paris during fashion week

Rena posted the following question on the Connecticut Outreach Society e-mail list:

This is bit of a long one! Like OK if there was such a thing as a Magic Pink Pill that turned you into the most beautiful GG for a week, (anyone you want you choose) with endless finances to do anything you wanted. Who and What would you do with your week? Vegas? Hollywood? New York? Back to School? Volunteer at a Senior Center? You Won't be Graded it your Fantasy!

Here is my response:

Paris during Fashion Week.

Skip the Magic Pink Pill… I'd go as myself. Fly from JFK to Paris on the Concorde (oh, darn, the Concorde is no more!). Well, I'd fly First Class to Paris one way or the other. Get a spare-no-expense, head-to-toe makeover. Go shopping for some drop-dead outfits, then spend the rest of my time attending the various Fashion Week events in the City of Lights.

simply gorgeous

Recently, I received an e-mail asking me to provide step-by-step instructions on how I do my makeup.

I was flattered, but being a professional writer, I was not confident that I could quickly compose a set of instructions that would accurately describe what I do. Not to mention that my makeup regime is a work in progress; I am always trying out new techniques when I do my makeup.

An aside: As a writer, I have often thought about writing a crossdressing how-to book. I already have a title, Be A Babe, with the tagline, Instead of looking like "the Babe," look like a babe! The question is, if I write it, will people buy it?

Getting back to the providing step-by-step makeup instructions, I started researching sources for instructions and in my quest, I discovered a video titled Simply Gorgeous. It was highly rated, so I rented the DVD from Blockbuster.

Here is the product description from Amazon.com:

Actress and television personality Catherine Hickland (from ABC’s One Life To Live) is also one of the most sought-after beauty authorities in the country, and finally shares her makeover secrets. Put your best face forward with Simply Gorgeous, the new video that teaches you how to go from out-the-door beautiful in the morning to drop-dead gorgeous at night. A great gift for teens or that bride-to-be who wants a perfect wedding day. Simply Gorgeous will delight soap opera fans and makeup junkies alike. Get the inside scoop on looking as fabulous as a daytime diva in no time at all.

I don't watch soaps and I was not familiar with Catherine Hickland, however, her makeup instructions were very simple, but very effective. Ms. Hickland is gorgeous and using makeup to improve her looks is gilding the lily.

In order to prove the effectiveness of her technique, she performs makeovers on average-looking women and the results are outstanding.

Just add beard cover and I think that Ms. Hickland's techniques would be just as successful transforming average-looking crossdressers into passable women. I highly recommend this DVD to anyone who wants to learn how to apply makeup in a simple, yet effective manner.

a frivilous friday blog posting

Surfing the net, I came upon a blog that praised the wardrobe actress Claire Danes wore in the film Shopgirl. For what it's worth, I liked the film, I liked her in the film, and I liked the clothes she wore in the film.

Anyhow, the blog had photos of the various outfits Claire wore in the film, but was especially enamored with one dress, a "1950's-inspired Prada dress."

See for yourself (the dress appears on the right). The dress is to die for! The dress is me; it is a classic "Staci dress." I wish I owned it and I plan to search the catalogs for something similar for myself.

(If any of you readers find something similar in a Misses size 16 or 18 or Women's size 14 or 16, please let me know.)

dream analysis

I am trying to make sense of my crossdressing dreams. In that process, I have been researching dream analysis on the Internet and found a web site that I believe will help me.

The web site is Temple of Dreams. The lessons on their Teachings page have been very informative.

and now for something something completely different

When I awoke this morning, I remembered what I dreamed last night and it had absolutely nothing to do with crossdressing!

my endless collection of shoes

I am so like a woman in my love for shoes!

I own more shoes than I can possibly wear. Almost all are high heels of various styles (pumps, sandals, boots, etc). Some are so painful to wear, that I shouldn't, but I do anyway. (If that doesn't qualify me as a fashionista, I don't know what does!)

So, just what I need: a new shoe store has come online from the same folks who brought you Amazon.com. It is called Endless.com and after a quick perusal of their web site, I already have found new shoes that are to die for!

my dreams

I am on a roll! It happened again this morning. Like most mornings during the past week, I remembered a dream from the previous night.

