Vacation in Name Only

I am on "vacation" this week.

Saturday was dedicated to bringing my sister home from the rehab center, where she had been recovering from her Halloween hip-replacement operation.

Sunday at 4 AM, the phone rang. My mother-in-law had a stroke and dealing with that took up most of the day. It looks like she will recover fully, but who knew that at 4 AM.

Monday was catch-up day, that is, doing the stuff that normally gets done on Saturday and/or Sunday. Primarily, it involved grocery shopping and since we are hosting Thanksgiving Day dinner at our home this year, it required a little extra effort.

I also spent some time Tuesday fixing a hole where the oil gets out of the oil pan of my daughter's wheels.

Today is another catch-up day, i.e., dealing with 7,978,432 leaves now resting on my lawn. Since rain is in the forecast to start at 3 PM, I am going to attack the leaves as soon as I finish writing this post and drinking my second cup of coffee.

Needless to say, the blog has taken a back seat the last few days, but stick around; I will be back on track as soon as life gets out of my way.

Sing Along

Sunday night, here I am catching up on e-mails and working on the blog, while iTunes is playing my "1960's Girl Groups" playlist in the background.

I can hear my wife in the next room singing along.

I know the lyrics to most of the songs.

Sometimes I feel a little self-conscious singing along to girl group songs.

("I met him on a Monday and my heart stood still, Da do ron-ron-ron, da do run-ron")

But, most times, I do not.

("Do lang, do lang, do lang, he'e so fine.")

Transgender Day or Remembrance

Transgender Day or Remembrance is Sunday. The Day memorializes our trans brothers and sisters who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice.

There are events all over the world commemorating the day; a list of worldwide events appears here.

Attend a nearby event to:

• Raise public awareness of hate crimes against transgender people, an action that current media doesn’t perform.

• Publicly mourn and honor the lives of transgenders who might otherwise be forgotten.

• Express your love and respect for our people in the face of national indifference and hatred.

• Remind non-transgender people that we are their sons, daughters, parents, friends and lovers.

• Give our allies a chance to step forward with us and stand in vigil, memorializing those of us who’ve died by anti-transgender violence.

Femulator on the Out Cover

One of our favorite femulators, Andrej Pejic, is Out magazine’s “stylemaker of the year.”

Congratulations!

Thank-you and You’re Welcome

Before Halloween, I posted photos of Femulate readers' past Halloween costumes in The Femulated spot.

After Halloween, I posted photos of readers' 2011 Halloween costumes in that spot.

On Wednesday, Femulate reader Angelina's photo appeared in The Femulated spot.

Do you detect a trend?

It is one I would like to continue, so I welcome all Femulate readers to submit your best femulation photo for a future appearance in The Femulated spot.

This is my way of thanking and recognizing the more than 3500 people who visit Femulate daily.

One rule: This is a family-oriented blog --- there is no gatekeeper preventing anyone from viewing it, so I ask that any photos you submit be family-oriented, too. I reserve the right to reject any that I deem not to be.

How manly of him to become a woman

“Try to see your former son as a person trying to know his own soul. In looking into his soul, he saw the face of a woman staring back. What a shock it must have been! Kudos to him for undertaking this act of becoming. What a courageous act. How manly of him to become a woman.”

In Salon’s “Since You Asked,” Cary Tennis responds to a mother’s concern about her trans-child.

Read the whole article here.

Thursday Revisits Tuesday and Wednesday

Aniコレ 5 Battle

Kasumi e-mailed me about the Japanese television show, Aniコレ 5 Battle, that I wrote about here on Wednesday. According to Kasumi…

Aniコレ is an abbreviation of two words put together. "Ani" is short for "aniki," which literally means "big brother," but in this case is used as a playful counterpoint to "onee," or "big sister," which is a slang for femulators (it is, in turn, short for "oneesan," which is the conventional term for elder sister). In Japanese, kinship terms like big brother and big sister are commonly used to refer to young men and women in general. It's clear from the context whether one is referring to one's own relatives or (with "onee") to a femulator or a female. 

