The Extra Man En Femme

I am a film buff, but I had never heard of the 2010 film titled The Extra Man. I should have known about it because it stars one of my favorite living actors, Kevin Kline, along with Katie Holmes, Paul Dano, and John C. Riley. Somehow, it flew under my radar until last week when I learned that Paul Dano appears en femme in the film.

My interest was piqued, so I added the film to my Blockbuster queue.

The DVD arrived Saturday. I have not watched the whole film yet, but I fast-forwarded through the DVD to check out the transgender bits and found many pertinent scenes. There may be others because I fast-forwarded through the film very quickly and I might have missed some scenes, but here are the ones I did find:

* The Dano character peruses the trans bar advertisements in a tabloid newspaper.

* Dano goes to a trans bar and converses with a trans waitress.

* Dano has a male-to-female head-to-toe makeover.

I am not sure how these trans scenes fit into the rest of the film because I have not watched the film from beginning to end yet. According to IMDB, the story is about a man who escorts wealthy widows in New York's Upper East Side" and "takes a young aspiring playwright under his wing." Kline is the escort and Dano is the aspiring playwright.

And how it goes, I don't know yet.

Happy St. Valentine's Day

Three times a charm!

This is the third time I posted this vintage Valentine's Day greeting card here (last time in 2009). Since the blog's readership has evolved and grown during the past two years ago, I am posting the card again for everyone to enjoy because it is so apropos femulation-wise. (Click on the image to magnify it and see it in its full glory.)

And Happy Saint Valentine's Day to you all!

Watching the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards Show

Watching the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards Show on CBS tonight.

(This will be a live blog until I fall asleep.)

***

The show opened with a tribute to Aretha Franklin by five singers. One, a tall redhead, looks tall enough to qualify for the Famous Females of Height List. Who is she?

Poking around the Grammy website, I think she is Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine fame and poking around the Internet, I find that she is 5'9" tall and most definitely qualifies for the list.

***

I'll admit that I don't get out much and heard Lady Gaga for the first time on 60 Minutes earlier tonight and on the Grammys later tonight.

The lyrics to the song she sang on the Grammys, Born This Way, were interesting from a trans-perspective ("Don't be a drag, just be a queen"), but after hearing her sing and watching her performance, I wonder if Madonna is suing?

***

Coincidentally, Lady Gaga's performance was followed by a hp commercial that used Lou Reed's Walk On The Wild Side with the lyrics revised! Wow!

***

Country-western singer Miranda Lambert wins an award. As she gets up out of her seat to accept the award, the first thing she has to do is pull up the front of her dress with both hands so that her girls don't escape on live television. She looks like a sausage in the dress she is wearing --- what a shame!

***

Just A Beaver - don't get me started!

***

Laughed out loud at the Letterman Top Ten piece.

***

Just noticed that Gospel singer Yolanda Adams, who also performed in the Aretha Franklin tribute, is also tall - 6'1" to be exact!

***

Bob Dylan should consider lip synching. Love his music, but his voice is no longer lovable.

***

Love Gwyneth Paltrow's heels!

***

Love Kate Perry's dress.

***

Now, I am going to fall asleep!

Trans Photo Collage

Occasionally, I visit flickr to see what the girls are uploading there that is trans-related. A few months ago, I noticed the trans photo collages that Rebecca Hipkiss had been uploading.

I checked back a few times as her collection of collages grew. It is now quite impressive and I highly recommend it to any transperson who likes transphotos (isn't that redundant?).

Better Than a Window Seat

(A New Yorker cartoon parody.)

Random Thoughts on a Freezing Friday

Thank Goddess It’s Friday

Here is an idea for a new American restaurant chain. Call it “Thank Goddess It’s Friday” and staff if with male waitresses like they do in Japan.

Fly Me, I'm Stana

Which brings up the story, blogged about here a couple of times (1) (2), about the new Thai airline, PC Air, hiring transwomen as flight attendants.

PC Air made a big deal about being the first airline to hire transwomen as flight attendants “in an effort to promote equal opportunities for what's called the 'third sex in Southeast Asia.”

Maybe they are the first airline to openly hire transwomen as flight attendants, but I think it is likely that other airlines have hired transwomen (in stealth or not) as flight attendants in the past (and did not publicize it). I have no proof for that assertion, but transwomen are everywhere and I'm sure they are in the stewardess ranks, too.

This story tears me.

On the one hand, PC Air did a good thing, but on the other hand, they soiled their good deed by forcing the trans flight attendants to wear special badges so that civilians can differentiated the trans from the non-trans attendants. WTH? If they were really interested in promoting equal opportunities, PC Air should have had the trans flight attendants wear generic badges and let them blend in with the non-trans attendants.

Androgynous Andrej Pejic... Not!

IMHO, Andrej has moved up the gender spectrum from androgynous to transgender. Welcome to the "girls'" club, Miss Pejic!

Football Player Chorus Girl Mystery

While shopping at Ocean State Job Lot yesterday, I noticed shelves of designer postcards on sale, ten for a dollar.

Being a postcard collector, I was in heaven. Being a femulator, I was elated to find the postcard (pictured above) among the hundreds that were for sale.

