Scalia's Surprise: Women Don't Have Constitutional Protection Against Discrimination

UPDATED BELOW

WASHINGTON -- The equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not protect against discrimination on the basis of gender or sexual orientation, according to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

For the record, the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause states: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." That would seem to include protection against exactly the kind of discrimination to which Scalia referred.

Read the rest of this shocking story in The Huffington Post.

UPDATE:  Scalia says the 14th Amendment protects only black citizens, not women. Oh, and a rich white kid named Bush

For another view on the matter, please read this piece by Joan Walsh from Salon.

Japanese Crossdressers Niche Shopping Site

Now that I have finally gotten rid of the visions of sugarplums dancing in my head, I have been trying to catch up on my trans-net reading.

During my catch-up, I came across this December 16 Japan Trends story about an e-commerce store that is an offshoot of the crossdresser maid cafes. For those who are unfamiliar with crossdresser maid cafes, they are restaurants where the waitstaff dress as maids and also happen to be male.

The e-commerce store, Lagrangel, sells a variety of feminine finery (including wigs) for Japanese lads who wish to present as ladies. Too bad their size large is about 6 inches too small for me!

To Do

In lieu of New Year's resolutions, I prefer to assemble a to-do list for the coming year. So for 2011, here are my to-dos (in no particular order):

• Dress en femme more often than not

• Kiss a girl

• Lose ten pounds

• Write a book

• Get rid of my back fat

• Have more nights out with the girls

• Get rid of my varicose veins

• Improve my blog

• Find a new hair style

• Attend a transgender conference

• Sell Avon en femme

Happy New Year!

Another Good Reason For Giving Up Smoking

It was twenty years ago today

Stana, December 1990

Wednesday in Heels

"Angelina Jolie had her own request for stunt gear in the new movie "The Tourist" -- stilettos," according to the Associated Press.

"Jolie did her stunts in Salvatore Ferragamo heels. The heel height came down a bit for the most active scenes, but "she basically toughed it out in her shoes," said costume designer Colleen Atwood."

Read the rest of the story here.

Meanwhile, if you ever bought a pair of heels that turned out to be too small (who hasn't?), here is a cool tip I found on YouTube that demonstrates how to stretch your shoes a half to one full size using ice.

Dunno what my spouse will think finding a pair of 4-inch pumps next to the pot roast, but if it works, move over tater tots!

Femulate Brasil

Femulate Brasil emulates Femulate in Portuguese.

César is the brains behind Femulate Brasil and I thank him for honoring my blog with his Portuguese version.

Support the "Girls"

An e-mail from Jackie alerted me that the boys who emulated girls in a pageant at the Ernest Ward Middle School in Walnut Hill, FL, were receiving flak from some of the folks commenting on the news story about the event.

Seems that the boys put the event together as a fundraiser for the school's cheerleaders, but some "enlightened" individuals found the crossdressing inappropriate and harangued the boys with their comments.

Jackie and I agree that the boys do not deserve the negative comments. Rather, they should be congratulated for their fine work. If you would like to add some positive words to those comments, I urge you to do so here.

Boys Being Girls Again

Bill e-mailed me about womanless beauty pageants at the Travelers Rest High School in Travelers Rest, SC. You can view photos of the 2008 pageant here and the 2009 pageant here.

Bill opines that "2008 is much better than 2009" and that "pierced earrings and high heels are worn in this event."

"Some application of Nair would have improved matters," says I.

More or Less Womanless

I received an unsolicited e-mail a few days ago that invited me to visit a web site to view videos related to womanless pageants, weddings, fashion shows, etc. I checked it out and found a list of approximately 300 links to such videos. Many I had seen in the past, but some were new to me.

I was going to pass the web site along to you readers, then I discovered that there was a "catch." If I was not careful about where I pointed and clicked, the womanless video list transitioned into a pornography video list. So I abandoned the idea of passing along the web site information to you.

Instead, I Googled it myself. Doing so, I came up with 692 womanless-related videos. Like the porn site list, some I have seen in the past, but some were new to me.

You'll have to separate the wheat from the chaff yourself. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas to You and Yours

Another Tall Thursday

Long time, no Famous Females of Height, so without further ado…

My trans sister in Atlanta, Petra, alerted me to the tallest female of this group, 6'8" Ricki Covette, a burlesque performer from the 1960s. Petra kindly sent along a pertinent link about Miss Covette, too.

I have been watching Seinfeld reruns lately and I spotted three of our tall ladies on that show: 5'8" Cindy Ambuehl, 5'9" Kathleen McClellan, and 5'9" Ivana Miličević.