コレ, or "kore," is short for "korekushon," i.e., the English word "collection." This is because the females in the "battles" were part of a group called Tokyo Girls Collection. The 5 is, I think, because there were five contestants on each side. Writing the Japanese "ani" in Romanization and the English "collection" in Japanese is the kind of linguistic fun and games one often sees in Japanese--there's no particular deep significance.

The show in which this segment appeared was organized around the theme of "What if..." What if you had to eat a bunch of really hot peppers? What if you were a comedian forced to pair with someone other than your regular partner? What if you had to wear women's clothes and engage in a beauty battle with a female celebrity?

Thank you, Kasumi, for that information. It ties up a lot of loose ends regarding the television show.

Dreamwear

A reader took me to task about Tuesday's "Dreamwear' post, thusly:

Your post said you dreamed of wearing a 'panty girdle and longline bra' but the photo is of a woman in a full, long girdle (panty girdles are only panty length on the bottom) and a regular bra.

My excuse for the photo is that I could not find an image in my vast collection of a woman (or a man) wearing a panty girdle and a longline bra. The handful of longline bra images I have were all combined with open bottom girdles.

Since I could not find a panty girdle - longline bra combo, I used a panty girdle - non-longline bra image that I liked. (Today I proffer a longline bra image that I like.) 

With reference to the reader's contention that the girdle image I used on Tuesday was a "full, long girdle" and not a panty girdle, "panty girdles are only panty length on the bottom," well, allow me to retort.

There are two basic kinds of girdles: open-bottom girdles and panty girdles. Any girdle that has a crotch is a "panty girdle" no matter how long or short the legs may be. You can look it up.

Open-Bottom

I have not worn an open-bottom girdle in a very long time. I never owned an open-bottom girdle, so the only ones I ever wore were my Mother’s and that was 40 years ago.

Wearing an open-bottom girdle is a different experience.

If the hem of the girdle is long enough, it comfortably hides your private parts while providing a very smooth crotch area, which is perfect for wearing a tight skirt.

You must wear stockings with an open-bottom girdle and attach them to girdle’s garters. This prevents the hem of the girdle from riding up your torso, as well as keeping the stockings from slipping down your legs.

What fun!

I’m getting a hankering for an open-bottom girdle, longline bra, and nylon stockings combination for the next time I wear a retro outfit.

Battle of the Femulators

Three years ago, I wrote about "Josou Paradise," a segment of a Japanese television show called Gakkou e Ikou! MAX.

During the "Josou Paradise" segment, a group of people stand on stage in front of an alcove whose contents is hidden by a curtain. When the curtain rises, it reveals a seated pretty young woman and the audience oohs and aahs at her.

The young women who appear in the alcove are actually young men dressed en femme. The oohing and aahing is justified because they look great.

Angelina, whose photo graces The Femulated: spot today, asked me about another Japanese television show in which males appear en femme. The show is called  Ａｎｉコレ ５ＢＡＴＴＬＥ. After viewing some online videos of the program as well as reading some poorly translated Japanese text, I believe I have figured out the premise of the program.

It is a competition like Dancing With the Stars or American Idol, except that on Ａｎｉコレ ５ＢＡＴＴＬＥ, the competition is based on the contestants’ ability to femulate.

Five young male contestants are pitted against five young female contestants. Each male chooses the female he wants to compete against in a head-to-head competition.

The contestants get all dolled up and then each contestant struts her stuff on a runway.

After the runway competition, the audience votes on which contestant was the better femulator. In the segments I watched, the females usually beat male femulators, but not always.

The femulations are outstanding. In most of the head-to-head competitions, I was not sure if the contestant was a femulator or a real female until they spoke.

Also, I found it interesting that the two male hosts of the program appeared en femme.

Google Ａｎｉコレ ５ＢＡＴＴＬＥ and you will find videos and images from the show. Here is one example: http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTU2MzA5ODg=.html

All I can say is that I wish there was a version of this show on this side of the Pacific.

Caveat Emptor: There is very little information about this program written in English, so I am making some educated guesses about the premise of the program.

I have not figured out yet the English translation of Ａｎｉコレ in the title of the show (one suggestion was "anime").

Also, I don't know if the "5" in the title indicates that this is the fifth season of the show or what?