The description on the back of the card reads, “Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs (‘Wooly Bully’) with football players dressed as chorus girls.”

The source of the image was a mystery.

I saw Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs perform live in concert back in the mid-1960s and I can assure you there were no football players dressed as chorus girls fronting the band.

I thought that the source of the image might be a Hollywood film, so I searched IMDB and discovered that Sam and the Pharaohs appeared in a 1965 opus titled When the Boys Meet the Girls with Connie Francis, Harve Presnell, Louis Armstrong, Liberace, and Herman's Hermits (Wow!).

I did not find the football player chorus girls image on the Internet, but I did find other images of Sam and the band from the film wearing the same outfits performing on the same stage, so I'd say “mystery solved.”

Andrej Pejic to Model En Femme Again

This just in: Andrej Pejic will model in Yoana Baraschi's 2011 Fall fashion show. He will wear one of the designer’s signature feminine looks for the February 13 show at Lincoln Center’s The Box during New York Fashion Week.

Read all about it here.

Trans Airline Stewardesses, Part 2

(This is a follow-up to the blog posting here last Monday about PC Air hiring transwomen as flight attendants.)

The ladies in the photo above are the four transwomen hired for the job. Left to right, they are Nathatai Sukkaset, 26, Phuntakarn Sringern, 24, Dissanai Chitpraphachin, 24, and Chayathisa Nakmai, 24.

All I have to add is that it is too bad Trans World Airlines (TWA) is no longer in business.

Andrej Pejic in Lipstick and Swimsuit

Andrej Pejic continues to confound the gender police. His latest run in with their laws is her “first beauty spread” in the Spring/Summer issue of The Block Magazine where he appears en femme in feminine duds and cosmetics.

You go, girl!

Read and see more here on The Huffington Post.

In Her Shoes

The company is having a dog and pony show for the sales staff here this week. My boss is involved; thankfully, I am not.

My boss stopped by my cubicle this morning to discuss something. She was wearing a black dress, black tights, and black heels. She looked very nice.

First words out of her mouth were, "I hate sales meetings because I have to wear heels!"

I had to bite my tongue because I almost said, "I wouldn't mind."

Womanless Wednesday: Texas, 2007

KOGT AM radio website has photos from the 2007 Little Cypress Mauriceville Miss Honey Pageant and the 2007 West Orange-Stark High School Ms Mustang competition.

Thank you Aunty Marlena for this find!

In My Room

I was a Beach Boys fan (still am). Their Beach Boys Concert was the first LP I ever bought. Eventually, I bought every LP and 45 that they released during their first 15 years of operation.

I liked most of their songs; I knew most of the lyrics by heart, but I was very self-conscious about one song — one of their big hits — In My Room.

If ever there was a song about teen transgender angst, In My Room was it. I am sure Brian Wilson did not have crossdressers in mind when he wrote the song, but almost any youth with gender issues could identify with the lyrics of that song.

There's a world where I can go
and tell my secrets to
In my room
In my room

In this world I lock out
all my worries and my fears
In my room
In my room

Do my dreaming and my scheming lie awake and pray
Do my crying and my sighing laugh at yesterday

Now it's dark and I'm alone
but I won't be afraid
In my room
In my room

In addition to being self-conscious about the song, hearing Brian Wilson singing those lyrics back in the mid-1960s was kind of embarrassing. It was such a "girly" song that you had to wonder what was going on with Brian Wilson (plenty, as it turned out, but nothing gender-related). This was the same guy who sang Surfin' Safari, Little Deuce Coupe, Shut Down, Fun, Fun, Fun, etcetera, etcetera, and now he was singing a song that you would expect a female recording artist to sing!

And his voice was girly, too! It was almost too much for a transgender kid to take.

Four Today

Today is the fourth birthday of Femulate!

Over 1.7 million hits and 1675 posts later, the popularity of Femulate still amazes me (I guess I am doing something right).

Viewing Femulate's statistics, the most popular post during the past four years is a July 20, 2007 post, Feminine Skirts and Dresses For Men (with 106 comments). Almost four years later, it still leads the pack in the daily stats for this blog.

Hot on its heels is a February 3, 2009 post, 11 Stories About Cross-Dressing. It always falls just short of the number 1 spot, but it is always number 2 and ahead of number 3 by a very wide margin.

Anyway, I thank you for visiting Femulate and I hope I can continue to make this a place you will want to visit.

Best Wishes,

Stana

Get Back Fat

The weather forecast for today did not look promising (a "wintry mix"), so I was in no hurry to get up and get out of house. In anticipation of the weather, I did my normal Saturday morning chores yesterday, so I had a leisurely Saturday morning for a change.

I took advantage of the free time to try on some outfits while wearing the new shapewear camisole I purchased to deal with my back fat issues.

The cami looks too small, but it stretches to fit and smooths out my back fat. Instead of a roll of fat, my back was now flat. (By the way, my dress size is usually Misses 16 and the size XL cami fits me fine.)

I tried on a few dresses I had worn in the past where my back fat was evident and I was very pleased with the difference. I tried on a few dresses I had not worn yet and the results were the same.