Also spotted while ogling the telly were 5'9" model Sophie Turner, 5'10" actress Margo Stilley (spotted in the film How To Lose Friends & Alienate People - that's her in the accompanying photo), and 6'3" actress Dot-Marie Jones from television's Glee.

Meanwhile, Back at T-Central…

At last count, my guest post at Calie’s T-Central has generated a thread of 20 25 interesting comments. If you have not read the comments, I recommend that you do. You might also want to add your own comment to the discussion.

Vampire Girls

Looking for femulations on eBay, I came across an unusual postcard depicting a vaudeville act called “Vampire Girls Company.” The “girls” are actually boys and according to the postcard, they were performing at the “New Garden Theatre.”

The back of the postcard indicates that Waterloo, IA was the site of photo on the front of the postcard. I can find no other information concerning the Vampire Girls.   

Go Directly to T-Central…

…do not pass go and do not collect $200.

Sister blogger, Calie, the brains behind the operation known as T-Central, invited me to guest post on her blog. I was honored that she asked me and I happily accepted her invitation. My guest post now appears there.

By the way, I am getting over my illness. Today, I feel about 80%  “normal,” as compared to 50% yesterday and 0% on Sunday. Thank you all for your well wishes!

Ill

I'm ill.

I woke up in the middle of the night and had vomiting sessions at 2, 3 and 5 AM losing 5 pounds in the process.

I got out of bed at 8 AM to take a shower figuring that after a shower, I would feel better. I did not. Instead, I felt very weak and tired, so I went back to bed and slept most of the morning.

I woke up around noon with a 100.3 degree temp; took an ibuprofen and that brought my temp down to 99.

I felt blah all afternoon and am going back to bed after I post this.

Sorry, I am not my femulating self today. I hope tomorrow that I will be better.

Next Stop... Victoria's Secret

The Switchers

Dear Stana: Where’d You Get the Bunny Costume?

Dear Stana,

I like your site and check it often. On your site's picture gallery, there are many pics of you, but I wanted to ask about one toward the bottom where you are dressed in what looks like a black waitress outfit from a Playboy Club. You look absolutely fabulous. It must feel wonderful. I was wondering about it though; where you got it; if it is from a Playboy club?

Regards,

Fred

Hi Fred,

Thank you for the kind words!

Like every boy, I wanted to be a Playboy bunny when I grew up. Didn't happen, but the next best thing was to be a Playboy bunny on Halloween.

Halloween 2004 was my target for joining the girls in Hef's bunny hutch, so I began searching the Internet for bunny costumes.

Occasionally, authentic Playboy bunny costumes turn up on eBay, but they are prohibitively expensive, not to mention that they are never available in Size 16 Tall.

There were a few bunny costumes available on the Halloween costume web sites. All resembled the real Playboy costume in one way or another, but none were authentic enough for me and again, size was an issue.

I am a do-it-yourself kind of girl. In the past, I assembled many Halloween costumes from scratch, so I decided that if I wanted to achieve authenticity, I would have to build my own Playboy bunny costume.

With summer winding down, there were clearance sales galore on swimwear and I found the perfect item for my costume at the Newport-News web site: a black sequins maillot-style swimsuit. I don't recall the size or the price, but when it arrived, it was a perfect fit and I was well on my way building the costume.

I already had shoes that matched the bodice: a pair of black patent high heel pumps.

The bunny ears, tail, tuxedo cuffs and collar with bow tie were relatively easy and inexpensive to acquire. Various Halloween costumers sold kits that paired the ears with the tail and the cuffs with the collar. They were so inexpensive that I bought two kits each just in case I had a costume malfunction.

The hardest items to find were the fishnets and rosette name badge.

I owned fishnets, but none that had a fishnet pattern all the way up to the waistband, which is what I needed to cover my legs from toe to hip. One more time, size was an issue, but I finally managed to find a pair online that fit my very long gams.

After visiting a number of craft and party stores, I found a rosette name badge at a local party store. All I had to do was add my own name to the badge, which I did using a font on my computer that approximated the original bunny rosette name badge font.

I had a collection of foundation garments to experiment with in order to achieve a bunny-like figure while attempting to keep the foundation garments hidden. After considerable experimentation, I went with a corset-style waist cincher to achieve the narrowest waistline and a legless panty girdle to flatten my tummy.

I went bra-less since the swimsuit had a built-in bra. I inserted my largest homemade birdseed falsies in the cups of the swimsuit and used surgical tape to bring my "girls" together to add some cleavage.

Voila! I was a now a Playboy bunny and my costume was a hit at my support group's Halloween party that year.

I am very proud of that costume and I hope I will have the opportunity to wear it again someday real soon now.

Best Wishes,

Stana

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 stana-stana at sbcglobal.net.