dressing Jude Law in drag

The headline reads:

"Jude Law in Drag! 'Rage' Costume Designer Talks About the Actor's Custom-Made Wedding Gown"

Read all about it here.

5'10" x 2

Lately, one of the cable movie channels has been playing the 1971 film Cold Turkey incessantly. The female lead in the film is Pippa Scott (above left) and in a few scenes of the film, I noticed that she was right up there height-wise with the male lead Dick Van Dyke. Upon further investigation, I discovered that Ms. Scott is 5'10" and deserves a spot on the Famous Females of Height List.

Just as I was dotting the I's and crossing the T's on the previous paragraph, a missive from Peaches came in over the DSL informing me that television actress Roma Maffia (above right) of Nip/Tuck and Boston Legal fame was also 5'10" and deserves a spot on "the List."

"new" adventures in femulation

I added two stories to my collection of adventures in femulation:

fantasia fair, a diary describing my experience attending that transworld-renowned week-long event for the first time in October 2008. (That's me in the photo all ready for a Fantasia Fair evening outing.)

womanhattan, a diary recounting my five-day stay en femme in New York City in June 2009.

dining and shopping

I am still tweaking the blog's Web pages.

In addition to fixing things I missed, I updated two of "My Adventures in Femulation," dining out en femme and shopping en femme.

Things have changed for the better since I originally wrote those pieces. I now go everywhere and anywhere to dine and shop en femme without thinking twice. The updates reflect this change for the better.

a half million

Overnight, the hit counter of this blog passed the half million mark!

I enjoy writing this blog and I am honored that so many of you come back to read what I write.

Thank you for your continued support!

a formal in my future

I will be attending a formal, black tie affair this fall.

One Big Event is a "benefit celebration" for the Hartford Gay and Lesbian Health Collective. The event will be held on November 14 at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Hartford.

Some of my trans friends are attending and asked me to join them. This is a big local event and besides the GLBT crowd, there usually are local politicians and celebrities in attendance.

Like I said, it is a formal affair and I have "nothing" to wear. That is not true; I just have to decide what to wear from the "Staci Collection." I have a couple of vintage items I have never worn out and I am seriously considering wearing them. Then again, something new and to-die-for may come along and catch my attention

I have a lot of time to make up my mind!

the color purple

For the last three weeks, I have been trying to chase down a cable sweater dress that I saw on the Dress Barn web site. None of the Dress Barns around here have the dress in stock yet.

With a 20% off coupon expiring today, I decided to visit Dress Barn again hoping that the cable sweater dress had arrived. No luck, but they had a purple cable sweater dress in stock. It has short sleeves, a turtleneck collar, falls just above my knees, and now is hanging in my closet.

Funny that just yesterday, I mentioned to my friend Patty that I was sick and tired of all the purples I've seen in the fall collections, then the next thing you know, I am adding another purple item to my wardrobe!

under construction

GeoCities, which hosts all of this blog's external pages, is going away next month. As a result, I am in the process of moving all my external pages to Google Sites. So, if an external page does not come up when you click on its link or if you discover a problem on an external page, please let me know so I can fix it.

GeoCities was the place where many trans people (like me) built their first personal Web sites and I feel sad about its upcoming demise.

In addition to moving all of my blog's external Web pages to Google Sites, I made some other changes.

I changed the caption of the FEMULATE THIS: image to FEMULATE HER:

I changed the caption of the THE FEMULATED: image to HE FEMULATED:

I deleted the link to my photos and images and I deleted my flickr account.

I deleted my flickr account because I was sick and tired of flickr users who wanted to be my "contact," who had no images to share or worse, had images to share that displayed private parts. When I logged onto flickr today, I had four contact requests and all four had their private parts on display. Yuck!!! I had it and pulled the plug on flickr.

To replace the flickr account deletion, I plan to add a gallery of my photos and images to my blog's external pages real soon now.

feminizing menswear for real

This is Fashion Week in New York City.

Again, the catwalks are rife with menswear that borrows heavily on clothing from milady's closet.

