my en femme encounters with Bond, James Bond

Seems like James Bond is everywhere these days. A new Bond film came out recently, there are Bond movie marathons on the tube, and the new issue of Mad Classics has a retrospective of Mad magazine parodies of the old Bond flicks.

The Mad retrospective caused me to recall some things trans-related to James Bond that influenced me when I was a newbie femulator.

I can never forget the opening sequence of Thunderball, which had the bad guy disguised as his wife purportedly attending his own funeral.

The femulation was in two consecutive scenes. In the first scene, I am sure that the bad guy en femme was actually played by a woman because you can catch a glimpse of an attractive blonde under the thin veil covering her face, but in the second scene, the veil has suddenly became thicker and you cannot see the features of the grieving "widow" as she fights Bond and is revealed as male. Despite the obvious (to me), I always fantasized that the leggy blonde in the first scene was the bad guy en femme.

Another trans-related Bond memory actually appeared in a Mad musical parody of the Sean Connery Bond films (Mad #94, April 1965).

In the beginning of the parody (click on image above to magnify it), a bevy of scantily clad female admirers surround Bond, while another female stands to the side admiring Bond's revolver. Bond asks why the she is admiring his revolver and not him.

The female reveals that "she" is actually agent 008 in training and that his girdle is killing him. The secret agent in training was not very attractive, but he was wearing a wig, dress, and a girdle and that definitely was of interest to me.

Finally, I recall another comic book parody loosely based on the Bond films. The spy in this parody was gay and named Jamie. He goes to a hair salon for some work unaware that the salon is run by the enemy. While under the hair dryer, the hair stylist puts him under a spell that reveals his sub-conscious feelings that he really wants to be a woman. He then undergoes a makeover and soon appears seated in the hair salon chair dressed as a pretty leggy blonde in a short dress and high heels with the other hair stylists gushing over him about how fabulous "she" looks.

When Jamie returns to spy headquarters en femme, his superior is aghast, but he has a cure, i.e., a sexual encounter with a female. Sure enough, the cure works and soon the now macho Jamie confronts the brains behind the enemy operation that transformed him into a woman: his mother.

As you can imagine, I read that comic book over and over again and wished I could be so lucky as to walk into the enemy's hair salon.

By the way, this story appeared in a one-shot comic book in the mid- to late-1960s. I lost the book in a purge a long time ago. I have no idea who published it or what was the name of the comic book, but I do recall that the book contained two stories and they appeared throughout the book with one story appearing on the top half of each page, while the other story appeared on the bottom half of each page. If anyone can provide any other information about this comic book I would greatly appreciate it, so that I can track down a copy to add to my collection.)

Born to Be a Woman of God

On a dreary morning in Yogyakarta, in a brick house, some 10 meters from the main road in Gedong Tengen, Notoyudan hamlet, an 8-year-old girl is folding yellow paper napkins with a friend. They work slowly, whispering comments about boys and giggling as they form perfect little paper triangles.

“Mom, how many of these napkins should I cut and fold?” the 8-year-old calls out to a woman wearing a long-sleeved black shirt and Muslim headscarf.

“Make it 40,” the woman answers. “There will be a lot of people coming today.”

The girl’s mother, Mariyani, is a transvestite.

In July, Mariyani established Indonesia’s first pesantren for transvestites.

By definition a pesantren is an Islamic boarding school. Mariyani uses the word pointedly, to improve her school’s credibility with the public as a place of learning.

Read the rest of the story here.

Jahna Steele

I happened upon this article, "15 Overlooked Deaths of 2008," which is about "the unsung deaths, the people whose passing went largely unnoticed, but deserved better."

Number 13 in the list of overlooked deaths is Jahna Steele, "a Las Vegas showgirl who was voted 'Sexiest Showgirl on the Strip' in 1991, and 'Most Beautiful Showgirl' in 1993. She also happened to have a penis."

You can visit Ms. Steele's Web site here.

200,000 and counting

The hit counter climbed past 200,000 earlier today.

This blog was up for 16 months before the hit counter reached 100,000. The next 100,000 hits only took six months.

Thank you for visiting!

Dustin Hoffman passes

While filming Tootsie, Dustin Hoffman passed. He recalled his success en femme on David Letterman's "The Late Show" this week.

Read all about it and see it here.

happy holiday (inn)

crossdressed in the past

Merry Christmas... (signed) Vickie Jordan



Vickie Jordan was a mid-20th Century female impersonator, i.e., a professional femulator.

skip The House Bunny

I watched The House Bunny last night.

