the goal is acceptance

last night out

I attended my support group's meeting last night. It was the last meeting before the group's two month summer hiatus and there were about 15 in attendance. I knew most, but there were a couple of new faces, too.

We had salad, pizza, dessert, and refreshments, then we elected the officers for the next 12 months. I was "elected" newsletter editor (I ran unopposed).

The rest of the meeting consisted of pleasant conversation. It was a nice evening out en femme.

Due to time constraints (I was running late), I did not go shopping before the meeting.

four dresses

Spiegel's online catalog has four dresses that I like. They are just my style and I think they would look good on me.
Currently, they cost $60, $100, $60, and $19, respectively.

I would buy the $19 dress in a New York minute, but it is a clearance item and is only available in size 4!

I will wait and perhaps someday soon the others will become clearance items in my size.

Transgender series served its purpose

We (the Nashua Telegraph) tried to humanize a population that has in many quarters been dehumanized. When people are dehumanized, they are more likely to be the targets of violence, even fatal violence. When they are dehumanized, they experience depression and suicide at a much greater rate.

A good community newspaper promotes understanding and compassion in the community it serves in the interest of all populations, no matter how small. Sometimes that means taking on a subject that is challenging to the newspaper and discomforting to many readers.

This was one of those times.

Read all about it here.

Equality, shmequality! Just become a man

Imagine you're a rural woman living in an impoverished and patriarchal country where your life is worth exactly 12 oxen. You're unable to carry a weapon, own property or move freely. What's a girl to do? Until recently, for some Albanian women the answer was: Become a man.

Read all about it here.

random thoughts on Tuesday

The top five phrases that cause search engines to send searchers to this blog are femulate, fictionmania, kate salehurst, katesalehurst, and dresses for men.

• femulate is self-explanatory


• fictionmania is a web site mentioned here a few times. It is an online repository for crossdressing fiction.


• kate salehurst, katesalehurst is a beautiful trans-woman, who I mentioned here once or twice


• dresses for men is intriguing. Is it an indication that non-trans-people are looking for dresses for men? Are non-trans-males adding dresses to their wardrobe? Are women searching for dresses for their men?

***

I am going out en femme Wednesday evening, primarily to attend my support group's final meeting before the group’s two-month summer hiatus. Before the meeting, I also plan to go shopping. There is a DSW Shoe Warehouse that I must check out and Dress Barn is across the street!

I’d walk a mile for a camisole

I plan to go out en femme Wednesday evening to attend my support group’s final meeting before the group’s two-month summer hiatus. I plan to wear a black dress that I’ve worn before and from past experience, I know that the loose V-neckline of that dress will reveal the top of my bra.

If I wear a black bra, then no problem; my bra will blend in with my dress. However, if I wear a white or beige bra, I will want to hide my bra, so I will wear a camisole over my bra/under my dress to camouflage my bra.

Camisole camouflage (or “cami camo”) addresses a variety of fashion issues. As I wrote in my top 30 things every crossdressing man needs in his wardrobe to emulate a woman, "buy one camisole or better, buy two: one in black and another in white. I own a half dozen because they can solve so many personal wardrobe dilemmas."

femulate, the word

There is a discussion on CrossDressers-Forum.com concerning the word “femulate.”

Some folks like the word, some folks don’t. Each to his/her own.

Also, some have no idea where the word came from, so I left the following message:

I started my blog, http://femulate.blogspot.com, in February 2007, and made up the word "Femulate" to name my blog.

At the top of my blog, I define femulate thusly: fem·u·late (fem´ya-lat´) v., To imitate, copy, or try to be like a female.

The words "femulator," "femulation," "femulating," etc. are derived from "femulate."

Have fun!

100,000 milestone

Wow!

The hit counter on this blog incremented past 100,000 a few hours ago.

February 12, 2007, the first week this blog was on the net, it averaged 29 hits per day. This past week, it averaged 640 hits per day.

I guess I am doing something right and I hope that my writing has helped you to accept and embrace your or someone else's gender diversity. Thank you for visiting and revisiting.

yet another ephemera update

I have yet another new addition to my ephemera collection: a postcard from The Beige Room in San Francisco.

Cyd Charisse's legs

Some readers may not know much about Cyd Charisse, who died Tuesday and who I wrote about here yesterday. So here is an article by Danny Miller that describes the wonderful lady.

Cyd Charisse died

Film actress-dancer Cyd Charisse died yesterday. (You can read all about here.)