If anyone has more definitive information, I will gladly stand corrected and if anyone can add anything to what I already wrote, I would be grateful.

Dreamwear

When I woke up from a dream I had last night, the details of the dream were escaping me quickly, but I do remember one detail. Throughout the dream, I was dressed only in a white 1950s/1960s style panty girdle and longline bra. Nothing else.

Considering how I was dressed, wouldn't the details of that dream be interesting?

Hankering for Houndstooth

I don't think I mentioned it before, but I love clothing with a houndstooth pattern.

I already own a couple of items with that pattern, but in my opinion, a girl can never own enough houndstooth, so when I see it for sale, I often consider buying it.

Today, while perusing the virtual racks at Ideeli, I found a houndstooth dress that called my name (see photo). Its $39.99 sales price exactly matched the $39.99 credit I had at Ideeli.

So I added it to my shopping cart, coughed up $9.95 for shipping and handling, and now I wait for its arrival.

Rubbeldiekatz Coming Soon

Reva alerted me that Rubbeldiekatz, which has been dubbed "the German Tootsie," will be in German theaters on December 15.

Actor Matthias Schweighöfer's femulation (above) in the film is fabulous, so I hope the film will appear in American theaters, too.

Rubbeldiekatz has a Facebook page, which includes a bunch of new photos and trailers, so go take a peek.

Veterans Day Food for Thought

Did my Dad join the Marine Corps, fight the enemy on three Pacific islands during World War II, and get wounded twice so that someday his son would be free to live his life as a woman?

I know that was not on his mind when he joined the Corps. I wasn’t even a blip on his radar back then.

Dad did catch me getting into my sister’s clothes on a couple of occasions and he saw me dressed to the nines en femme for a Halloween party one time, but the only thing he ever said about it was to be careful that some guy didn’t try to pick me up at that Halloween party.

I think he had an inkling that something was up and if he and Mom ever compared notes, then I am sure the two of them realized something was amiss (or should I say someone was a Miss).

But he was always proud of me no matter what I wore and I am sure he never regretted fighting in The War so that I could be free to be me.

Gay Male Femininity

Maya (right) wrote on flickr, “I get a few e-mails from people who ask if I want to go full-time and be a woman. As you can tell from the thoughts I've shared, I act and feel mostly like a crossdresser. I'm comfortable being a reasonably feminine gay man who likes to dress up (pretty irregularly) and I enjoy being around people who respect my subtle ‘gay femininity.’

“I realized that there is a difference between who I am and a transsexual. Although I've contemplated transitioning in the past, it's just not my path. I, accordingly remain, a humble life long crossdresser, exploring why I dress up and satisfying my girlish fantasies.”

Beautiful Maya has a slew of photos on flickr; you can view them here.

Internalized Transphobia

“…we have been exploring, among other things, how internalized homophobia and transphobia develops from us internalizing the voices of our bullies and then turning those voices onto ourselves and each other. Our internalized bullies police behavior, appearance and actions, judging each other as harshly as we've learned to judge ourselves. A really good example of this occurred over a year ago, when a trans woman commenting on a piece I had written said that she wished I would stop calling myself a transgender woman. She said that I will never pass as a woman and that she wished I would just go away. When we police each other's abilities to pass, we are expressing our own internalized sense of shame about who we are. This is just one of many ways our internalized transphobia effects the way we treat each other.”

So wrote Laverne Cox in an excellent article, Hung Up on Bullies: Internalized Transphobia, that you can read here on The Huffington Post.

I really don’t care

After dieting my feet for three weeks, I concluded that my feet are never going to fit comfortably into the red and black patent Mary Janes that I bought at Nine West last month.

(Why I thought that they fit ok when I tried them on in the store is a mystery.)

So, during my lunch hour Tuesday, I dashed to the Nine West store in boy mode to exchange the shoes for the next size up.

The saleswoman who sold me the shoes when I was en femme was not in the store; another young saleswoman was holding down the fort.

Now in the not-too-distant past, I would have formulated an elaborate excuse about the shoes.

"My wife asked me to return these and get a larger size."

"I bought these to wear for Halloween, but they were too small, so I'd like to exchange them for a larger size for next Halloween."

