THE FEMULATED:

“The Cher Within” by Pauly Pants
(Suggested by Juan of New Male Fashion fame.)

FEMULATE HER:

Wearing New York & Co.

Plan B

If the shoe fits, wear it. If the shoe does not fit, wear it anyway.*

I revisited my Shoe Dazzle purchase more carefully last night. Wearing knee-highs. I tried on both pairs again and it was apparent that the leopard print pumps were not a good fit.

Yes, I could squeeze my feet into the shoes, but the fit was tight and from past experience, I knew that I would not be comfortable for long wearing them.

I will return the leopards to Shoe Dazzle and wear the color-block shoes to One Big Event Saturday night. The color-blocks are roomier than the leopards and will be a more comfortable choice for the long evening of dining, dancing and schmoozing.

Buying shoes from Shoe Dazzle is a crap shoot. Eleven is the largest size they sell and that is the size I order; sometimes the fit is fine and sometimes it is not. Luckily, shipping and returns are free, so the experience cost me nothing.

* – The old philosophy of a long-time femulator, who has finally wised-up.

THE FEMULATED:

 Actor Tim Dashwood femulating on stage in
Managing Carmen, Australia 2012
(Source: Aunty Marlena)

FEMULATE HER:

Wearing Jones New York

Chasing Leopards

I am attending One Big Event Saturday evening. I plan to wear my purple ruffle dress.

Instead of my black patent open-toe platform sling-backs, I ordered new shoes from Shoe Dazzle. They arrived today and they are a perfect fit.

Patty recommended the color-block pumps with the ankle strap because the purple of the shoe matches the purple of my dress. The leopard pumps were my idea. I wanted a pair ever since I saw a similar pair in a New York Magazine's Fashion Week street style slideshow.

Nine West cloned a pair for $109, but that was too expensive. I waited for the price to drop, but when it did, my size was sold out.

I discovered Shoe Dazzle's leopard offering when I was ordering their color-block pumps, so I ordered their leopard pumps, too.

I like Patty's suggestion of wearing the color block pumps with my purple dress, but I like the idea of wearing the leopard pumps with the purple dress even more.

I went to Dress Barn in boy mode today to buy a leopard clutch to go with my leopard pumps.

The sales woman happened to be one I encountered when I went to Dress Barn on Halloween en femme.

On Halloween, she greeted me with a generic greeting and I assumed she had no clue who I was. In boy mode today, she greeted me like a regular customer (she has waited on me a few times in the past  when I shopped in boy mode).

I asked her if they had the clutch for sale.

She said it was a new item and it had not shown up in their store yet. She checked to see if any other local stores had it, but it was the same story. She suggested I phone her later in the week to see if the clutch came in, which is what I will do.

It is not a big deal. I have an oversized leopard wallet that can serve as a clutch. I also have a leopard patterned pendant to complete my leopard accessorizing.

Before I left Dress Barn, I asked if she recognized me when I was en femme on Halloween.

She said, "No. I did not recognize you."

End of story.

THE FEMULATED: 

Young Femulator

 

FEMULATE HER:

Wearing Victoria's Secret

 

School Gurls

Starla found another 180 new high school yearbook femulation images and passed them on to me. I uploaded the images to flickr and you can view them now.

Again, another big "thank you" goes out to Starla for her fine yearbook detective work.

* There are two ways to view the newest additions:

Method 1: Open one of the Yearbooks sets (A through Z) and you will find the newest uploads at the end/bottom of the set. (The oldest uploads appear at the beginning/top of the set.)

Method 2: Open my photostream and you will find the newest uploads at the top of page 1. The uploads get older as the page numbers get higher with the oldest uploads on the last page.

By the way, the contents of the Yearbook A through Z sets are organized according to school name, for example, the photos from Hard Knox High School would be in the Yearbooks H set.

THE FEMULATED:

Femulate reader Mindy as Katy Perry on Halloween, 2012

FEMULATE HER:

Wearing Macy's

The Thin Woman

I always had a soft spot in my heart for actress Myrna Loy, so when I had an opportunity to see her in the film The Thin Man on Saturday night, I grabbed it.

It has been a long time (many decades) since I saw the film, so it was as if I had never seen it before. I was not disappointed.