Some designers are determined to feminize male fashions, so we see high-heeled male models wearing makeup and carrying their manbags down the runway with lace, ruffles, and bows accenting their pantalettes, kilts, and caftan outfits.

As a femulator and fashionista who loves female clothing and accoutrements, I feel that the designers responsible for feminizing menswear are not going far enough.

Stop pussyfooting around! If you want males wearing feminized clothing, go all the way.

Instead of separating menswear and womenswear, have both male and female models walking down the runways wearing next season's womenswear. Then you'd have something of interest to both fashion-conscious males and femulators.

As a femulator, I would not be caught dead in the current version of feminized menswear, but if they were showing womenswear for males, then I'd open my pocketbook to spend some money.

girl talk

I do not have a lot of male friends, partly because I do not participate in many male pursuits and partly because I do not interact well with many males. Both reasons have a lot to do with my preference for the female side of life.

I do not participate in many female pursuits either, but I do interact well with females.

Over the years, I have had more female friends than male friends. I always felt very comfortable conversing and confiding with my female friends and acquaintances, but seldom felt that comfortable with other males.

But being a male, my female friends and acquaintances usually seemed guarded to some degree when dealing with me because I was male.

Reflecting on my June NYC adventure en femme and on attending a wedding for the first time en femme on Saturday, I realized that the females I encountered while I was en femme acted differently with me than the females I encountered when in boy mode. In a nutshell, they dropped their guard and interacted with me as if I was one of the girls.*

I so enjoyed participating in "girl talk" in NYC and at the wedding. I discovered that I can be a little chatterbox and that the women I conversed with seemed to enjoy chatting with me.

Girl talk brings a whole new area of enjoyment into femulating for me. It is something that I never expected, but now I relish the opportunity to talk with the girls again.

* Yes, I know in my heart that I really am "one of the girls," but it always surprises me when other people think I am one of the girls, too.

images of New England Trans Pride

On Friday, I wrote about the upcoming New England Trans United Pride March and Rally on October 3 in Northampton, MA.

Again, I urge every trans person who lives in the upper right corner of the USA to attend the event if they can.

If you never attended such an event in the past, I list some links below where you can view photos and videos from the first New England Trans Pride event of June 2008. If you are on the fence about attending, I hope that viewing these images will push you over the edge.

• Diana's photos and videos
• Donna Rose's photos
• GLAD's photos
• Glen Koetzner's photos
• Lynn's photos
  

"she"

Now that I am well-rested and able to reflect with a clearer head about attending my first wedding en femme, I recalled something that I did not mention in yesterday's blog posting.

During the evening, I participated in a number of conversations with two or more people and during those conversations, it was such a pleasure to hear someone refer to me as "she."

I know it is such a little thing, a simple three-lettered word, but whenever I hear that word when it refers to me, it makes me so very happy.

Although "She" can mean different things, they are all good things.

"She" can mean that people have respect for the way I have chosen to present myself, that is, as a female, or

"She" can mean that people have accepted my female presentation, or

"She" can mean that people believe that I am female.

a lovely time

I attended the garden wedding of two of my friends at their home on Saturday evening. It was a beautiful and unique affair and it will always stand out from all the other weddings I have attended throughout my life.

It was a small affair in that the guest list was composed of of only 50 or so family and friends, but it was really a big affair because it was a very family-and-friend-oriented and vibrant event. Vibrant because it was a wedding where the kids were invited and included (most weddings I have attended in the past has excluded kids. Who said "youth is wasted on the young?")

I was very honored that my friends invited me to attend. They did not give me permission to attend en femme and I did not have to ask for their permission to attend en femme. They know me as Staci and expected Staci to attend. Friends like these must be cherished and I will always hold a special place in my heart for them.

Like my friends, their family and friends accepted me into their circle, treated me like an old friend of the family, and I could not have felt more comfortable. Except for the wedded couple and two other friends who were guests, I did not know a soul going in and in such circumstances, I become shy, but the other guests made me feel as comfortable as possible and I had a wonderful time socializing, dining, drinking, and dancing the night away!

I wore a new dress and a new hairdo to the wedding. I received some compliments on how I looked, which just added to the wonder of the evening.