I have a tenuous connection with Ms. Charisse: we share the same birthday (month and day of month, not year).

Did you ever look at those celebrity birthday lists to see who shares your birthday? The only celebrities I knew on the list for my birthday were Ms. Charisse and baseball star Jim Rice, so when I heard about Ms. Charisse's death on the news last night, the first thing I thought of was that we share birthdays.

In addition to sharing birthdays, some people would say that we share something else. Ms. Charisse had great legs and I am told that I have great legs, too.

Personally, I think that my legs are ok, but other people are convinced that they are more so. Mom often said I had beautiful legs (and that I "should have been a girl with legs like yours"). My wife and other genetic women have admitted that I have nicer legs then they do. Other trans-folk have complimented me on my legs, too. One of my friend's significant other even calls me "Leggy!"

the name game

Reading a magazine waiting at the doctor's office on Friday, I learned that Barack Obama's deceased mother's name was Stanley Anne Dunham.

"Stanley" is yet another male name that has been appropriated to name a female.

If other parents follow Obama's grandparent's lead and name their daughters Stanley, will Stanley enter that gray area of names that can be either male or female?

And if Stanley catches on as a female name, parents will stop naming newborn males Stanley and it will become a female-only name like the following former male names that are now considered female: Alexis, Ashley, Beverly, Brook, Carol, Courtney, Dana, Doris, Evelyn, Florence, Gail, Glenn, Heather, Hillary, Jocelyn, Kelly, Kelsey, Kim, Leslie, Lindsey, Lynn, Madison, Marion, Meredith, Paige, Robin, Shannon, Shelley, Shirley, Sydney, Taylor, Tracy, Vivian, Whitney.

If this trend continues, parents may eventually use up all of the male names to name females and may be stumped on what to name newborn males. Then will the other shoe fall, i.e., will parents start appropriating female names for their newborn sons and name their boys Sarah, Elizabeth, Mary, Susan, Diane, Katherine, etc?

I find the feminization of the name Stanley interesting from another viewpoint. My given male name is Stanley. Can I now safely go out en femme and use Stanley instead of Staci? Probably, yes.

still more TransPride photos

Courtesy of Glenn Koetzner, here are 150 photos from the New England TransPride March and Rally in Northampton, MA, on June 7.

my ephemera update

I have two new additions to my ephemera collection: a postcard and a souvenir photograph from Club 82 / 82 Club in NYC.

me, too

word of the day: prink

This was actually yesterday's Word of the Day. I think it belongs in every crossdressing fashionista's vocabulary.

prink \PRINGK\, transitive verb:
1. To dress up; to deck for show.

intransitive verb:
1. To dress or arrange oneself for show; to primp.

Tara has supermodel legs and is already getting used to being prinked and coiffed as she prepares for her first beauty contest in the autumn.
-- Raffaella Barker, "Diary hatched, matched and almost despatched", Daily Telegraph, September 6, 1997

The point is reinforced by a clutch of contemporary art photos . . . showing plump nudes prinking and preening like pouter pigeons, and, in one case, a couple of dancers deliberately posed to recreate a Degas painting.
-- Hilary Spurling, Daily Telegraph, January 23, 1999

Prink is probably an alteration of prank, from Middle English pranken, "to show off," perhaps from Middle Dutch pronken, "to adorn oneself," and from Middle Low German prunken (from prank, "display").

Dad of a trans and trans Dad

These are random thoughts about my Dad, the "Dad of a trans," and myself, a "trans Dad."

My father has been dead for over 20 years, but I think of him often. He was a great guy and I know he loved me, but I think he was a little uncomfortable around me because I was not a typical "boy" and because he saw me crossdressed for Halloween on a couple of occasions. On the other hand, when I crossdressed on Halloween, I remember my Dad warning me to be careful because other males might hit on me.

When my wife was pregnant, I hoped that our baby would be female because I feared that I might not be an adequate role model for a son. I was very relieved when a daughter showed up instead of a son. Turns out that my daughter has been very supportive of my transness; who knows if a son would have been the same.

Happy Father’s Day to all.

Harper's Bazaar, July 2008

Gwyneth Paltrow... Wow! On newsstands now!

more TransPride photos

Courtesy of GLAD, here is a link to more photos from Saturday's New England TransPride March & Rally.

Also, please read GLAD Transgender Rights Project Director Jennifer Levi's thoughts on the march at her blog.