Natural Progression

Eyebrow Delight

Keira Knightley is a British film actress. The only film I ever saw her in was Love Actually, but her image turns up occasionally at the some of the Internet sites that I haunt.

Whenever I see her photo, her eyebrows delight me. They are full, thick, and look very natural, as well as very feminine, as opposed to being pencil thin, extremely arched, and very artificial.

I like her eyebrows because my eyebrows are very similar to hers – our eyebrows could have been separated at birth! (In case you’re confused, that is Ms. Knightley in the photo on the left and me on the right.)

Since I present as a girl some of the time and do boy drag the rest of the time, I am hesitant to go too femme with my eyebrows. I have cleaned, shaped, and transitioned them from a near uni-brow to brows that can pass as feminine. They still work when I do boy drag, but they are feminine enough to pass as Keira Knightley’s eyebrows and that is just fine with me.

Parenting

On Salon today, Mary Elizabeth Williams wrote about a mother's anti-homophobia rant that went viral. Her son's gender-bending Halloween costume outraged other parents -- so she penned an eloquent, moving response

As the blogger herself says it, "If he wants to carry a purse, or marry a man, or paint fingernails with his best girlfriend, then ok. My job as his mother is not to stifle that man that he will be, but to help him along his way. Mine is not to dictate what is 'normal' and what is not, but to help him become a good person." And if you want to raise a good man, sometimes you've got to give him the freedom to be an adorable girl.

Read the rest of the story here.

Womanless Beauty Pageant

Yesterday, Aunty e-mailed me a link to photos from a womanless pageant held on Tuesday at South Jones High School in Ellsville, MS. Have a look.

Stana Does Not Rhyme With Hannah, But They Do Dress Alike

I changed my name to Stana in May, but I was not sure how to pronounce my new name.

Did "Stana" rhyme with "Donna" or "Hannah"? I searched the Internet for an answer, but did not find it.

Since then, people have asked me how to pronounce my name. I told them that the jury was still out deciding the question.

Yesterday, the question came up again, so I searched the Internet again.
I found the answer on YouTube, which now has a small collection of videos showing actress Stana Katic appearing as a guest on a variety of television talk shows. On each show, the host or hostess pronounced "Stana" by rhyming it with "Donna" and not "Hannah."

Case closed.

While on the subject of Hannah… according to The Huffignton Post, after comments about her wardrobe led to a scandal for ESPN in February, "SportsCenter" anchor Hannah Storm is being criticized once more for her choice of outfit. Now, Storm is under fire for wearing a short blue dress during last Tuesday's match between the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics. (see photo)

Huh?

I think she looks fine. In fact, her outfit reminds me of this one, which received rave reviews and nary a discouraging word.

It's not like Ms. Storm is working in a profession where conservative attire is the norm. Give me a break. She is a television sports announcer, not an investment broker or a rocket scientist!

By the way, Hannah is 5'10" tall, so I added her to my Famous Females of Height List.

Good News in the Local Election

My U.S. Congressman Chris Murphy defeated the Republican nominee Sam Caligiuri, who consistently voted against Connecticut state legislation that attempted to protect transgenders while he served as a State Senator.

This is a double victory for trans folks in Connecticut because in addition to Caligiuri not winning the congressional seat, he will no longer be a State Senator after his term ends this year.

Switching Sides

Food for Thought: A Two-Course Meal

Course 1

Course 2

Bon apettit!

Yeah, That's the Ticket!

Bachelor Pad

Hello Halloween

From my perspective, Sunday is not a good day for Halloween.

One person wore a costume to work on Friday. She shed her costume before noon because no one else among the 80 people who work in my office appeared in costume.

I thought about wearing a costume to work, but I decided against it because I figured that no one else would wear a costume since it really was not Halloween. I was about 99% correct.

I thought about wearing a costume to work despite the likelihood that no one else would wear a costume. That really would have pushed the envelope, but I am not ready to push it that far at work yet.

I regretted my decision after I discovered that someone else showed up in costume. At least I would have had some company.

Next year, Halloween falls on Monday. Therefore, I will assume others will show up in costume, which means Monday Back-to-Work Drag for me.

Photo caption: Yours truly in Roaring Twenties flapper drag, Halloween 2009.

Let's Get Political

I prefer to write about the joys of femulating, but with Election Day fast approaching, I will slip on my political pumps and climb up on the soapbox for a few paragraphs.

If you live in the Fifth Congressional District of Connecticut, I urge you to vote for the incumbent Chris Murphy. Congressman Murphy is an ally of the LGBT community and a progressive regarding other issues of the day.

Murphy's support of our community is reason enough for getting my vote. Another reason for voting for Murphy is that a vote for Murphy is a vote against his Republican opponent, who opposes protecting transgender human rights. As a state senator, the Republican nominee, Sam Caligiuri voted against legislation that would have guaranteed transgender citizens the same rights as the rest of the citizens of Connecticut.