Bali makes the cami. I bought it through Avon. It is similar to this one except that the one I bought through Avon (see photo) has narrower shoulder straps, no lace inserts, and was $25.

If you wish to buy the Avon version, you cannot buy it online (I searched high and low and cannot find it on their website). You will have to buy it through an Avon representative. (The cami appears in the Campaign 3 sales book as shown here.)

I am so satisfied with my purchase that I ordered a second one.

Boys Will Be Girls – What Else Is New?

Transsexual model Lea T

This story is beginning to get old, but here is Vogue.com’s take on the femimen movement in the fashion world.

I say…

Fashion is one thing, but the real world is something else. Lots of stuff that models wear on the runways never show up on the sidewalks.

Will the femimen movement be different? Will we soon see femimen on the streets of America?

Maybe.

Life En Femme Is Divan

(A New Yorker cartoon parody.)

Womanless Wednesday: Louisville 1969

From the Flickr vaults comes photos (set 1 and set 2) from a "She-Male Contest" held at the University of Louisville back in March 1969!

Thank you Aunty Marlena for this find!

Still Reaching Out En Femme

Yesterday, I described how I became involved with outreach, that is, the process of educating the civilian population about the trans community.

Today, I will describe a typical outreach session (like the ones I have been involved with at local colleges and universities).

During the past five years, I have participated in outreaches where there was only one other person doing outreach with me and at the other extreme, with as many as ten other people, but on the average, there are about five and they usually represent a good cross-section of the trans community, that is, pre-op, post-op, no-op, male-to-female, female-to-male, etc.

When we walk into the classroom, most eyes are on us. In my the back of my mind, I think that some of the students are expecting us to look like refugees from The Jerry Springer Show (see photo). We are far from that and that is part of their education.

At every outreach I have experienced, there are always comments from students that they were surprised how average we all were, that is, average in a good way. We were not freaks --- we were just like them.

Usually the session starts with each of us presenting a short biography with emphasis on being trans. Then, the students ask us pertinent questions.

Some questions are "deeper" than others.

At one end of the spectrum are questions like "How did you choose your female name?" or "How did you learn to walk so well in high heels?"

At the other end of the spectrum are questions like "Are you happy with your male body image?" or "You dress so attractively; are you trying to attract a man or a woman?"

Sometimes I find the questions amusing like the following exchange:

Student A, "Are You married?"

Me, "Yes."

Student B, "Are you married... to a woman?"

Me, "Yes, again."

Which brings up another revelation about trans people that every outreach I have experienced encounters: that we are not necessarily gay. Going in, most of the students believe that all trans people are gay, but they go away from our sessions with the knowledge that being trans does not mean that you are also gay.

Outreach is a rewarding experience. The reward is that it gives me the opportunity to spread the truth. Hopefully, the students we reach out to learn the truth and maybe spread the word to their friends and family. And maybe someday, this slow domino effect will result in a society that has an open-mind about its transgender brothers and sisters.

Reaching Out En Femme

What's "outreach?"

According to Wikipedia, "outreach is an effort by an organization or group to connect its ideas or practices to the efforts of other organizations, groups, specific audiences or the general public. Unlike marketing, outreach does not inherently revolve around a product or strategies to increase market share. Typically non-profits, civic groups, and churches engage in outreach.

"Outreach often takes on an educational component (i.e., the dissemination of ideas), but it is increasingly common for organizations to conceive of their outreach strategy as a two-way street. In this case outreach is also framed as engagement, rather than simple dissemination/education."

I did my first outreach in May 2006 (see photo) after being a member of Connecticut Outreach Society (COS) for over 16 years. COS has two components: to support the trans community and to educate civilians about the trans community.

When I volunteered to do outreach, I had ulterior motives. I was looking for an opportunity to go out en femme that was relatively safe, but beyond the safety net of a support group meeting.

A lot of the outreach performed by COS took place at colleges and universities. I figured that these were safe places because they usually are bastions of diversity and tolerance. So I asked to be included on the outreach team the next time COS did outreach at a college or university.

A year or two later, I also joined the Stonewall Speakers outreach team.

Colleges, universities, and other organizations contact COS or Stonewall Speakers when they have a need for outreach. Then COS or Stonewall Speakers contacts its volunteers (like me) to find out who is available to do outreach at the required time and place.

Between COS and Stonewall Speakers, I receive an assignment to do outreach about four times per year. As a result, I have done outreach at Saint Joseph College, Southern Connecticut State University, University of Connecticut, University of Hartford. and Wesleyan College. By the way, if I was not employed full-time, I would be then available for additional assignments because most occur during the weekday.

Tomorrow, I will describe what happens at outreach.

Trans Airline Stewardesses

Hot on the heels of Andrej Pejic modeling a bridal gown on a Paris fashion show runway, we find a new Thai airline, PC Air, hiring "ladyboys" as airline stewardesses. Initilly, three lucky ladyboys were hired from over 100 trans applicants

By the way, the ladyboy "flight attendants will wear special gold-coloured 'third sex' name badges to help passengers and immigration staff to easily identify the gender they are faced with."

Thank you Gwen for alerting me to this story, which appeared in The Telegraph.