Ladies or Gentlemen

A few months ago, a new bookstore opened in the vacated Linens 'N Things store nearby. It sells remainder books at 75% off list price.

I bought a stack of books there for $30 when I visited the store shortly after it opened earlier this year and I returned Friday to see if there was anything new of interest to buy.

I walked out with three books for $25. Two books were excellent buys, but my big score was Ladies or Gentlemen: A Pictorial History of Male Cross-Dressing in the Movies.

Published in 2005, Ladies or Gentlemen is a coffee table size book that lists for $65, but I bought it for $16.50. (What a deal!) According to Amazon.com, the 407-page book is a "pictorial history" that "examines the grand tradition of male cross-dressing in the movies through more than 700 photos, more than half of which are previously unpublished."

The book is very comprehensive and seems to document every noteworthy appearance of an actor appearing en femme in a film, both foreign and domestic. I have followed the en femme film genre very closely over the years, yet there are films in this book that were new to me, for example, the comely Robert Livingston appearing in the 1944 film Goodnight Sweetheart (pictured above right).

I know I would not have paid list price for this book or even the discounted Amazon price ($45), but at $16.50, I could not resist. If you can make a similar score, I highly recommend adding Ladies or Gentlemen to your library especially if you are a big film fan like I am.

While on the topic of books, please read and consider responding to my Book Report posting below. So far, seven thoughtful comments follow the post and I hope you will add yours, too.

outed at Barnes & Noble

Please read and consider responding to the Book Report posting below. Thank-you.

book report

Over the years, I have bought enough non-fiction books on the topic of transgender to fill a library.

I started reading every book I bought, but I finished reading few.

Maybe it's just me, but I found the majority of transgender-related non-fiction books to be boring. I read a few from cover-to-cover, but most did not hold my interest and I added them to my tall stack of unfinished books.

So, I'm curious which transgender-related non-fiction books you liked and why?

I'm also curious about what would be your "ideal" trans non-fiction book, i.e., what would you like to see in a trans book that you have never or seldom seen before?

Please answer using the Comments feature of this blog or by e-mail.

Wednesday's wash

Lots of stress around here these days, but none of it is trans-related.

I have not femulated in over five weeks; a day out en femme would sure take my mind off all the mundane matters that are a bother these days. But I am in transhibernation until September when the weather is more compatible with with the wig, makeup, and the variety of foundation garments I wear in order to present as a member of the distaff side of the family of man.

To tell you the truth, this summer has been unseasonably cool and most days, I could have gone out en femme without working up much of a sweat. But I know if I plan a day out en femme next Tuesday, Mother Nature will crank up the temperature and humidity to 99 and I will be a wet tranny mess. So, I will play it safe and continue hibernating until Labor Day.

Actually, I lucked out with the weather last month. When I planned my Womanhattan trip, I worried that it might be too hot for Staci in The City in mid-June. But the weather has also been unseasonably cool in Zip Code 10001, so Secret had me covered for my NYC adventure.

Meanwhile, I await the mail order catalogs and the fall fashions to keep me in a femulating mood for the next five weeks.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the fall fashion mail-order catalogs late this year? By now, I am usually drooling over all the fall stuff I'd like to buy and narrowing my choices down to a few must-have to-die-for items. But nothing.

My favorite on-line coutures (Spiegel, Newport-News, Metrostyle) are still pushing summer stuff (at some great prices, by the way). I assume sales are down as a result of the hangover from the "Bush Era of Prosperity" and they want to get rid of as much old stuff as they can before they bring in the new, but I am getting a little anxious.

I hope you like today's cartoon. (Actually, I hope you like all my cartoons.) There actually is a little truth buried in today's 'toon. Halloween 1983, we were invited to a costume party and the Missus and I reversed roles; I went as she and she went as me and we helped each other fine tune our costumes. I passed, she didn't, when a young lady in a cat costume at the party asked me why I was not wearing a costume.

And so it goes.

companies succeed with more women in charge

Make room for transwomen in the board room, too.

According to a Washington Post article, recent research reveals that companies are more successful if they have more female participation in their management.

Here are some key points from the article, but I urge you to read it all yourself and you will be impressed with the findings:

• New research says a healthy dose of estrogen may be the key not only to our fiscal recovery, but also to economic strength worldwide

• All those right-brain skills disparaged as soft in the roaring '90s are suddenly 21st-century-hot, while cocky is experiencing a slow fizzle.

• Adding to this debate is the fact that the laid-off victims of this recession are overwhelmingly men.

