Out Today

I was out en femme today and will have a full report tomorrow. (Too tired to type tonight.)

Hanging Chaz

Writing here about Chaz Bono and the effort to hang him out to dry for his Dancing With The Stars (DWTS) stint is like preaching to the choir. I am sure that most Femulate readers support Mr. Bono and hope he does well on the television show, so there is no need convincing you that his DWTS apperance is a good thing.

However, you may want to show your support in a public manner by going to the Vote For Chaz Bono on DWTS Facebook page. (If I still had a Facebook account, I'd do it in a New York minute.)

Anyway, in my opinion, anything that mainstreams transgender folks in a positive manner is a big win for the transgender community. The fact that this mainstreaming is occurring on a very popular television show is even better. The more people who see Chaz on DWTS, the more opportunities there are to convince the civilian population that transgenders are just plain folks who are no stranger than Buzz Aldrin, Bristol Palin, Lance Bass, Margaret Cho, or any of the other diverse cast of characters, who have appeared on the show.

And maybe next fall, DWTS will have a male-to-female transgender compete on the show. My toe should be completely mended by then!

My "Business Casual" Dilemma

As I mentioned here last Sunday, I am going out en femme on Thursday, but I don't have a thing to wear!

That's a lie. Actually, I have plenty of things to wear, but I can't decide what to wear.

My manager says we should dress "business casual." That eliminates evening gowns and cocktail dresses, but still leaves a lot to choose from my closet.

In deference to my healing toe, I know I plan to wear my most comfortable shoes, so I guess I will build my outfit around my choice of footwear.

When Wigs Were Wigs

I bought my first wig from Frederick's of Hollywood, how about you?

(As always, click on the image for bigger hair.)

Still More Yearbook Femulations

Here are more findings from old school yearbooks online, thanks to Starla.

As usual, clicking on an image makes it appear bigger (sometimes).

 

Chicoteague (VA) High School, 1985

Unknown High School, 1976

Marinette (WI) High School, 1965

Nathan B. Forrest High School (Jacksonville, FL) 1977

 

Nokomis Regional High School (Newport ME), 1974

Ouachita (LA) High Schhol, 1977

 

Unknown High School, 1974

More Yearbook Femulations

Starla continues searching old school yearbooks online and sending me any femulations she discovers. I shared some of her findings here back in May. With the kids now returning to school to begin anew, I am sharing some of her latest findings with you today.

Starla and I were both interested by the use of the term "She-Male." It must have had a more innocent meaning back in 1967, at least in Louisville. I was certainly trans-active back in 1967, but I can't recall how well known real she-males were back then... probably not so much.

As usual, clicking on an image makes it appear bigger (sometimes).

Westport High School, Louisville, KY, 1967

Springhill (LA) High School, 1967

Dan - the Woman

Irishman Dan Mooney is writing a blog detailing 366 new things to do during his 26th year (plus one day) on the planet Earth. Thing 296 is to "dress as a woman."

He enlists a "cavalry" to help and the results look passable. And to test his passing ability, "she" goes bar-hopping.

(During the femulation process, Dan even goes so far as to look up on the Internet how to create cleavage and proceeds to tape up his shaved chest according to the directions. I wonder; such attention to detail awakens my trans-radar.)

Anyway, you can read all about it here.

(Thank you, Amanda, for alerting me to the story.)

Toe Update

I went to the podiatrist today for a follow-up appointment regarding my toe problem.

After I described the positive effects of the steroid shot he gave me two weeks ago, he said he was not going to give me another shot. Instead, he prescribed Voltaren, an ointment to rub on my toe to alleviate any pain.

He said see how it goes after four weeks and get back to him then if I am still hurting. He expects that my toe problem will be gone by then.

He added that in the meantime, I should avoid climbing ladders and kneeling. That's OK by me.

Suits Me Fine

My best female friend at work really put herself together nicely yesterday.

She wore a (new to me) brown suit (jacket and pencil skirt that skimmed the top of her knees), a pretty dark red satin V-neck blouse, and a pair of suede high heel pumps covered with patches in different shades of brown.

I could not contain myself and told her she looked "great." Then I added, "When you dress like that, I want to dress like that." (In truth, I want to dress like that no matter how she dresses, but she is an inspiration to me.)

She was very flattered.

I also remarked, "I love your shoes."

Having discussed the good, the bad, and the ugly of women's shoes in the past, she mentioned that her shoes were very comfortable.

I replied that's icing on the cake (or something like that).

My friend is on the employee activities committee, so I asked her if the committee had any plans for Halloween this year.

She said they had no plans so far.

