Only a Real Man

Simplicity Male Dress Patterns (circa 1965)

A Dream Come True

Click on the image to increase your enjoyment!

Nice Suit (Nice Price)

If you read this blog regularly, you know that I am a fashionista, that is, "a woman with a penchant for shopping and a natural flair for combining both current and vintage fashionable trends."

Yeah, that description fits me to a tee or should that be "T"?

I love the classic fashions from the past like the "Chanel suit," a timeless classic introduced way back in the mid-1920's. It is still for sale today and I would love to own one, but I would have to spend about $5000 for a new Chanel suit off the rack, which is a little out of my price range. So I keep an eye out for Chanel suit knock-offs.

Jessica London had one for sale (photo right) earlier this year for $145 ($90 for the jacket and $55 for the skirt).

I seriously considered ordering it, but I was reluctant to spend even that amount of money and forgot about it.

Thursday, I received a new catalog from Jessica London and the suit was in the clearance section for $45 ($25 for the jacket and $20 for the skirt). That was more to my liking, so Friday morning , I ordered the suit on line along with the ivory satin blouse they were showing with the suit (the blouse cost $13).

Minutes after I completed the order, I received an e-mail offer Jessica London: $25 off any order over $50.

My suit and blouse order totaled $58 (excluding shipping), so I called customer service, explained what had happened, and they granted me the $25 discount. So for $33 (excluding shipping), I bought a Chanel suit knock-off and satin blouse.

They shipped my order on Friday and now I anxiously await its arrival.

"Nice shirt, by the way."

Back in the spring, when I informed Human Resources that I am transgender, I actually informed the HR Director of the division of the company that employs me. The HR rep for our location was out on that day and the Director, who happens to have her office in our building, was sitting in for our local rep.

Let me tell you about the our local HR rep. She is a drop-dead gorgeous blond in her late 20s. She seemed to be friendly with some co-workers, but she was always aloof with me.

For example, whenever I encountered her and said "Hello Mandy," she rarely said, "Hello Stan." Usually just a cold "Hello" and sometimes not even a "Hello."

Things changed dramatically after I came out to HR. The HR Director informed our local rep about my transness because I am our local rep's direct "problem," not the HR Director's problem.

Anyway, after coming out to HR, our local HR rep became downright friendly and she never misses calling me by my name when we exchange Hello's.

Today, I wore a shirt that has a blue floral print. I bought it in the men's department of Wal*Mart, so I know it is a male shirt. However, there is no doubting its floral design and some guys might shun such a shirt as being too feminine or at least, too diverse.

Anyway, I ran into our location HR rep today, said "Hello Mandy."

She replied, "Hello Stan" and then she added, "Nice shirt, by the way."

I was very surprised by her compliment and thanked her for it.

Go figure.

Maybe she feels that I am safe now. I am just one of the girls and no longer one of those guys who would like to bed her.

And so it went.

Opportunities

I went to Dress Barn in drag to check out their 50% clearance sale. The Dress Barn staff knows me en femme and en homme and greeted me like an old friend.

Sadly, the pickings were slim and I did nor find anything of interest in my size. There were some new fall items on display that caught my eye, but I was looking for summer wear because I have some summertime opportunities to go out en femme coming up.

Next week, I am taking a mini-vacation and on whatever day I am free of family obligations, I will go out en femme. Not sure what I am going to do, but whatever it is, it will be as a lady.

The following week, I will be doing outreach for a Human Sexuality class at Southern Connecticut State University. This is the same outreach gig that I have been doing for years, however, this is the first time I've done it during the summer; all the previous gigs were during the fall and spring semesters.

Next month, I may attend another ham radio convention en femme. Unlike the Dayton Ohio Hamvention I attended in May, which is an international event attracting 20 to 30,000 attendees, next month’s event is a regional convention, the biennial New England ham radio convention in Boxboro, Mass, which attracts about 1,000 attendees. I have made no definite plans yet, but it is on my radar.

Transsexual Model Bares All in French Vogue

According to Broadsheet in Salon, “When Givenchy's head designer cast his personal assistant, Lea T., in a print ad for the brand, it sparked a frenzy of interest. Calls for interviews and modeling gigs began pouring in.French Vogue, the hipper sister of American Vogue, is running a profile of the Brazilian model alongside a nude portrait in its upcoming issue. But this isn't your typical tale about the feverish discovery of a new face in high-fashion -- because Lea just happens to be a transsexual.”

Please read the rest of the story here.

Life in the Gynocracy

Pat e-mailed me a link to a Newsweek magazine article that asks, "What if men everywhere had to conform to beauty standards set by women?"

"We sure spend a lot of time talking about ideal female beauty—and why women spend so much time obsessing about it. But what if we lived in a world where women had always been the kings, the presidents, the bosses (and, thus, the arbiters of beauty)? Perhaps we’d call it a 'Gynocracy'—a place where superficial women would set the standards for attractiveness, and men would have to conform to them."

You can read the rest of the article here.

Role Reversal Reading

Back in March, I wrote a four-part series here titled What Will Men Wear When Women Wear Trousers?. It described how male and female roles have changed during the past 100 years and what will happen if they continue to follow the 100-year trend, i.e., a complete role reversal with women becoming the "new men" and men becoming the "new women" of the 21st Century.