• Gender stereotypes aren't politically correct, but the research broadly finds that testosterone can make men more prone to competition and risk-taking. Women, on the other hand, seem to be wired for collaboration, caution and long-term results.

So, doesn't this put us in the driver's seat?

Transwomen bring the best of both worlds to the table and should make us a highly prized employee in the corporate world.

Instead of being afraid of being outed at the workplace, we should flaunt our diverse personalities and wear a dress and heels to work on the days of the week ending with the letter "Y." Show them we are not testosterone-poisoned guys, but that we can be just as estrogen-driven as the women in the boardroom.

Is this a little tongue in cheek?

Maybe, but if your job is on the line and you are grasping for a lifeline to avoid the unemployment line, showing up at work cloaked with a feminine wardrobe and feminine attitude may not be a bad idea.

looking fab in photos

Whereas diamonds are a girl's best friend, photos are a crossdresser's best friend.

Old joke: How many crossdressers does it take to change a lightbulb?

Three: one to climb the ladder to change the lightbulb, one to hold the ladder, and one to take photos of the event.

Before digital cameras, I took photos... usually Polaroids to avoid having them processed and handled by strangers. But Polaroid film was expensive, so I did not do as much photo-documenting of my early crossdressing life as I do today now that I have an endless supply of free "film" in my digital camera.

Dunno about you, but one reason I take a lot of photos is that maybe one in five is any good. The other four out of five are not good for one reason or another.

Readers Digest has an article online that may improve my one to five success ratio. Titled "10 Ways to Look Good in Photos," the brief article is must-reading for any "girl" who expects to be on the business end of a camera.

Say, "Cheese."

added height

My Famous Females of Height List just keeps getting taller!

Watching Frantic on television yesterday, I noticed that actress Emmanuelle Seigner (right) was right up there with Harrison Ford, so I looked her up and she is 5'8".

Longtime girlfriend Sirena wrote that she recently saw Miracle Laurie at a sci-fi convention and the actress, who plays November in the TV show Dollhouse is 5'9".

I read last week that model Karolina Kurkova of Victoria's Secret's fame is preggie, not to mention 5'11" tall.

Dear Staci

Dear Staci,

Is your female persona different from your male persona. If so, what are the key differences?

MonicaM

Hi MonicaM,

There is not much difference between my female and male personas. People who know both tell me that I am the same in male and female mode.

I know I do not act any differently in male or female mode. I am the first to admit that I am not a typical macho guy and when I was growing up, some of my peers let me know about it.

A telling moment occurred many years ago when I went to a Halloween party in college dressed as a woman. One of my classmates, who knew me well commented that it had never occurred to him how naturally feminine my speech and mannerisms were until he saw me dressed as a woman. And so it goes.

Best Wishes,

Staci

Do you need advice concerning femulation or other crossdressing-related matters, then e-mail me and I will happily give you my opinion on the matter. My e-mail address is staci-staci at sbcglobal.net.

discovering the fine line betwen lines

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stirred, straight up, with a twist

I discovered a very interesting blog called "Stirred, Straight Up, With A Twist" that "celebrate the gods and goddesses of celluloid and vinyl, with nary a trace of elitism: Jeffrey Hunter or Cary Grant; Eydie Gorme or Maria Callas, we worship them all, and accord them their proper place in the pantheon of greats."

TJB, the brains behind the blog, has a great sense of humor and decorates the blog with fantastic photos from 1962 (give or take a decade).

If you are (like me) a femulator who likes glam (isn't that redundant?), visit TJB's blog.

the bathroom debate

Today's installment of Salon's "Broadsheet" tackles the great trans bathroom debate and asks its readers, "Are single-sex bathrooms prudish, antiquated and insensitive to trans people? Or are these spaces still necessary to protect the privacy of both genders?"

The responses are interesting and most seem to favor allowing transwomen in the women's restroom.

One of the best comments (IMHO) came from For Heavens Sake!, who wrote, "Doesn't it occur to these people that these 'dangerous sexual predators' that they fear so deeply right now have *gasp* access to the men's room-- where presumably they can freely molest the innocent sons of God-fearing Christians? I mean if it really is so dangerous to pee, it should be dangerous right now, donchya think?"

Excellent!

Meanwhile, back in Transphobialand...


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Will he return the mascara (and other legal issues)?

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Michael Jackson biographer: Jackson “dressed as woman”

(updated below)

Two weeks ago, I wondered here if the late Michael Jackson was trans. Here is an article that offers more evidence that maybe he was.

By the way, the author of this article, Matt Kailey, got it right, i.e., if a man wears woman's clothing, it does not mean that he is gay (NTTIAWWT).