Being a garden affair, I quickly had to learn how to walk in spike heels without sinking into the lawn. The trick is to walk on your toes and not put much weight on your heels.

I had a lovely time attending my friend's wedding en femme and I will remember it all my life.

get back hair

This morning, I shaved those body parts that should hairless when I am dressed en femme. This was my annual full-body depilation that I perform every September in anticipation of my first time out en femme. (I am going to my first wedding en femme this evening.)

This year, the task was quicker than in the past because it was the first time I used my Mangroomer back hair shaver to remove my back, chest, shoulder, and upper arm hair. The main attraction of the Mangroomer is that it has a extendable and adjustable handle that allows you to reach all areas of your back. I am 5'14" tall and had no problem shaving the far reaches of my back.

The Mangroomer costs $39.99 and is well-worth the price.

three weeks 'til Trans Pride

In three weeks, Saturday, October 3, the New England Trans United Pride March will kick off at noon from Lampron Park in Northampton, MA. The march will proceed down Main Street to the Armory Street lot where an afternoon-long rally will begin at 1 PM. The rally will include a variety of political speakers, transgender activists, and performers.

For more information, visit the New England Trans United Web site.

This will be New England's second trans pride march and rally. The first occurred in June 2008, also in Northampton.

I attended that first event and it was an exciting day for me and the other participants as we ran the trans flag up the flagpole to see who would salute it. The October 3 event promises to be just as exciting and I hope I can attend.

If you have never attended a pride march and rally, but are considering attending this Trans Pride event, have no fear. Northampton is a very diverse community (think of it as a landlocked Provincetown). Nobody will hassle you because you are trans and you will not be alone because there will be hundreds of your trans brothers and sisters in attendance.

Northampton is strategically located smack dab in the the center of Southern New England right off I-91, so it is only a two- or three-hour drive for most of the trans population of the six New England States.

If you can get there, I hope you will make an effort to get there. You will go away with a sense of pride and will help advance the civil rights of the trans folk throughout the USA.

the girly ways of The Fab Four

I am a huge Beatles fan and this has been a huge week for us fans with the release of their remastered CDs and their new video game. I don't play video games, so I have no interest in the new game, but I will likely purchase all the remastered CDs sooner or later.

In the midst of this new surge of Beatlemania, I recalled my first impressions of the group back in the winter of 1963-1964 before their first US television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. My first encounter with The Beatles back then was not with their music, but with their appearance in a photo in a local newspaper.

My first impression was that The Beatles wore their hair like girls!!!

At that time, I was just beginning my first experiments in femulation. I knew I liked femulating, but I was very confused as to why I liked it, why I was doing it, and if I would go to hell for doing it.

The Beatles added to my confusion. Was their long hair the wave of the future? Would all boys start wearing their hair like girls? When I discovered that The Beatles also wore high-heeled boots, I wondered if skirts and dresses would soon be in the offing, too.

Part of me hoped and prayed that boys would dress like girls real soon now, but part of me was scared silly about the prospect of actually dressing like a girl in public. It might ruin my image as an all-American boy, although, I was not what anyone would consider an "all-American boy."

Nevertheless, I was so concerned that showing any interest in The Beatles would ruin my image (whatever that may have been) that I pretended to dislike The Beatles, their music, and their girly ways.

Eventually, I overcame my fears, embraced their music, and journeyed far beyond the "girly ways" of The Fab Four.

P.S. Being a huge Beatles fan, I almost took "Loretta Martin" as my name when I was selecting a femme nome de plume.

almost perfect

I received an e-mail this morning from a girl overseas, who is hesitant about going out en femme because she wants to make sure she passes. (Crossdressing in public can result in a jail term in her country of residence.)

She attached a photo to her e-mail and asked if I could offer any advice.

She looked absolutely beautiful. Her hair and makeup were perfect. Her femulation was almost perfect, but there was one telltale sign that gave her away: her beard.

I assume she shaved as closely as possible, so what appeared in her photo were the hairs of her beard just beneath the skin. They are more obvious in photographs, but they are also likely visible with the naked eye and might give her away if she goes out en femme.

