My First Emulation-Worthy Femulator

As a young femulator back in the mid-1960s, I did not have any femulators to emulate.

On the big screen, there were Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot, but they dressed in 1920s flapper styles --- an attractive style, but difficult for this young girl to emulate during the Jackie era. 

On the small screen, Milton Berle made an occasional appearance en femme, but his femulations were strictly for laughs; they were clownish and often ugly --- nothing this girl wanted to copy.

The New York newspapers occasionally had ads displaying professional femulators at Club 82 and I so wanted to dress in showgirl drag like the girls at 82, but let's be practical.

There were no femulators that dressed like women dressed in the mid-1960s... no one I could look up to for inspiration.

Finally, one evening watching television in 1964, I saw a great femulation of a mid-1960s woman on a new episode of The Munsters --- of all places! In that episode, character actor Cliff Norton played a cop who disguised himself as a woman (see photo) in order to trap a guy who was accosting women in the park at night.

Norton's femulation left an impression on me for a very long time. He was not a beautiful woman, but he passed and more importantly, he was dressed like a mid-1960s woman in the styles I knew and loved and wanted to wear.

(The title of The Munsters episode is "A Walk on the Mild Side" and you can view it online in a number of locations; just search on "'The Munsters' 'A Walk on the Mild Side'" and you will find it. The femulation occurs near the end of the episode in case you want to fast-forward to it.)

This Transwoman Supports Obama

I seldom discuss politics here.

Weeks ago, I added the Trans United for Obama button to the blog without a word. The button spoke for itself; if you wanted to know more, click on the button and it took you to a website where you could learn more.

Today, I received the following e-mail.

I really do not like your placing an Obama button on your home page. There is no real freedom down the road of that ideology and I am opposed to this president and his snuffing out of individual initiative and honest dealing.

Even if we disagree, why turn your site into a political commercial -- as if there were only one way to see things. That is the common arrogance of the left.

I guess it is time to explain why I added the Trans United for Obama button to the blog.

I support candidates that support me or my cause; always have, always will. I am transgender and my cause is equal rights for transgenders.

Consider the records of President Obama and the presumed GOP presidential candidate, Mitt Romney.

More has been accomplished by the Obama administration for transgender rights than all 43 other presidents combined. Those accomplishments include:

• Ending the Social Security Administration’s gender “no-match” letters and allowing for true gender passports.

• Ensuring that transgender Americans can receive true gender passports without surgery.

• Establishing guidelines to help protect transgender federal employees from discrimination in the workplace.

• Making sure transgender veterans receive respectful care according to their true gender through the Veterans Health Administration.

Former Governor Romney's administration and friends in Massachusetts have less than a stellar record regarding transgender rights.

• In 2006, Romney’s administration blocked publication of a state antibullying guide for Massachusetts public schools because officials objected to use of the terms “bisexual’’ and “transgender’’ in passages about protecting certain students from harassment.

• As a reporter for the Boston Herald, Eric Fehrnstrom, now Romney's "most trusted" adviser, gleefully outed a Massachusetts transgender woman, Althea Garrison, ending her political career.

• Unlike the Obama campaign website, no where on the Romney campaign website is there a mention of transgenders. However, in my opinion, Romney's championing a Federal Marriage Amendment to the Constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman does not bode well for an expansion of transgender rights under a Romney administration. 

President Obama supports my cause, Governor Romney does not, so I support President Obama.

Enough said.

I Want To See This Film

 

Laurence Anyways is a 2012 Canadian film that tells the story of impossible love between a man and a woman after the man decided to have a sex change, according to IMDB.

The film competed in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival where Suzanne Clément won the Un Certain Regard Award for Best Actress. The film was also awarded with the Queer Palm Award at the festival, according to Wikipedia.

After watching the trailer, I want to see the film.

Thank you Accro for alerting me about it.