I told her that I wanted to come dressed en femme on Halloween and I planned to do so whether the company celebrated the holiday or not.

She encouraged me to do so and added that she did not think anyone would give me a problem.

I replied that nothing would bother me and that I would find out who my friends were.

Then she suggested that I submit a suggestion to the activities committee to celebrate Halloween.

The first thing I did when I returned to my desk was to write that suggestion and e-mail it to her to share with the committee.

Whether there is a Halloween celebration or not, I have now made up my mind that I will attend work en femme on October 31.

And, by the way, she preferred the business woman costume idea over the airline stewardess costume idea.

"A woman is not complete without aching feet."

"A woman is not complete without aching feet" is a line from the film To Die Like A Man and is spoken by one of the transgender characters as she slips on a pair of high heel pumps.

(So, now I know I am not alone regarding aching high heeled feet!)

To Die Like A Man is a 2009 film from Portugal that is now available in the US on DVD with English subtitles.

It is a very dark film and it will not make your day.

Here is the foreboding storyline from IMDB: A transvestite tries to erase any past history of herself as a male. She dies tragically before this is accomplished and her male identity is engraved on her headstone.

Here is Wikipedia's take on the film: It tells the story of a homosexual drag-queen at the end of his [sic] career. The cast includes several Portuguese real-life drag-queens, with no previous, or little, acting experience. The story has been allegedly inspired by the real story of Joaquim Centúrio de Almeida (artistic name: Ruth Bryden), a Portuguese drag-queen, and has motivated a lawsuit on account of plagiarism of a biographical book on the life of Almeida by the late author Carlos Castro, who was murdered in 2011.

I started watching the film as hurricane/tropical storm Irene crashed around my head on Sunday. Maybe the storm outside was too distracting or maybe the film was too bleak for this girl, but whatever the reason, I did not watch it all. Instead, I skimmed through the DVD watching scenes that I thought might be interesting; some were, some were not.

I have to watch the film from beginning to end in order to give it a fair shake. For now, I just wanted to let you all know about its existence.

Lucky

Irene Dunn

I was lucky with regards to hurricane Irene, which was downgraded to "tropical storm" status by the time it got here.

We had 3-3/4-inches of rain and wind speeds as high as 43 MPH. Lots of small branches fell in my yard, as well as one huge branch that I had to ax in half before I could haul it into the woods.

My guyed 55-foot antenna tower survived the onslaught and miracles of miracles, we never lost power, which is saying something considering the record number of outages in this neck of the woods due to Irene.

Out At Last

My toe is on the mend and in ten more days, I hope it is well enough so I can wear woman's shoes and go out en femme.

As I mentioned in the past, I am an "Avon lady" and next month, Avon is touring the USA with its "Come Home for the Holidays 2011" show to acquaint us Avon representatives with new products to sell during the holidays.

Besides a preview of new products, each attendee receives a $50 gift bag and has ban opportunity to have fun and network with sister representatives and managers.

The venue for my Avon district's show is the Mohegan Sun casino, which has some great restaurants where I can lunch with the girls, as well as slot machines where I might win some or lose some.

I have networked with other Avon ladies on only one other occasion: at an Avon rep Christmas party in 2006 (you can read all about it here). Except for the fact that I was way overdressed for that event, it went very well; the other Avon ladies in attendance treated me as one of them and I had a wonderful time.

So I expect to have another wonderful time en femme real soon now.

Comments

"My name is Stana."

I received an e-mail yesterday afternoon from a reader who posted a comment earlier in the day, but wondered if she had done something wrong because her comment had not appeared on the blog.

I work Monday through Friday, 7 AM to 4 PM (more or less), and my workplace filters Internet content (in a willy-nilly fashion). As a result, I cannot access the comment moderation function to approve/disapprove comments posted during the work day.

Only after I get home and get on my home computer, can I moderate your comments. So, if your weekday comments do not appear right after you post them, now you know why.

Speaking of comments, after reading your comments regarding my Halloween costume plans, I am reconsidering. I still plan to go to work en femme, but now I am considering office wear again dressing as a "highly successful business woman in the power skirt suit, heels, etc.," as Jaye Anne suggested.

That costume choice would be easy as I already have all the fixings to put that costume together. On the other hand, a stewardess cap and wings can quickly convert office wear into flight attendant wear, so I have not ruled out "coffee, tea, or me" yet.

No matter what I wear, anyone at work who wondered about my gender after seeing my previous two "office girl" costumes will have no doubt where my gender is after October 31. And so be it; it could break ground for a transition at work.

Meanwhile, I battened down the hatches last night and await the arrival of Hurricane Irene.