All the dreams I have remembered recently are similar in the following ways:

• Each dream is transgendered/crossdressing related.

• In each dream, I am getting crossdressed.

• In each dream, I am getting crossdressed away from home, i.e., in a hotel room or in a bedroom that is not familiar to me.

• In each dream, I awake before I am finished crossdressing (which is very frustrating, by the way).

• In each dream, friends and/or relatives are present or nearby when I am crossdressing and they are encouraging, supportive, and/or approving.

I don't know much about the significance of dreams, but I am going to research the subject to try and understand why I am dreaming what I am dreaming.

new drug treatment for transgender kids

A new treatment for transgender kids puts puberty on hold so that they won't develop into their biological sex.

Read all about it here.

another trans dream

I had another trans-dream last night.

I remembered some of the details when I awoke this morning, but after attending a funeral on this very hot summer day, the details are lost now and all I remember is that I had a trans-dream.

By the way, it was so hot and humid that the only way I would crossdress today is by wearing an itsy bitsy, teeny weeny, yellow polka dot bikini.

missing underwear!

I remembered another dream last night and, of course, if I remembered it, then it must be a trans-dream.

I am in a room getting ready to attend a formal event. The room is not my home, but a bedroom in someone's home or in a classy hotel suite.

I remember exactly what I was planning to wear: a champagne colored babydoll cocktail dress.

I finish doing my makeup and start getting dressed, but I can't find my underwear. I am sure I packed it. In fact, I remember exactly where I packed it, but it isn't there. I search high and low without success. I keep looking everywhere, then the dream fades away.

separated at birth

I just noticed that the girls in today's Femulate This and The Femulated photos look alike. The Femulate This photo is a Spiegel model, whereas The Femulated photo is an Argentine transvestite entertainer named Florencia de la V.

right out of fictionmania*

When I was a kid in the mid-1960s, my mother worked in a discount department store that went out of business long before the arrival of Wal*Marts and K*Marts. Mom worked the 5 to 10 PM shift in the fabrics department, cutting yards of fabric for customers to take home to sew.

Everyday, my Dad, who worked 7 AM to 3:30 PM, would send us kids to bed around 9:30 PM and then drove across town to pick up my mother from work. During that drive, we were supposed to go to sleep. Sometimes I fell asleep, sometimes I did not.

On those nights I did not fall asleep, I would hear my parents come home and listen to them exchange stories about their day. I don't remember many of their stories, but I do remember a story concerning one of my mother's customers. Evidently, this woman was a regular customer, became friendly with my mother, and confided with her that all the fabrics and dress patterns she had been purchasing were for outfits she sewed for her son. The boy was about my age and preferred dressing as a girl; his mother willingly complied with his wishes. At one point, the woman brought her son to the store dressed as a girl and my mother remarked that he was a very pretty girl.

As you can imagine, this story impressed me. I wished I was that boy. I wondered if my mother would do the same for me.

My mother was a whiz at the sewing machine and sewed outfits for her and my sister. I am sure if I confided in her, she would have sewn a few dresses for me, too.

* www.fictionmania.com

"femulate this:" and "the femulated:"

The images on the right change on a daily basis (more or less).

In the past, I have received a few comments regarding the Femulate This: images and no comments regarding The Femulated: images. The comments regarding the Femulate This: images have been positive; the commenters like what they see.

The Femulate This: images have been on the blog since the get-go (or soon after the get-go), while I added The Femulated: images more recently.

I never explained the purpose of these images.

I think that purpose of the Femulate This: images is obvious, i.e., they are images of females to emulate. (I can dream, can't I?)

The purpose of The Femulated: images is to illustrate the attempts of others to emulate females. (Yes, the images portray males emulating females.)

happy independence day

The Fourth of July is just a reference to a calendar date. No matter how much they try to brainwash us with "Fourth of July," remember it is really Independence Day, the day that the colonists thumbed their noses at the British and said we will do it our way, not your way.

Independence Day was the precursor of our Constitution and the Bill of Rights that some of our current leaders and fellow citizens are trying to curtail (and have curtailed to some degree) to better fit their idea of what this nation should be: a nation under their "Christian" god.