He also writes, "It is important to keep in mind is that any speculation about Jackson’s gender identity is not a negative thing. If Jackson did, on occasion or even frequently, dress in women’s clothing, this is not a bad or negative occurrence, and it does not cast a pall on his memory. It is not wrong or bad to be a crossdresser or to be a transgendered male-to-female."

Read the rest of the story here.

UPDATE: I fixed the broken links to the article mentioned above.

more funnies

Meg e-mailed two more femulation-themed cartoons that appeared in the newspaper funny section: Herman and
Get Fuzzy, which appears right.

more height

Lee e-mailed me with a correction and additions to the Famous Females of Height list, which seems to be getting taller all the time!

The correction: I listed Marcia Cross twice, at 5'8" and 5'10". The Desperate Housewives actress is only 5'8".

The additions:

Actresses Jeri Ryan (Star Trek Voyager) and Suzy Amis (Titanic) at 5'8"

Actresses Jamie Lee Curtis and Isabella Scorupco (Goldeneye, Reign of Fire) at 5'9"

Actress Judy Greer (27 Dresses, The Wedding Planner) at 5'10" (she appears in the photo on the right)

size 16 should do

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raised as a girl

Last night, I watched my favorite television show, 30 Rock.

30 Rock is in reruns and last night's episode was from 2006 and it was one I had seen before and I know I need to get a life.

(Hey, I actually was in the real 30 Rock last month and, darn, I was so busy buying souvenirs in the NBC Store for my family that I forgot to buy a 30 Rock souvenir for myself.)

Anyway, the show opens with a debate between the show-within-the-show's writers and the cast about a skit in which Tracy Morgan (played by Tracy Jordan) will appear in drag. He appears in drag in this scene.

Toofer, a black writer, played by Keith Powell, convinces Tracy that a black male doing drag is a put-down of all black males, so Tracy refuses to do the skit.

The other writers are now upset about the aborted skit, but another cast member, Josh Girard, played by Lonny Ross, steps up and volunteers to do the skit with the comment that "My parents raised me as a girl for ten years."

When the writers look at him as if he just deboarded from a flying saucer, he adds, "I told you guys that."

Next scene shows Girard in drag with the rest of the cast at the end of the show within a show.

30 Rock has had numerous trans moments throughout its run, in fact, in this episode, Tracy Morgan/Jordan appears in drag again and there is a brief reference to Tina Fey's character having some gender issues, but the being-raised-as-a-girl revelation was probably one of the most memorable 30 Rock trans moment... so far.

passing

This morning, I read a message thread on a trans message board which touched upon the subject of passing. One writer opined that trans people put too much emphasis on passing... that passing is not important... that acceptance is more important than passing... yadda yadda yadda.

I'm sure you have heard these arguments before (and I know I touched upon them here in the past).

Note: I am now putting on devil's advocate hat.

I think that some trans people use the argument (that passing is not important) as a cop-out because for whatever reason, they do not pass.

In addition to being an excuse, it is also a put-down of trans people who do pass, i.e, yes, they pass, but what they are doing is not important, so they are just wasting their time.

I resent that!

I take a lot of pride in my presentation and I admit that it takes some time and effort to get the results I want, but I feel that it is worth it because:

* I pass some of the time, which is a wonderful affirmation of my hard work.

* When I don't pass, at least I don't look like a caricature of a woman. Rather, I look like I am trying my best to emulate a woman and I believe that fosters acceptance.

we're all intersex

On Salon today, Thomas Rogers interviews Gerald N. Callahan, the author of Between XX and XY about people born neither male nor female -- and why everyone's a little bit of both.

Read all about it here.

Tuesday, Tuesday

Tuesdays after long weekends aren't much better than Mondays after long weekends except that they are not Mondays.

* * *

You know how they say that styles repeat themselves. I've been dressing en femme long enough that I have seen that phenomena myself with clothing I have worn.

While perusing the Saks Fifth Avenue Web site, I noticed a Diana von Furstenberg dress for sale that is very similar to the dress I wore the first time I went out en femme that wasn't Halloween. That occasion was to attend my first support group meeting over 20 years ago. (see photo)

I loved that dress and now that it is back in style, I would like to wear it again. I just hope I did not discard it or give it away!

I will look for it tonight and if I find it, I will clean it and wear it next time out.

* * *

My blog readers submitted two additions to the Famous Females of Height list:

Shannon submitted 6' Candice Olson of HGTV's Divine Design.

Linda submitted 6'3" Arianne Cohen, author of The Tall Book: A Celebration of Life from on High.