Not Your Father’s Toolbox

Read How To Put A Makeup Kit Together. By the way, I use a huge tackle box for my makeup kit.

How Tall?

Charlene Wittstock aka Princess Charlene of Monaco (photo right) is 5'10" tall.

Savannah Guthrie, the new co-host of NBC television's Today is also tall.

How tall?

I added Ms. Guthrie to the Famous Females of Height List awhile back at 5'10". With her Today promotion, I double-checked her height and discovered that she has grown taller!

Depending on who you believe, she is 5'11", 6'0", or 6'1" tall!

For what it's worth, Today co-host Matt Lauer is 5'11" and in photos of Lauer and Guthrie together, Lauer seems to be the same height as Guthrie or taller. Assuming that Guthrie wears high heels on the show, that would maker her shorter than Lauer’s 5’11”.

Go figure!

High School Dress-Up

This 1962 image of the “girls” at Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth, Texas, attending a womanless Valentine’s Day event with their dates is one of 34 new high school yearbook images I just added to the Yearbook Femulations Collection on flickr.

A big Thank You goes out to Starla for continuing to unearth these vintage femulations!

Sunday On My Mind

I got a late start today.

I watched most of Saturday Night Live last night, so I did not get to sleep until 1 AM.

I was up at 6 AM to feed the cats and back in bed at 6:05.

I slept until 8 AM. Shaved, showered, moisturized, fetched the paper, walked the dog, made breakfast, ate breakfast, cleaned the litter boxes, did the laundry and before I knew it, the clock struck 12!

An e-mail yesterday got me thinking about the Sundays when I was a young girly boy dressing in my Sunday best to go to Mass and wishing that I was wearing my sister's Sunday best and not mine.

On the way home from Mass, Dad would stop at the newsstand to buy the New York papers and comic books for my sister and I. Typically, I would pick out some costumed DC superhero offering and my sister would pick out something from the Harvey line - Little Audrey, Dot and Lotta - something girly that I would eventually read, too.

Tammy e-mailed me a link to an article on The Huffington Post about the upcoming gender swap issue of Archie Comics. The article includes links to other articles on the topic of gender diversity in the comic book world.

It was interesting. I don't buy comic books anymore, but I may buy Archie next month.

Also, I don't go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons.

T-Bits

T Family Law

Transgender Family Law: A Guide to Effective Advocacy by Jennifer L. Levi and Elizabeth E. Monnin-Browderis is now available in Kindle and Nook electronic format.

I love reading, but books and magazines take up space, so I have gone electronic. I am switching all my magazine subscriptions to electronic format as they come up for renewal and I am getting electronic versions of any new text-centric books I purchase (like Transgender Family Law). For the time-being, I am sticking with print editons of any new graphic-centric books I purchase.

I don't own a Kindle or a Nook, but I do have free Kindle readers installed on my Mac laptop and iPod Touch and they work for me.

T Empress

My friend Jila mentioned to me that she heard that a Roman Emperor was transgender. My first thought was Caligula, but after researching the matter, I discovered that Elagabalus was the Emperor in question.

According to Wikipedia, Elagabalus enhanced his natural good looks by the application of cosmetics. He was described as having been "delighted to be called the mistress, the wife, the queen of Hierocle" and was said to have offered vast sums of money to any physician who could equip him with female genitalia.

T Prom Queen

Connor Ferguson, an 18-year-old male-to-female transgender student at Trenton High School in Trenton, Ontario, Canada, says being named prom queen was the cherry on top of her high school education, according to a report in the The Belleville Intelligencer.

Taming Zipper Teardrop Pull Tabs

Dear Stana,

I certainly could use a technical article on methods of zipping up stubborn and hard-to-reach zipper tabs on my dresses and gowns. I think you posted an article containing some tips and makeshift "zipper helper" devices in the past. However, some of my dressier frocks and gowns have those pretty (but annoyingly useless) tiny tear-shape zipper tabs. I haven't figured out any device that works well on those.

If you have nothing to do today (LOL), maybe you could do your first fashion technical writing on this topic. (Of course, I'm just kidding about you having to work on a holiday -- you do SO MUCH wonderful work for all your readers, that you deserve a day off). Thank You.

Love,

Sheila



Hi Sheila,

My zipper helper appeared in the post titled "A Single Girl's Best Friend."

In that post, I described my homemade zipper helper, which is simply a piece of string and a big safety pin. I attach the safety pin to the zipper pull tab, loop the string through the closed safety pin, and pull the string up to close the zipper."

I recommend using thick string or twine. Thin string or thread may break while zipping up.