By the way, Caligiuri represents my district in the state senate. When I wrote asking him to support the anti-discrimination legislation, he conveniently lost my letter until after he voted against the legislation. Months after the vote, he found my "lost" letter and responded to it.

Please vote for Chris Murphy and stop Caligiuri.

Bra Training

As I mentioned here, I visited Victoria’s secret to buy a new bra when I went out en femme on Wednesday.

I wrote yesterday, "I wanted one like the one I bought last December. Called 'Plunge,' it is the best bra I ever owned.

"Evidently, they discontinued Plunge, but the saleswoman helped me find a bra that was similar called 'Very Sexy Plunge.' It looks the same as Plunge; I will try it on later today and find out for sure if it is the same."

Last night, I compared the new bra with the old bra and they are not the same; they are similar, but not very. The old bra was much, much better.

For $48, I want what I want. So, I visited the Victoria's Secret store (Meriden Westfield Mall) where I bought the old bra, rather than returning to the store (West Farms Mall) where I bought the new bra.  (The saleswoman, who waited on me at West Farms was new and not completely familiar with the product line.)

In boy mode, I brought the old and new bras with me and explained my predicament to a sales rep at the Meriden store. She immediately recognized my old bra as their Miraculous Bombshell bra, which was not discontinued afterall. Rather, it was on prominent display in the center of the store's bra section.

I picked out a replacement; a pretty model with black lace over off-white cups (photo above) and exchanged it for the wrong bra.

Lady Gaga Femulators on NBC

Last night, both Community and The Office had Halloween themes.

The shows appear back-to-back on the same network (NBC), so I was surprised that both shows included male characters dressed as Lady Gaga. On Community, Jim Rash (above left), who plays "Dean Pelton," did Gaga, while on The Office, Zach Woods (above right) as "Gabe Lewis" did the honors.

Out Last Night or How the Femulating Fashionista Fouled Up

This girl went out last night.

Days ago, I decided to wear the gray sweater dress I wore last Tuesday in Provincetown. I changed my mind for two reasons: (1) it is short (maybe too short for walking around the mall) and (2) in consideration of the image consultant who would be speaking at the support group meeting I planned to attend, I thought something more business-like was in order. (I was under the impression that most of her clients were Boston female executives.)

So, I decided to wear my Chanel suit knock-off.

I really don't like suits too much; I don't like the way suits look on me, but I thought that the occasion called for a suit and I had not worn the Chanel knock-off yet...

But what shoes should I wear? I thought that beige shoes would be best (to match the beige buttons of the suit). I own two pairs of beige shoes. I really don't like either pair too much, but that was all I had, so I selected the pair that more closely matched the beige of the buttons.

I dressed in my reluctant outfit and went to the mall.

As I walked through Nordstrom's, I checked myself out in their floor-to-ceiling mirrors and regretted my choice of footwear. Beige was too bright and looked wrong with the rest of the outfit, but I continued on.

First stop was Victoria's Secret to buy a new bra. I wanted one like the one I bought last December. Called "Plunge," it is the best bra I have ever own.

Evidently, they discontinued Plunge, but the saleswoman helped me find a bra that was similar called "Very Sexy Plunge." It looks the same as Plunge; I will try it on later today and find out for sure if it is the same.

Next stop was Sephora where I bought some makeup I was running low on (moisturizer, eyebrow pencil, and foundation). While I was checking out, I saw the Sephora saleswoman, who performed a makeover on me four years ago and was so instrumental in changing my attitude about going out en femme with her words, ""You only have one life to live and you should live it like you want. If someone has a problem, then it is their problem, not yours."

I wanted to thank her, but by the time I finished checking out, she had disappeared.

I did some window-shopping, looked at a few dresses in Nordstrom's, then I returned to my Subaru to drive to the support group meeting.

Before arriving at the meeting hall, I stopped at CVS to buy a bottle of water.

There were a lot of cars parked around the meeting hall, so I assumed attendance would be high. I was correct; the place was packed with approximately 30 attendees.

At 8 PM, Ginger Burr, the image consultant, began her presentation and it ran about 90 minutes.

I asked her to critique my outfit and she agreed that the shoes were wrong. She also suggested opening the top button of my jacket and wearing a shorter strand of pearls.

Her presentation was very informative and I learned a lot. She emphasized that we should only wear things we like that make us look beautiful and make us feel good about ourselves. With that in mind, I should have worn the gray sweater dress.

Out Tonight

This girl is going out tonight.

First stop will be the mall where I want to buy a new bra at Victoria's Secret and makeup at Sephora.

Second stop will be a meeting of the Connecticut Outreach Society (COS).

At Fantasia Fair last week, my long-time friend Robin, who is the COS program director, invited me to attend the meeting. It will feature image consultant Ginger Burr, who will talk about our female presentations.

It should be a fun and informative night out.

Wednesday Wanderings

A Fix For Feeding Femulate to Facebook

I thank everyone who responded to my plea for help on how to feed this blog to Facebook.