Makeup Glasses

Dear Stana,

As I get older, I find it tougher and tougher to see what I'm doing when it comes to applying my makeup. Putting on my glasses doesn't help for the obvious reasons of not being able to work around the lenses. Unfortunately, contacts are out for a number of reasons as well.

I've tried a couple of the hand-held magnifying mirrors but they seemed to have far more distortion than actual useable area. I quickly gave up on them. Do you know of anything larger out there -perhaps a full size magnifying vanity- that hopefull wouldn't have so much distortion? Obviously, we all age and not all of us can (or choose) to wear contacts. So there must be a solution somewhere.

Thank-you,

Monica

***

Hi Monica,

Makeup glasses are my solution to the problem. These special eyeglasses come in a variety of styles.

One style consists of an eyeglass frame with only one lens that you flip from one eye to the other. When you make up your right eye, you flip the lens over your left eye. When you make up your left eye, you flip the lens over your right eye.

Another style has two lenses. You simply flip the lens down and out of the way of the eye you are making up.

In some models, the lenses are available in a variety of stengths. If you do not know which strength you require, go to a pharmacy that sells reader eyeglasses and try on different strengths to see which one is best for you, then order the makeup glasses in that strength.

Various companies make makeup glasses; Google "makeup glasses" and you will find a variety. Here is an example that costs only $3.99.

Since I do not need makeup glasses (yet), I have no real life experience using them and cannot recommend one brand over any others, but I hope that helps.

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.

Still More Yearbook Femulations

Marion County High School, Jasper, TN, 1985

This photo of two "girls" represent one of the 45 new photos that Starla unearthed from online high school yearbooks and that I added to the Yearbook Femulations collection on flickr.

Enjoy!

By the way, if anyone has photos of their own high school femulations that they would like to share here, please pass them along and share I will.

If You Don't Have Anything Nice To Say

How do you respond to a compliment? With a gracious thank-you or with a self-deprecating remark?

I am so guilty of the latter, whereas I know I should just smile and accept the kind words.

Image consultant Ginger Burr addresses this very matter in her recent blog post "Watch Your Language."

I read it, I get it and from now on, you will hear nothing but thank-you's from me.

Are You Junoesque?

Andi sent me a link to an article titled "The Top Ten Best Things About Being Tall." It referred to tall women; I enjoyed reading it and identified with many of the items on the list.

After reading the article, I began exploring the website that was the source of the article: The Junoesque. It is written by two sisters, Elayna and Myiesha, who are 6'3" and 6'4" respectively, and much of its content is applicable to tall girls like us.

The sisters write about fashion and the life experiences (both good and bad) of tall women in the 21st Century.

I think you will enjoy the website, so make plans to visit it soon.

Frock

Frock is an online magazine billed as "Your Quarterly TG Lifestyle Magazine."

I just skimmed the 80 pages of the current issue and found interesting articles that I will return to read later. I think Femulate readers will also find Frock to be of great interest.

Subscriptions are free and it doesn't get better than that, does it?

Live It

If you are part-time, why aren't you full-time?

If being a woman is such a good fit for you, the gods obviously intended that you live on the feminine side of the gender continuum (even though they erred during the installation of the plumbing).

The plumbing is a handicap, but don't let it handicap you from living the life you were intended to live.

I know I should practice what I preach, but I have an excuse, although I do live as a woman as often as I can. And you may have an excuse that is just as legitimate as mine, so you are excused.

But to the rest of you who have no excuse, you are not excused.

If you've got it, don't flaunt it --- live it!

Computer Maintenance

I am performing computer maintenance, so I was unable to update the blog last night as I usually do. Please standby. We will be returning to our normally scheduled programming shortly.

T Sims

The only computer game I play is pinball, however, I am familiar with The Sims and dabbled with it for a few weeks long ago.

Browsing the net, I happened upon a website called Transgender Sims, where you can "Get into the great world of being a girl, and treat your male sims with hot style and fashion only girls could have before."

There are 1,500 registered members and the website is so interesting that it may motivate me to do some Sims femulations.

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.