Also, pull the zipper up slowly to avoid opening the closed safety pin.

Regarding those tiny teardrop zipper pull tabs, the evening gown I wore back in March had a teardrop pull tab, but I was able to use my homemade zipper helper to zip up my gown.

Since a teardrop pull tab has no hole for attaching the safety pin, I attached the safety pin through one of the two "holes" provided by the swivel points of the pull tab (see the accompanying figure). It worked like a charm.

Love,

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.

Someday

Independence Day and the Gender Gap

July 4, 1776

Today celebrates the 236th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence of the 13 North American Colonies from the Kingdom of Great Britain.

The 13 colonies were Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. At the time of the signing, Vermont was part of New York and Maine was part of Massachusetts.

Vermont declared its own independence on January 15, 1777 and became The Republic of New Connecticut*. Vermont became the 14th United State in 1791

Maine seceded from Massachusetts in 1820 and became the 23rd United State on March 15, 1820.

* Thanks to Wikipedia, I learned something new today.

Gender Gap

The article "10 College Majors With the Biggest Gender Gap," jives with my 34-year work experience as a technical writer in the electrical engineering and computer science fields where males dominate (91% and 85%, respectively).

I wish there was a need for technical writers in the fashion world!  

Interviewed

The Transgender Education Collaboration interviewed me last week and that interview was posted (here) on their website this morning.

I greatly enjoyed being interviewed and I hope you enjoy reading it.

Dear Stana: How Do You Remove Body Hair?

Dear Stana,

Sorry to bother you, but I forgot the name of the body hair remover that you liked so much. I would appreciate  it very much if you could tell me again. Also, where can you buy it?

Thanks so much and thanks for all you do – we all love your blog – you are a blessing to our community.

Gina

 

Hi Gina,

Thank you for the kind words.

I use Nair or Veet. They both work about the same, but I prefer the product in a container with a pump dispenser rather than a squeeze container.

Using the pump dispenser, I have better control of the amount of product I am dispensing, whereas using the squeeze container, I never know how much product each squeeze will dispense.

Also, when I apply the product to my body, my hands become slippery from handling the product. At that point, it is a lot easier to pump additional product out of a container than it is to squeeze it out of the container.

Nair and Veet are usually sold wherever they sell hair and beauty products, for example, Walmart, Target, CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreen all sell Nair and/or Veet. I often find Nair/Veet at half price or less at Big Lots and Ocean State Job Lots.

Whatever you use, don't use the product on sensitive areas of your body. For me, I avoid my underarms, nipples, and neck (your sensitive areas may be different than mine). The product burns those sensitive areas leaving red welts that are painful to the touch.

Also, don't use Nair or Veet immediately after shaving with a razor on any part of your body, not just the sensitive parts. My skin burned the few times I did that.

Being a woman is hard work!

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.

Womanless Pick of the Week

This week's pick of womanless events is a 1979 beauty pageant at New Plymouth High School in Plymouth, Indiana. The photo is part of a collection of 43 new yearbook femulation images collected by Starla and uploaded to the the Yearbook Femulations collection on flickr.

Girl Talk

After I ate lunch at work on Friday, I went to the kitchen to get a fresh cup of coffee and I found my best female friend preparing a salad for her lunch.

Two years ago, my friend and I had planned a girls' night out, but she cancelled on me at the last minute. I was very disappointed and I was kind of cool towards her for a couple of weeks. I don't know if she noticed, but after the frigid weather, things returned to normal between us more or less. Less because I stopped sharing all my transgender adventures with her as I had in the past.

I had my iPod Touch in hand when I walked into the kitchen, so I decided I would test the waters. I told her I wanted to show her a recent photo and she seemed very interested.

I showed her the photo I had taken before attending my law school reunion. She thought I looked "stunning" and she asked me to e-mail her the photo, which I  proceeded to do.   

We repaired to her office and indulged in about 10 minutes of girl talk until she had to take a business-related phone call.

I told her all about my reunion. Then we got on the subject of aging and she was shocked when I revealed my age to her. She thought I looked younger than my age and I mentioned how I use moisturizer and eye cream. That led to talking about selling Avon.

Then she asked me if I could have one wish granted to me, would I wish to live as a woman the rest of my life? Absolutely, I told her and I added that I would live 24/7 as a woman now if I could.

Then the phone rang.

I am glad that I tested the waters with her and that she was happy to talk to me woman-to-woman.

Found Danny

Reader FJ saved me the trouble of renting the film, Prêt-à-Porter (Ready to Wear). He rented the film, captured screen shots of the transgender dinner-party scenes, and e-mailed them to me yesterday. Thank you, FJ!