Petra of Voyages en Rose fame suggested I use Google Reader as an intermediary.

Here are the steps to accomplish it:

1. In Google Reader, subscribe to the blog you want to feed to Facebook.

2. In the Google Reader settings, under the Send To options, put a check mark in the Facebook check box.

3. In your web browser, set www.google.com as an exception in your pop-up blocker (if you are using one).

4. In Google Reader, select a blog post to feed to Facebook by clicking on the Send To link displayed below the blog post. ("Facebook" should appear as a menu option when you click on Send To.)

If all goes well, the selected blog post will appear on your Facebook page. Note that it is not an automatic feed; you will have to manually select each blog post you wish to send to Facebook. It is better than nothing, which is what I had until Petra came to my rescue.

A Good Thing About Glaucoma

Yesterday, my eye doctor tested me for glaucoma.

My doctor explained that if I do have glaucoma, he will prescribe eye drops to hold off vision loss. He then listed the side effects of the eye drops. When he mentioned eyelash growth, I reacted quickly with a big smile and two thumbs up.

The doctor seemed confused by my positive reaction to that side effect. Meanwhile, I thought to myself that the woman that I am is taking over my life completely and any pretenses of being a male are falling by the wayside.

Another Fantasia Fair Photo

The photo above is from a week ago, i.e., my last night in Provincetown when I dined at Front Street restaurant with some new and old friends. 

Sew What?

Mom owned a Singer sewing machine and sewed beautiful dresses for her and my sister.

Often, I would peruse the dress patterns that were always lying around and wish that Mom would sew something for me. (She never did, although I never asked. In my heart, I think she would have if I had only asked.)

By watching Mom do it so many times, I learned how to use a needle and thread well enough to sew on a button and make minor repairs. I never got the hang of using a sewing machine, but once upon a time I did stitch together a micro miniskirt from scraps of red satin cloth that Mom had used for some other project.

Which brings me to a cool blog I came across recently called “Male Pattern Boldness,” which bills itself as "one man's sewing journey into the fantastic."

Peter Lappin is the man on the sewing journey and he describes his blog thusly, "I started sewing in June, 2009 and I am hooked. I sew all my own clothes from vintage patterns and sew exclusively on vintage sewing machines, including a 1920 Singer treadle! I sew for myself, my partner Michael, my two chihuahuas, Freddy and Willy, and my identical cousin, model Cathy Lane. Welcome to Male Pattern Boldness, where we discuss sewing, personal style, fashion, and more!"

...everything a femulating fashionista like myself loves to read about.

Peter's blog is interesting, amusing, and informative. Cathy Lane, Peter's identical cousin, models the woman's clothing that Peter sews (see photo above right).

Turns out that Cathy is really the girl that Peter wants to be  if he was a member of the opposite sex.

I love everything about Peter’s blog and I think you might like it, too!

Monday Musings

Feeding Femulate to Facebook

I have tried unsuccessfully to set up an RSS feed of this blog to my Facebook account.

Using Facebook’s “Import a Blog” function does not work. I've tried using it countless times, but each time, Facebook comes back with "Import Failed - We couldn't find a feed using the URL you provided."

http://www.femulate.org/feeds/posts/default is the URL of the feed. I know it is good, but Facebook does not like it.

I have sent Facebook a bug report, but so far, I have not received a response.

If anyone has any clues about why I cannot get this to work, I would appreciate hearing from you?

Outfit

I displayed the outfit on the right all weekend long in the blog’s “Femulate Her:” slot because I like it a lot.

I can definitely see me wearing it. I already have most of the pieces to put something similar together; I only lack the hosiery.

Maybe I can buy the hosiery before my next outing en femme.

Feeling the Femulation Effect

Having spent four days last week en femme, I again feel the “femulation effect,” i.e., I want to femulate more often... like 24/7 for the rest of my life!

Helping Our Trans Sisters and Brothers

At Fantasia Fair, Tanya Duval was one of the girls who recognized me from my blog photos. She introduced herself and we chatted.

Tanya told me how she is involved with a group that helps low and no income transgendered people in Massachusetts.

"The Transgender Emergency Fund (TEF) was created to provide critical assistance to low-income transgender people. Through the fund’s intervention, transpeople in Massachusetts have been able to avoid homelessness, maintain access to health care, and live with greater dignity and stability."

With winter approaching, TEF needs funds now to help T-people to make it through the harsh weather.

To help raise funds, TEF published a cool calendar. Titled "Unbound By Body", the 2011 calendar features portraits of transgender community members, both male-to-female and female-to-male from throughout Massachusetts. The portraits are amazing, the femulations are excellent (Tanya herself appears as a June bride), and the female-to-male transformations are spot-on, too. (The photo above is a sample image from the calendar.)

The calendar costs only $10 plus $3 for shipping and handling. You can purchase it here and help support a great cause that assists our trans sisters and brothers.