson

Someday Funnies: The Future is Female

Wearing Selfie Leslie

A ladies’ room mirror selfie taken during my annual trip to Hamvention in 2010 – the first year I attended the event presenting as a woman. Click here to read about that adventure.

Someday Funnies: LBD4MTF

Wearing Bebe

British prisoners of war (POWs) femulating on stage in a German POW camp during World War I.

Someday Funnies: Avon Calling

Wearing Venus

Cast member of Irving Berlin’s traveling U.S. military play This Is The Army, femulating starlet and Hollywood actress Carmen Miranda during World War II.

Someday Funnies: Our Favorite Twins

Bob Saget and Dave Coulier femulating in a 1990 episode of television’s Full House.

Someday Funnies: An Honest Misstake

Wearing Bardot top and Danielle Bernstein skirt.

December 2009, I am dressed up to dine with friends and to go to a casino for the first time en femme – I had an amazing evening and you can read about it by clicking here.

Someday Funnies: Happy TV V-Day

Wearing BCBGMAXAZRIA

David Drake femulating on stage in My Tawny Valentine (2012)