"My dog ate my homework."

Instead, I walked up to the saleswoman and told her, "I bought these shoes. They are too small for me and I'd like to exchange them for a pair in size 12."

Without batting an eye, the saleswoman broke the bad news to me: the store only stocks shoes up to size 11, but she could order a pair in size 12 and have them shipped to my home.

In the past, I might have suggested a Plan B, for instance, could I have them delivered to the store and pick them up when they come in? Anything to avoid giving my name and address to a stranger, who might later ring up the troops from Transphobia and send them to my house to decorate my trees with pink toilet paper.

Instead, I handed her my driver's license to copy my name and address to complete the transaction; my shoes should show up at the house in 5 to 7 days.

I really don't care anymore who knows about me.

That doesn't mean I go looking for trouble and tell every Tom, Dick, and Harriet that I wish I was a girl. But if someone I knew came up to me and confronted me about it, I would admit that I am really a woman, who happens to have the body of a man.

I don't blend and I don't care

Many wise transwomen recommend blending if you are trying to pass.

The theory says that if you dress like the other women in the environment you plan to be in, that is, if you blend in with the other women, you will lessen the chances of bringing attention to yourself, thus increasing the chances of successfully passing yourself off as a woman.

For example, if you are going grocery shopping, then jeans and a top would be your choice of apparel for blending in most places.

I have tried blending and it seems to work, but blending is boring. When I dress en femme, I want to dress EN FEMME, if you know what I mean. I dress to be noticed not to be ignored. If I wanted to be ignored, I'd dress en homme.

As Lucille Sorella wrote recently in her Feminization Secrets blog, "As a genetic woman, the last thing I want to do is blend in! I wear makeup, style my hair, and dress fashionably because I want to stand out in a crowd. I believe it’s a natural feminine desire to want to be noticed."

As a transwoman, I feel the same way.

And perchance I have to go to Stop & Shop to buy a few items while I am en femme, I just think of myself as another working girl dressed appropriately for the office, but overdressed for grocery shopping during her lunch hour or on her way home from the office.

Works for me.

Telltale Signs

Springhill High School, Louisiana, 1964

Starla has been searching the Internet for months looking for photos of student femulations in old school yearbooks. She has sent me a treasure trove of photos; some I have posted here, here and here in the past and I promise to post more in the future.

Anyway, Starla has become something of an expert in this field and as an expert, she wrote the following analysis.

We've speculated about how many high school femulators may be actually trans versus those doing it just as a fun lark. I think my recent search activities have qualified me to make some speculative distinctions:

-- Comes to school crossdressed on “Opposite Sex Day” = probably not trans
-- Comes to school crossdressed on “generic" Halloween dress-up day = possibly trans
-- Comes to school crossdressed on Arbor Day, the 4th of July, or Millard Fillmore’s birthday = definitley trans

-- Wears Mom's ratty old wig = probably not trans
-- Puts own longish hair in simple pigtails = possibly trans
-- Drops $185 on a cut, color, and body wave = definitely trans

-- Other students react: "HA HA HA HA!! Look at Joe!!" = probably not trans
-- Other students react: "Gee, Joe doesn't look half-bad as a girl" = possibly trans
-- Other students react: "Where's Joe? And who's the new girl?" = definitely trans

-- Undergarments from Fruit of the Loom = probably not trans
-- Undergarments from Mom's lingerie drawer = possibly trans
-- Undergarments from Victoria's Secret "Members Only" sales catalog = definitely trans

-- Pageant talent: Comic striptease down to 1890's swimsuit = probably not trans
-- Pageant talent: Sensitive guitar and voice ballad = possibly trans
-- Pageant talent: Intricate dance number in 5" heels = definitely trans

-- Stubby, chewed nails with little sister's "Barbie Make-up Kit" polish = probably not trans
-- Lee's Press-on Nails = possibly trans
-- Acrylics with "Rose Garden" nail art motif = definitely trans

-- Shaves mustache = probably not trans
-- Shaves legs = possibly trans
-- Gets Brazilian bikini wax = definitely trans

-- No make-up = probably not trans
-- Make-up by mother/sister/girlfriend = possibly trans
-- MAC makeover = definitely trans

-- Celebrates pageant win by pumping fist and shouting "Woot! Woot! Woot!" = probably not trans
-- Celebrates pageant win with tears and a hug for the runner-up = possibly trans
-- Celebrates pageant win with tears and a hug for the male emcee = definitely trans

a complete pass

Another Tall Thursday

There has not been much new on the Famous Females of Height front lately. My last update was in mid-August.

