transgender & personal identity project

I met Miqqi Alicia Gilbert at Fantasia Fair in October. She is one of the movers and shakers of the Fair, as well as in the transgender world.

A professor at York University in Toronto, she kicked off a new project called "Transgender & Personal Identity." All the particulars about the project follow.

I am please to announce the opening of a new project aimed at investigating the relationship between gender change and personal identity. The project is known as, Transgender & Personal Identity, or TPI, and is funded by the Canada Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

TPI involves in-depth interviews with a limited number of trans persons belonging to one of two groups. The first includes transsexuals who have undergone gender identity change at some point post-puberty. The second are crossdressers who notice marked personality and phenomenological changes when moving into and out of their non-natal gender identity.

Interviews will be held at various conferences and events. Details, goals, and a preliminary questionnaire can be found at www.yorku.ca/tpi. Please visit the web site and have a look. Anyone who would like to stay informed about the project can subscribe to the project listserve at the web site.

I will be at First Event this month, and IFGE in February. If you are interested in being interviewed please fill out the form at the web site, and we'll try and set up a time. You can use the form if you are not attending an event, and we can make other arrangements.

Miqqi Alicia Gilbert
Principal Investigator
Department of Philosophy
York University
Toronto, ON

transgenders need advocacy at work

Two University of Oregon doctoral students dove into issues of transgender identities — in the workplace and professional counselling — and surfaced with a call for psychologists and vocational counsellors to not only treat but to act as advocates for their clients — and to help end discrimination in the workplace.

Read the rest of the story here.

fame

Love Makes a Family (LMF) is a statewide non-profit advocacy organization working for equal marriage rights for same-sex couples in Connecticut. They carry out their mission through community education, grassroots organizing and legislative advocacy and lobbying.

Last week, LMF contacted me to ask if they could use my image in the banner on their Web site.

I gave them my permission.

This evening, I visited their Web site and the new banner is in place with yours truly appearing in the banner just left of center, which is very appropriate.

guys and dolls redefining male gender

Can boys playing with dolls redefine the male gender?

Stephanie Fairyington addresses this question in her article appearing on Huffington Post.

crossdressed in the past

William J. Browne (right) femulates in a Chicago-area college stage production circa 1930.


(Click on the image to magnify it.)

going out without being outed

Among My Adventures in Femulation are two articles, "dining out en femme" and "shopping en femme."

In both articles, I conclude with a list of places where I dined/shopped en femme without any issues, i.e., the staff treated me like any other customer and did not seem to mind that I was en femme.

Those lists seem superfluous today. Nowadays, I dine and shop with abandon.

Sure I avoid some places, but I try to avoid those places whether I am en femme or en homme. For example, I am uncomfortable in a sports bar whether I am wearing jeans or a skirt. I do enjoy sports and at times, I am almost religious about a certain baseball team that sports red hosiery, but I don't enjoy the testosterone-generated hoopla of a sports bar, whether my team is on the tube or not. I am not a macho guy and don't associate with macho guys. And so it goes.

I guess I am lucky/spoiled because I live in an area of the USA that is more liberal, more open-minded, and more accepting of diversity than other parts of the country may be. So, I can dine and shop en femme and almost never run into anyone who wants to take issue about a guy in a dress.

On the other hand, I've dined and shopped en femme in other areas of the country that are not reputed as being liberal, open-minded, an diverse as the Great Northeast and have not run into any troubles there either, so go figure.

I can say that I pass so well and that is why I am so successful in conservative country, as well as, liberal land, but I am not going to say that because I am too tall to pass too far, so maybe I have just been very lucky in my outings en femme.

Connecticut To Consider Transgender Anti-Discrimination Proposal

Updated Below

Transgender activists believe this is the year they will gain equal protection under Connecticut's anti-discrimination laws.

"We feel good," said Jerimarie Liesegang, who leads the Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition. "We've done the groundwork, we've done the education and we know we have the votes."