I will share three images with you here today. The first image shows Danny Aiello in a Chanel suit and Teri Garr, who plays Danny’s very supportive spouse, seated at the transgender dinner party during fashion week in Paris.

The other images show other transgender women attending the dinner party. Legend has it that they were played by actual transgender women and not actors.

Where's Danny?

Channel surfing last night, I ended up in the middle of a Robert Altman film, Prêt-à-Porter (Ready to Wear).

I don't care much for Altman's films and this one, about fashion week in Paris in 1994, is unappealing to me, but it has one subplot that I found interesting from a femulating perspective.

Danny Aiello plays a a transgender buyer for Marshall Field's. During fashion week, he attends a transgender dinner-party en femme, which, by the way, was populated by real transwoman and not actors. At the party, a photographer snaps a photo of Danny, who gets very upset about being photographed en femme and chases the photographer. End of sub-plot.

I thought it would be cool to add a photo of Danny en femme to The Femulated collection, so I searched the Internet, but I could not find a single image. Perhaps, like the character he played in Prêt-à-Porter, Danny in real life does not want to be photographed when en femme and he has had all such images removed from the Internet (Editor's Note: That's a joke).

To solve the problem, I will rent the film real soon now and capture some images of Ms. Aiello and the other dinner-party attendees.

Since I don't have a photo of Danny Aiello en femme to show you at this time, I will leave you with another Danny in drag: the world famous professional femulator, Danny La Rue, photographed in 1965.

Reality Show Contestant Now Living As A Woman

According to E! Online, Andy South, the “popular Project Runway contestant is currently living life as a woman after recently updating his Facebook profile to read ‘female’ and announcing that he is going by the name Nong Ariyaphon Southiphong.”

A Short Tall List

Jimmy Stewart and Dorothy Ford,
On Our Merry Way, 1948

The monthly update of the Famous Females of Height List is short this time around with only two new entries:

5'9" – Kerri Kenney-Silver – actress – television The State, Reno 911

6'2" – Dorothy Ford – actress – film Love Laughs at Andy Hardy and television The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet

Mixed Up Confusion

When I was paying for the dress I bought at DressBarn last Monday, the saleswoman asked for my telephone number.

Why?

I assume the store wants to know who is buying what so that they can massage their advertising to fit their customers' buying habits. 

Also, I don't recall the details, but the store has a promotion that gets you a discount if you buy so much stuff. So they need to know how much stuff you buy so they can reward you later.

I am all in favor of discounts, so I gave the saleswoman my telephone number.

She typed it in, the system digested it, gave her feedback, and then she said my wife's name with a little question mark at the end.

"No," I responded.

Then she said my male name with a big question mark at the end.

"Yes, that's me, but I'm not really him today."

She was amused.

Thus, I outed myself, but I had passed until then. So everything was right with the world as far as I was concerned.

Yearbook Finds

Starla has collected another stellar batch of high school yearbook femulations (nearly 125 in number) that I have just added to the yearbook femulations collection on flickr.

By the way, if any readers have a femulation that appeared in a a school yearbook, please pass it along to me and I will add it to the collection. (My school femulation yearbook appearances are here and here.)

Womanless Pick of the Week

This week's pick of womanless events is the March 24 beauty pageant held as a fundraiser for the Band Boosters of Cass High School in White, GA. The Band Boosters enlisted local "businesswomen" to compete in the pageant and despite some facial hair, the "gals" did a credible job of displaying their womanly wiles. As usual, the girl I picked to win (see photo), did not.)

Thank you, Aunty Marlena for sending me the link to this event.

Accessorizing

I mentioned here that I bought a new dress at DressBarn that I was attracted to when I walked into the store and saw it on display on a headless mannequin. (The "headless mannequin" also lacked legs and arms and I have since learned that such a mannequin is known as a "torso mannequin.")

Anyway, I forgot to mention that the mannequin was also wearing a beautiful necklace that perfectly accessorized the dress. On my way home after buying the dress, I regretted that I did not purchase the necklace, too.

Today, I had to go to the grocery store to replenish the food stuff that I eat for lunch at work. My favorite DressBarn is next door to the grocery store, so I stopped in to see if they had the necklace. (This was a different DressBarn than the one where I purchased the dress.)

I perused the jewelry racks three times, but could not find the necklace. I gave up looking and asked a saleswoman if they had the necklace in stock, while showing her a picture of the necklace that I had grabbed from the Internet.

She found it buried behind some other necklaces on the jewelry rack and now I have a nice new necklace to go with my nice new dress. Isn't that nice?