It is not for a lack of trying, but every new lady whose height I checked out lately has come up short except for one: 5'11" Whitney Cummings, the comedian who stars on the new NBC television series Whitney.

Beware! Rant starts now!

I don't get it. People rave about Whitney and her television show.

Personally, I found the show to be unfunny.

Also, the show claims to be filmed in front of a live audience, but it sure sounds like canned laughs are used (maybe because the live audience finds the show unfunny, too).

End of rant!

Since there is only one addition this time around, I will reiterate the mission statement of the list:

I am over six feet tall, so when I femulate, I am a tall woman.

About the time I started femulating in my early teens, I became interested in tall women because they affirmed my existence as a tall woman, i.e., I was not the only tall woman out and about in society. Few were as tall as me, but maybe there were enough out there so that I could blend in more easily as just another tall woman.

In the past, tall women tried to blend in with their shorter sisters, so they dressed down (pun intended); instead of celebrating their height, they tried to hide it (to appear less intimidating to men).

Also, tall women did not have a lot to choose from clothes-wise. Few clothiers catered to tall women, so tall women had to make do with what was available, which typically did not celebrate tall women's height.

Today, tall women are out and proud and celebrate their height. They have more clothing to choose from now that more clothiers recognize their potential as customers. They no longer dress down to hide their height. They wear high heels and leg baring skirts and dresses. They don't care if they are intimidating. They've come a long way!

It is a great time to be a tall woman, or a tall femulator.

Read Today

I had no idea that some places require sterilization before a person can legally change his/her sex, but I found out all about it in Ann Tornkvist's article "Sweden’s shameful transgender sterilization rule" that appeared on Salon today.

And it’s not only in Sweden…

“'Forcible sterilization' [before SRS] has been quietly practiced for decades in countries typically cast as progressive on LGBT rights: France, the Netherlands, Australia and a number of U.S. states still require it. Italy and Germany have just recently overturned similar legislation."

"Although Swedish leaders have been talking for months about repealing the sterilization law…"  "…the conservative Christian Democrats have doggedly opposed the repeal, arguing that sex reassignment surgery is a threat to traditional social roles."

You can read all about the government's robbery of a fundamental human right --- procreation --- here on Salon.

Over at The Huffington Post, Rebecca Juro takes MSNBC's Ed Schultz to task for guesting a gay man to discuss the Chaz Bono Dancing with the Stars controversy.

"The first concern is also the most obvious. Given that Chaz Bono is a female-to-male transsexual man, one has to wonder why Ed Schultz invited a gay man and not an actual transgender person to appear on his show to speak on the topic.It's kind of like hosting a discussion on issues faced by African Americans with a white person presented as an expert, and makes just about as much sense.

"The second problem is more difficult to recognize unless the viewer is already familiar with Chaz Bono himself. Bono is a man who is in a serious romantic relationship with a woman. He is therefore heterosexual, not gay. By asking Mike Rogers if the media attacks on Bono lead to gay bashing, Ed Schultz revealed his clear lack of understanding of what a transgender person is, as well as his ignorance of the difference between sexual orientation, the gender of the person one is sexually and romantically attracted to, and gender identity, whether an individual personally sees themselves as male, female, or something else entirely, a gender identity that doesn't fit neatly into either of those socially constructed boxes."

You can read the entire story here on The Huffington Post.

Finally, if you are a fashionista (guilty) with a penchant for high heel footwear (guilty again), you must read Dr. Steve Rosenberg's "Help... Is It a Shoe Problem or a Foot Problem?" also on The Huffington Post.

In the article, the good doctor describes how you can become your own foot doctor. This is a recommended read for girls like us who consider 4-inch high heel pumps to be our preferred daily footwear.