We saw the previews for the film last summer and thought it might be worth renting. It was not.

There was a trans scene in the film and I will recount it here because I am a completist (and not because I recommend the film).

The main character, a Playboy bunny ends up in a prison cell with a group of prostitutes. She tries to make nice with her cellmates and suggests to one that she should let her natural beauty show and not wear so much heavy makeup. The prostitute responds that she is a dude.

Jonathan Loughran plays the prostitute (see photo).

You may remember him from the film Death Proof, in which he plays the country gentleman, who owns a 1970 Dodge Challenger that is a clone of the one that appeared in the film Vanishing Point.

I highly recommend Death Proof and Vanishing Point, but not The House Bunny.

Please Take A Survey For Trans Equality!

We Need Your Help To Assure Equality in '09!

Anti-Discrimination Protections can be just a House Vote away and your voice is needed so

Click Here to Take Survey

In 2009 we will be looking to raise and pass the Gender Identity and Expression Anti-Discrimination Bill. But we can't do it without you...

Click Here to Take Survey

Ct TransAdvocacy and the Anti-Discrimination Coalition members are working now to raise and PASS in 2009, the Connecticut Gender Identity and Gender Expression Anti-Discrimination legislation! We are optimistic in our efforts in 2009, however we will only be able to do this with strong support and sweat equity from each and every one of you. As we all know from prior years, our stories, our talking to legislators, our Lobby Day and our calls and letters go a long way in moving each of our individual legislators to support this bill and to assure it passes as raised and not amended in any way. Since there are 151 members in the Connecticut House of Representatives your help is critically needed since we need to assure that many of them hear our stories and willing to support raising and passing of this legislation in '09!

So please complete the following survey and let us know how you can help assure that Connecticut passes a Gender Identity and Gender Expression anti-discrimination bill in '09!.

Click Here to Take Survey

What is the Gender Identity and Expression Bill?

The Gender Identity and Expression Anti-discrimination Bill clarifies and updates Connecticut' s non-discrimination laws to ensure that they clearly and uniformly protect all people regardless of their gender identity or expression by simply adding the phrase "gender identity and expression", as defined in Connecticut' s "Hate Crime law", to all statutes that address discrimination.

From both a priori and empirical studies it is well known that gender non-conforming people experience widespread discrimination in Connecticut. Your support of this bill is vital and is needed to protect transgender and gender non-conforming individuals from being fired, denied basic housing, denied credit and most basic services.

Currently, a number of major Connecticut Corporations (e.g. Aetna, The Hartford, IBM, Pfizer, ESPN, Chubb) as well as small businesses have explicit policies prohibiting discrimination based on ones gender identity and expression as well as employing Transgender and gender non-conforming individuals.

Whenever this bill (SB 1044 or HB 5723; Click links for bill details) has come up for a vote in Committee's or the Senate, it has passed overwhelmingly with Bi-Partisan support. However, we cannot take this strong support for granted and your help this coming session will be vital to assure the bill is raised and passed, without any amendments, in both the House and Senate of the Connecticut General Assembly.

This bill is NOT about Special Rights but rather simply about assuring Basic Human Rights for all those who are discriminated against because of their Gender identity or Expression!

What is the Anti-Discrimination Coalition?

The Anti-Discrimination Coalition (ADC) is comprised of individuals and local, regional and national organizations interested in ensuring that any people vulnerable to discrimination are given equal protection under the law. Currently, because Connecticut has no law prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity or expression in education, housing, employment, credit, or public accommodation we are working to pass a bill that will include the phrase "gender identity or expression" in Connecticut' s non-discrimination law. The ADC is working collectively with individuals and agencies to create permanent systemic change to strengthen all of our communities.

If you are interested in our work and would like more information on how you or your organization can fight for equality for all Connecticut citizens, please contact Amy Miller at amiller@cwealf. org

crossdressed in the past

A femulator from Connecticut circa 3 PM yesterday. (Click on the image to enlarge it.)

Dame Edna collaborates with M·A·C

Read all about it here and here.

crossdressed in the past

Two femulators circa 1955. (Click on the image to enlarge it.)

crossdressed in the past

Three femulators from Ohio circa 1910. (Click on the image to enlarge it.)

snow

If you've lived in the northern climes as long as I have, you learn to dislike winter weather because it can disrupt your plans.