A proposal, to be introduced in the legislative session that begins Wednesday, would prevent people who in any way blur gender lines from being discriminated against in the workplace or while seeking housing or obtaining credit.

Read the rest of the story here.

(FYI, Connecticut is the home of the author of this blog.)

UPDATE: If you read the rest of the article (by clicking here), be sure to vote (preferably YES) in the online poll that accompanies the article.

10 Best - and Worst - Dressed People of 2008

Bad news is that I didn't make the best dressed list this year, not that I wasn't trying. Good news is that I also did not make the worst dressed list!

Anyway, here is the list.

Coulter Blasts Michelle as Jackie Imitator

According to the Daily News, Ann Coulter "blasts incoming First Lady Michelle Obama as a freakish Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis imitator in a book to be published next week."

"Lashing out at the President-elect's wife, Coulter wrote, 'Her obvious imitation of Jackie O's style - the flipped-under hair, the sleeveless A-line dresses, the short strands of fake pearls - would have been laughable if done by anyone other than a media-designated saint.'"

On the other hand, "Coulter said Cindy McCain, the wife of vanquished GOP nominee John McCain, 'dressed well without freakishly imitating famous First Ladies in history."

So, in Coulter's world, you are a freak if you imitate Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, but you are not a freak if you imitate a Barbie doll.

(Personally, I wouldn't mind looking like either Jackie or Barbie!)

Jane Birkin, "I'd Rather Be Dressed As A Man"

Singer, actress, and film director Jane Birkin says, "I'd rather be dressed as a man."

I say, "Each to his/her own."

Read all about it here.

excellence in femulation (partie deux)

(Updated Below)

Today, the Femulate Awards Committee bestows the coveted Femmy Excellence in Femulation Award to actor Sylvain Morin for his portrayal of a drag queen in the 1993 Canadian film Love & Human Remains.

UPDATE: Would you believe there is an actual Femmy Award? It is for the intimate apparel industry. I guess I should have Googled it before (and not after) I used it!

excellence in femulation

While avoiding the nonsense televised from Times Square this morning, I came upon a rerun of the Malcolm In the Middle episode titled "If Boys were Girls." In this episode, Malcolm's mother imagines what life would be like if her four sons were daughters.

Female actresses played the parts of the imagined three youngest daughters, but the oldest "daughter" was played by the actor (Christopher Masterson), who actually plays the oldest son.

To tell you the truth, Masterson's femulation was so good (click on the photo above to magnify it) that the first time I saw this episode, I thought that a female actress played the role. Only after watching the episode a second time did I realize Masterson was en femme.

Big kudos to his femulation! His cleavage alone deserves an Emmy Award for best special effects.

Man Asks Abby's Advise About His Skirts

It’s Official: Man Skirts Have Reached the Mainstream, or At Least Dear Abby

Guys, are you still fashioning your resolutions? May we be of some assistance? Perhaps it's time to put your insecurities and fears aside and think, WWMD. Yes, indeed, What would Marc do? Everyone's favorite designer was on a mission in 2008 to single-handedly make the man skirt acceptable and, yes, chic. And, sure, people scoffed. But secretly, men wondered if they could carry off the look.

Read the rest of the story here.

Happy New Year!

All dressed up, but nowhere to go!

Actually, a snowstorm blowing through here today cancelled my New Year's Eve plans. So I am staying home tonight safe and sound rather than slipping and sliding across the slippery highways of Connecticut.

Happy New Year!

Gayle King

Gayle King is 5' 10" tall and I just added her to my Famous Females of Height list.

Ms. King is the best friend of Oprah Winfrey. She was a talking head on a local television station's newscasts here in Connecticut for 18 years.

A few years ago, my sister encountered Ms. King at the airport (BDL) and later remarked to me about how she was impressed with Ms. King's size. I had forgotten all about that until I saw Ms. King on Oprah's television show yesterday.

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.