Well, their Christian god is not mine. Their god does not have compassion for anyone that does not follow what they consider to be society's "norms." There is no room for transpeople, as well as the other segments of GLBT in the nation under their Christian god.

Our forefathers separated from Britain to get away from people like these so-called Christians and it is time we reclaim the real meaning of Independence Day here before it is just a fond memory.

And remember, Jesus Christ was a liberal, not a neo-con.

daddy got new shoes

Payless is showing their fall lineup of shoes on their web site (check out "New Arrivals"). The description for one of their new women's shoe style was interesting:



If it's a "menswear pump," shouldn't it be listed with the men's shoes, not the women's shoes?

I will be anxious to see what the guys will be wearing with their new menswear pumps this fall. Perhaps, a menswear pencil skirt and menswear pantyhose and, of course, a menswear pocketbook.

not that there is anything wrong with it

I naively assume that people are aware that if you are a crossdresser, you are not necessarily homosexual.

I think that assumption is wrong.

Surfing the Internet, I discovered the error of my ways. The average Joe and Josephine believe that if you crossdress, you must be gay. For example, read the comments following this blog entry on J Morgetron's blog Tres Bizarre.

The fact is that if you crossdress, you are not necessarily gay. I crossdress and I assure you that I am heterosexual. The majority of crossdressers I know or have known (and I have known hundreds) are in the same boat, i.e., they are not gay.

We crossdress because we enjoy emulating women, unlike some gay men, who use crossdressing as a means to attract men (for sexual encounters).

I admit that when I crossdress, some men have taken notice of me, so I assume I must be attractive to them. When that occurs, it affirms my ability to pass, i.e., I use it as a gauge as to how well I am crossdressing. If a man finds me attractive (and he is not a tranny chaser), then I must be doing something right.

no dreams to report

I awoke this morning knowing that I dreamed last night, but I have absolutely no recollection of what I dreamed about last night.

As noted earlier, all the dreams I remember lately are trans-oriented, so perhaps none of my dreams last night were trans-oriented and that is why I didn't remember them. On the other hand, for all I know all my dreams may be trans-oriented and I just remember dreams on a very intermittent basis.

another dream

Don't know why, but I remembered another dream. That is two nights in a row that i remembered a dream and it is another trans-oriented dream.

I am in an apartment where my recently deceased mother lived. The apartment in the dream is nothing like the one in which my late mother actually lived.

I am alone and I am sorting through her belongings deciding what to keep and what to throw out. Since I am alone, I decide to start trying on her dresses to see which ones to keep for myself. I tried on a few (none of them were anything she actually owned), then I was interrupted and the dream ended.

I need a haircut

I had a dream last night that I remembered. As I have written here before, I seldom remember my dreams. On those rare occasions that I do remember a dream, it is often trans-oriented.

For about a week now, my wife has been telling me that I need a haircut. My hair is kind of shaggy and needs to be trimmed, but it is not really long. Anyway, I will probably get it cut next week.

In my dream last night, my wife is telling me that I need a haircut just like in real life. I disagree with her and then I go look in the mirror to inspect my hair. When I look in the mirror, I am wearing a shoulder length dark brunette pageboy that is perfectly coiffed. Then, I take a comb and start combing my long hairdo.

That is all I remember.

I am not a drag queen

I am not a drag queen!

Yesterday, there was a "GLBT" pride celebration in Hartford. Today's Hartford Courant had no articles about the event, but the newspaper did publish one photo from the event, which it featured on the front page of the Connecticut section of the paper.

Guess what the photo showed?

Gay couples with their children in tow? No.

Appropriately attired transpeople taking in the event? No.

Over-the-top drag queens preparing to perform a number from Hairspray? YES!!!

You seldom see the media showing appropriately attired transpeople. That would be boring. The media prefers to show drag queens.

Some of my friends, relatives, and acquaintances know that I crossdress. They have never seen me crossdressed, but I am sure they have seen news reports about GLBT pride events and like the "report" in today's Hartford Courant, they almost always feature flamboyant drag queens. So, I have no doubt that some of my friends, relatives, and acquaintances think that when I crossdress, I dress like a drag queen, too, because that is all they know about crossdressing.