Tonight, I planned to go out en femme to have dinner at a local restaurant with a friend. After dining, we planned to move on to the monthly cocktail party put on by a local "alternative multidisciplinary arts organization."

Tomorrow afternoon and early evening, I had family commitments en homme.

Those were my plans, but then along came the weather forecast calling for 6 to 10 inches of snow tomorrow. As a result, I had to move my plans en homme to today, which trumped my plans en femme.

I have lost count how many times winter weather has messed with my plans to go out en femme. I often amused myself wondering if Mother Nature was trying to tell me that what I was doing was not natural!

1001 Little Ways to Look Younger

While Christmas shopping at the local Barnes & Noble store on Sunday, I found 1001 Little Ways to Look Younger in their bargain sales area for $6.98 (list price is $11.92). I just checked and the book is available on the B&N Web site at that bargain price, too.

This book is not a mind-numbing tome detailing the intricacies of looking fabulous. Instead, it is a collection of 1001 logically organized two or three sentence tips that you can breeze through quickly.

I highly recommend the book especially at that discount price.

Here is a synopsis from the B&N Web site:

From age-defying make-up tricks and fashion tips to cosmetic procedures and skincare advice, 1001 Little Ways to Look Younger offers top-to-toe anti-aging remedies that will reap big benefits, both in the way you look and how you feel. With solutions for wrinkles, as well as advice on everything from improving your memory to battling the effects of aging on the body, the book shows both preventative and curative ways to stay young, beautiful and physically fit.

* 1001 beauty, fashion and health tips that will help you counter the negative effects of aging.

* Includes small changes that can make you look and feel younger – you don’t need a total makeover or a surgical rehaul to trim years off the way you look.

* Specifically geared to problems commonly faced by women from the age of 30 on, the book reveals the facts about antioxidants, cosmetic surgery, skincare products, salon treatments and more.

don we now our gay apparel

tall at the mall

After spending over four hours Christmas shopping at the mall yesterday, I have two observations:

• Young women are getting taller. I noticed a lot of women hovering around six feet in height. Maybe it's better nutrition or maybe a women's basketball team was in town. I dunno, but as a tall femulator, I sure made note of it.

• People are friendlier. About a half-dozen times yesterday, complete strangers, both male and female, greeted me as if we were old friends (by the way, I was in boy mode). Maybe it's the Christmas spirit, maybe somebody spiked their eggnog, or maybe folks are relieved that change is in the air. I dunno, but it was refreshing.

another addition

My recent success on eBay made for a busy week updating my female impersonator ephemera Web pages. Yesterday, another eBay acquisition arrived in the mail and I added it to my San Francisico page last night.

another trip to Dress Barn

When I called Sunday to inform Dress Barn that I was on the disabled list and could not be the hostess at my support group's party, I asked the sales rep to hold the daytime outfit I was supposed to model in order that I could purchase it this week.

I returned today to pick up the outfit. The top is similar to the same as the one pictured here and the skirt is a black knee-length pencil skirt with a wide black patent belt.

Liz, the sales rep who arranged the party was not on, so I dealt with Denise, the store manager. The District Manager had them return the outfit to the racks yesterday, but Denise was able to retrieve them.

I could not remember what size skirt I had selected, so she handed me two sizes and escorted me to the dressing room to try them on (the smaller size fit). I was in boy mode and the other customers must have wondered what was going on, but I did not mind. Let them think what they want.

I talked with Denise about doing another party in the late winter and we shared some ideas about what worked and did not work on Sunday and what to do next time.

As hostess, I was supposed to get a 25% discount on purchases and I really did not expect to get the discount today, five days after the fact, but Denise gave me the discount anyway.

I paid with my Dress Barn credit card and after Demise swiped the card and returned it to me, she mentioned that I can get another card with "Staci" as the name on the card instead of my boy name. I was a little surprised that she knew my femme name because I never mentioned it to her, but I guess my reputation preceded me on Sunday.

I exited the store at the same time as another customer, who saw me exiting the dressing room with skirts in hand. Her car was next to mine and I noticed that its license plate displayed an Amateur Radio call sign, as does mine.

I pointed out that our cars had similar license plates and I asked her if she was a ham. She replied that the call sign belonged to her deceased husband. That led to a pleasant, but short conversation about ham radio and then we went our separate ways.

115 dresses

Do you need a new dress for a holiday party?

You don't want to wear an old frock to the big New Year's Eve bash, so as a public service, I offer you a link to 115 holiday dresses ranging in price from $20 to $3000.

May your shopping be productive!