After posting that series, I discovered a couple of blogs that were on-topic;

Patti's Male Femininity & Gender Role Reversal, which follows and advocates the current trends in role reversal.

Eve's Boys in the Pink, which describes the progression of the role reversal through the remainder of this century.

Restocking My Warpaint

I love experimenting with makeup.

A few years ago, I bought a makeup collection from Sephora that included a huge variety of eye, lip, and cheek colors. Although I use other makeup, the Sephora collection is my go-to makeup.

As a result, I have used up some of the colors. Also, since makeup does not improve with age, I thought I'd buy a replacement collection real soon now.

Since I am a Sephora Beauty Insider, I receive regular e-mail offers from them and their latest e-mail had just what I was looking for! Sixty-five colors; a $150 value for only $29.50. How could I resist!

If you are a femulator who wants to experiment with colors, I recommend buying this collection. And unlike a lot of the collections you will see for sale everywhere during the holidays, the Sephora collection is quality makeup that is a pleasure to use.

I recommend Sephora highly. You can select three free samples with every order, free shipping for orders over $50, and if you become a Beauty Insider (which is free), you earn points to get more free stuff. For example, my Beauty Insider points are getting me a free Lancome mascara with today's order.

In store, they are very trans-friendly. I've shopped en femme in their Manhattan and West Hartford (CT) stores and all my Sephora shopping excursions (including two makeovers) have been very positive. So, go for it, girls!

Eyelash Experiment Week 5

After five weeks of using the Avon eyelash growth stimulator, I am very happy with the results. Even without mascara, my eyelashes look longer and fuller than they looked before I began using the serum. With mascara, they are amazing!

In my case, patience paid off. After two weeks, I was not thrilled with the results, but into week three and beyond, I began noticing a difference. By week five, there was a big difference.

So, if you desire fatter eyelashes, I recommend Avon's eyelash growth stimulator serum.

News Is Good News

Murphy's Law... as soon as I deleted the Womanless News sidebar due to a lack of womanless news, I get some womanless news. So the Womanless News sidebar returns!

No News Is Bad News

I deleted the Womanless News sidebar because there is a dearth of news. When some womanless news occurs, the sidebar will reappear.

Theodore femulates in a Gryphon 'Mercury' embroidered silk dress, wig by Jon Renau, and makeup by Stana

Click on the image for a better color rendition.

Art of Femulation

Throughout my life, drawing and sketching has been an outlet for me being transgender.

When I was a kid, I began drawing as soon as I discovered the business end of a pencil.

In my early teens, when I became fascinated with femulation, my drawing started serving a purpose. When I could not crossdress (which was most of the time), I drew pictures about crossdressing as a release for my frustrated femulations.

Over the years, I have used ballpoint pens, fountain pens, rollerball pens, crayons, colored pencils, and markers for my trans-drawings, but a simple pencil and eraser were my usual tools until I bought a Macintosh computer in 1985.

Now my computer is my primary drawing tool, although I still use a pencil occasionally (see above right) to keep my penciling skills toned.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you cannot help seeing my trans-artwork on display here. I don't know if you readers prefer reading what I write or seeing what I drew.

For me, drawing is fun, while writing is hard work. As a result, I have a big backlog of trans-art, but almost no backlog of trans-words. The daily content of this blog reflects that.

Now go put on a dress!

Nicholas femulates in a 3.1 Phillip Lim cheetah jacquard minidress with hair and makeup by Stana

Click on the image for a better color rendition.

My Horoscope

For her amusement, my wife reads the daily horoscope from the local newspaper. If I am within earshot, she will read mine aloud to me.

Yesterday was such a day. Here is my horoscope (and yours if you are a Pisces):

Let others get to know the real you. Being authentic is more likely right now. Others might be startled, but once they relax, they will enjoy the person they get to know.

Those are insightful and truthful words.

I have found that whenever I come out to people about my transness, most are surprised or startled, but after the words sink in and they interact with me, they seemed to enjoy the new (to them) me. 

Peacock

Last night, I watched Peacock, a 2010 film starring Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page, and Susan Sarandon. I knew nothing about this film going in except that Murphy crossdressed in it; after his great crossdressing performance in Breakfast on Pluto, I thought I would give Peacock a look.

It was a very interesting film and held my attention from beginning to end. It really was not a film about being trans, although there are trans elements in the film that many of us can identify with.

I am not a psychologist, nor do I play one on television, so I am not sure what to call the mental condition that Murphy played in the film. I guess he had a multiple personality disorder (distinct male and a female personalities) and his deceased abusive mother was the cause.

Murphy's femulation was very good. As a female, he/she passed and none of the other characters in the film figured him/her out. In reality, I think that someone might have put two and two together, but that did not occur in this story.

One thing that bothered me about Murphy's femulation is that he/she wore male underwear (a T-shirt and briefs) under his/her female clothing. In my humble opinion, someone with his/her disorder would wear female underwear when he/she was in female mode, but that is just my opinion.

The underwear issue did not ruin the film for me and I recommend Peacock to all.

Brandon femulates in a Dolce&Gabbana polka dot dress, Noriko Millie wig, and makeup by Stana

Click on the image for a better color rendition.

Millard femulates in a Dolce&Gabbana pleated bottom, cap sleeve dress, Noriko Brooke wig, and makeup by Stana

Click on the image for a better color rendition.