We are in the cross-hairs of the predicted path of the storm and when it hits us on Sunday, we may lose power. If that occurs, Femulate will be on hiatus until power returns (although my computer is battery-powered, my Wi-Fi is not).

And so it goes.

Monday Back-to-Work Drag

This year, Halloween falls on a Monday.

There may or may not be anything "official" going on at work Halloween-wise, but I plan to go to work en femme.

I've done it twice before when my workplace had official Halloween function. (You can read about that here and here.)

In the past, I often considered dressing en femme for Halloween when there was no official Halloween functions, but I chickened out each time. This year, I am not going to chicken out. I just have to decide what to wear.

I've done "office girl drag" twice, so I want to wear something different instead.

I still have all the parts of my last Halloween costume, a roaring '20's flapper, so that's a possibility. Or I can go for something completely different.

I always fancied wearing an airline stewardess uniform, but all the stewardess costumes I have found for sale are slutty and not authentic. I thought about building my own stewardess uniform. The only difficult items to obtain are the stewardess hat and wings. Reproduction hats are available, but I have not been able to locate reproduction wings.

Other costume possibilities that have come to mind are:

• Jersey Shore girl
• Call girl
• Goth girl
• Beauty queen

If you all have any other suggestions, please leave a Comment below.

Like Father, Like Son/Daughter

What I Thought

I found this quote by feminist Susan Brownmiller, “Women are all female impersonators to some degree. “

That quote is dangerous because it got me thinking. After thinking, I wondered if it mean what I think it means…

That females have to consciously act femme in order to fit into the gender role that society specifies. And so it goes that males have to consciously act butch in order to fit into the "male" gender role.

Admittedly, over time, females and males become so acclimated to acting femme or butch that they do so automatically without a conscious effort. Nevertheless, if they chose not to consciously act femme or butch, would they end up somewhere in-between femme and butch? And is that in-between state actually their natural gender?

Meanwhile, some people are naturally inclined to be feminine and some masculine.

Everything is hunky dory if a female-bodied person is naturally feminine and a male-bodied person is naturally masculine.

The "problem" occurs when a female-bodied person is naturally masculine or when a male-bodied person is naturally feminine (like me). To meet society’s specifications for female-bodied and male-bodied persons, the problem people must become male or female impersonators to one degree or another.

If they reject society's specifications and embrace their natural gender, they will likely have a difficult time in society. To fix their gender incongruity, they may live their lives as female-bodied men or male-bodied women or they may change their bodies to match their natural gender.

Anyway, that's what I thought.

It’s Not Her Bag

All for Naught... Maybe

Last week, I found three dresses for sale online that I liked, but I could not decide which looked best on me even after Photoshopping my head onto each garment. So I asked you all for your opinion (thank you again for your comments) and I got my answer.

With my answer in hand, I was ready to order. So, I warmed up my credit card, got online, and got on the website selling the dresses only to discover that the dresses were no longer for sale!

I had found the dresses on ideeli, which sells a variety of items including designer apparel at close-out prices. The catch is that their sales occur over a limited amount of time and the sale for the dresses I wanted had already ended by the time I was ready to order!

On weekends, ideeli often reruns items that did not sell in previous sales. So there is a chance that the dresses I want will show up there and if they do, I will pounce on the ones I want.

You Picked The Best Dress

Thank you for all your comments regarding which dress looks best.

Dress #2 is the clear winner with about twice the votes that dresses #1 and #3 each received; dresses #1 and #3 are in a virtual tie.

After reading all your comments, I am considering the purchase of either dress #2 or #3 or both.

The Best Dress

Click on the image to enlarge it.

I like three dresses for sale online, but I cannot decide which one to buy. Since I cannot try them on before purchasing, I used Photoshop to try them on virtually, but I still cannot make up my mind. So girls, I'd love your opinion on this matter; which dress looks best on me? (Please leave a comment below or e-mail me your choice.)

And here is the description of each dress to help you decide:

1. Charcoal Tulip Hem Front Ribbed Dress --- Sweater dress, long sleeves with banded rib cuffs, oversized rib turtleneck, ribbed panel along center front bodice, curved front tulip style hem with ribbing, pullover style, sleeve length 25", shoulder to hem 40.5"

2. Stripe A-Line Ribbed Dress --- A-line ribbed sweater dress, scoop neckline and three-quarter sleeves, striped detail on bell cuffs and lower bodice, flared skirting with pleats, pullover style, sleeve length 20", shoulder to hem 43"

3. Ponte Sequins Trim Dress --- Ponte knit dress, half sleeves and round neck, sequined trim around neckline, hidden back zipper closure, sleeve length 11", shoulder to hem 37"