So, I recommended that she use a beard cover under her foundation.

Beard cover is readily available stateside, but I don't know about its availability where she lives now. I wish her the best of luck.

(By the way, the photo accompanying this post is not the photo of the girl who asked me for advice.)

three tall talents

It’s time to update the Famous Females of Height list with three tall talents.

Actress Jessica Stroup (left) of 90210 television fame is 5’8” tall.

Actress Amanda Bynes (center) of She’s the Man film fame is definitely tall, but I am not sure how tall. Various sources list her as low as 5’7.5” and as tall as 5’10”. We aim high here, so I will list her as 5’10”

Actress Olga Kurylenko (right) of Quantum of Solace film fame is 5’10” tall.

(Thank you DLM for the Bynes and Kurylenko listings.)

why I am girly

My mother had a miscarriage before she had me.

Back then, physicians prescribed Diethylstilbestrol (DES) to prevent miscarriages in women who had had previous miscarriages.

Did my mother take DES? She is deceased, so I will never know. But, if she did take DES, then that may explain why I am the way I am.

DES can cause feminization of the male fetus and some studies suggest that otherwise-male children exposed to DES before birth may be more likely to be transsexual women than otherwise-male children who have not been exposed.

Although I will never know if my mother took DES, there are other indications that she did. For example, I have Gynecomastia and although the causes of common Gynecomastia remain uncertain, it has generally been attributed to an imbalance of sex hormones, that is, too much estrogen.

In addition to Gynecomastia, I am more womanly than the average guy in other ways. For example, my mannerisms and speech patterns have feminine traits and my emotions are more feminine than masculine.

A few years ago, I was doing outreach with three transsexuals at a local college and a student asked how the transsexuals' hormone regimen affected them. All three transsexuals admitted that they became more emotional after they began their hormone regimen, for example, one stated that she never cried at movies before taking hormones, but after taking hormones, she cried at movies all the time. I spoke up that I never took hormones and that I cry at movies all the time!

An overabundance of female hormones may be the cause of my proclivity for the feminine. And as I wrote here on Friday, my parents may have nurtured that proclivity.

Repeating what I wrote on Friday, "Dad was absent in my early life working two jobs to support his wife and kids. Mom cherished her firstborn child (me), coddled and pampered me, and instilled in me many traits that were considered 'feminine.' With Dad absent early-on, Mom was all I had to model myself after and that I did, which just compounded my feminization."

I had two strikes against me (too many female hormones and too little male role modeling) and when my third opportunity to swing came, I just stood there with the bat on my shoulder and was called out (of the male gender) on a called third strike.

I did not bother swinging because I liked myself. I was very satisfied with the results of the first two strikes. I liked the way things were turning out. I did not mind being a girly boy.

Except for some abuse from the macho boys and rejection by their female followers, being a girly boy was a pretty good deal. I could partake in whatever boy or girl pursuits interested me and not have to worry about tarnishing my image.

And when I took up the male pursuit of female impersonation, I found that I excelled at it because I already spoke and acted like a lady, I took to the art of cosmetics like a swan takes to water, and I could nearly fill a size 38B bra without any padding.

And so it goes.

(Wikipedia is the source for the medical information cited above.)

cool

During the past few days, the weather here has turned the corner from summer to fall, which means that I shed as much body hair as possible and begins dressing like a girl at every opportunity.

The first opportunity arrives this Saturday when I attend a wedding en femme, which will be a new experience for me. Too bad I am spoken for because I would have loved to try and catch the bride's bouquet; my height and long arms might have been an advantage there!

In preparation for my first time out since my June Manhattan adventure, I have begun the process of hair removal. I do it in steps over a few days to make it less daunting. Once I remove my summer layer of fur, I maintain it over the cooler months so that it is less of a chore each time I go out.

I bought three new dresses with the intention of wearing one to the wedding. I almost bought new shoes, too, but I already own so many pairs that match my outfit that I decided to skip another new pair.

Also, I bought new hair, which will make its debut at the wedding and I bought some new makeup to replenish my warpaint collection.

So, I am good to go and look forward to Saturday.