It is a fun film and Miss Loy was wonderful in it. And I fell in love with her wardrobe in the film especially the striped dress she is wearing in the Femulate Her image below. 

I hope you like the changes I made in Femulate over the weekend. Moving The Femulated and Femulate Her images from the left sidebar to the center column offers the following images over the previous arrangement:

1) The images are almost twice the size as they were still in the left sidebar. I think bigger is better in this case.

2) The images do not disappear when I post new The Femulated and Femulate Her images. They will exist for posterity as long as Femulate remains exists.

I just wonder why it took me so long to think up this improvement.

By the way, if you have any suggestions for improving Femulate, please pass them along.

THE FEMULATED: 

Model Andrej Pejić

 

FEMULATE HER:

 Actress Myrna Loy in the film The Thin Man, 1934

THE FEMULATED: 

A 20-Something Femulator 

FEMULATE HER:

Wearing Victoria's Secret

Fifth

My Build a Better Bunny Costume was the 5th favorite costume in the Halloween Costume Challenge at Independent Fashion Bloggers (IFB). Thirty people in all participated in the challenge; I believe that 29 were genetic women.

THE FEMULATED:

Akihiro Miwa 

FEMULATE HER:

Wearing Wyatt

Friday Femulations

from Smashing the Binary

Bopping around the Internet this afternoon, I came upon a couple of websites that femulators and gendernauts like you and me might find interesting. (I certainly did!)

* Smashing the Binary

* Van Burnham

By the way, a few of you have mentioned that McAfee SiteAdvisor considers Femulate to be risky. (I would have preferred "frisky," but what can you do.)

So after snooping around trying to figure out what was wrong, I determined that McAfee considers that some of the links listed on the right side of the blog are "risky" because McAfee has not tested them. It assumes the worst, i.e., there is the possibility of a risk even though there may not be any risk at all!

McAfee stands alone on this. I used a variety of other tools to test the website and Femulate received a clean bill of health from every one.

So go figure,

Another Halloween Femulator

Halloween was a week ago. You already read about my Halloween day at work en femme here. Now you can read about Patio Plasma's Halloween en femme.

I planned to go into work on Halloween day 2012 not just femulating, but femulating a woman dressing up for Halloween, I wore a work appropriate costume. Last year I had come as a blonde, high school, assistant principal in a tan skirt suit, very scary. This year I was coming as a goth/scientist inspired by Abby from the TV program NCIS. 

The weekend before Halloween, I gathered all my clothes and wore them making sure that all the accessories fit together, I made some adjustments and after a few hours of experimentation was happy with my look. I shaved my body as I do at least weekly. I then had my nails done in a local salon where my usual nail ladies loved my choice of a dark red (OPI Lincoln Park After Dark) topped by an even darker layer with tiny red sparkles( China Glaze Lubu Heels). They took their time and did a great job.

On Halloween day I got up early, layered on my black foundation garments, breast forms, black Flexees firm control full slip #2364), Wet Seal black lace long sleeve T, black shiny tights, black Calvin Klein dress, black boots with 3” heels, silvery metal belt, dangly earrings, (its distracting to see long dangly earrings swing into view every time you move your head) a black velvet choker and dragon pendant, bracelets, and  rings. Then went to work appplying my makeup.

The darker goth makeup took me longer than usual to put on since I wanted it to look just right. I started with complete MAC fluid foundation. I made dark smoky eyes with dark liner under and over, added dark eye shadow, and false eyelashes. I always shape my brows into a unisex style but with brow powder I can accentuate their female shape. On my lips I used MAC viva glam 1 red under MAC Dark Side. The combined lipsticks gave me true dark goth lips with a hint of red. I put on a black wig, which was shocking for me to see, since I almost always choose to be blonde. 

I’ve been femulating and making myself up every Sunday for a few years going to dinner with friends so my makeup skills are OK but the whole transformation took just under 1.5 hours. I grabbed my black purse, and a larger bag with a pair of flats , just-in-case, plus my work briefcase and drove off to work.

As I walked into the office my co-director, who knows that I femulate on occasion, was obviously pleased to see me. She said that I had chosen a great look. She noted that we wore the same size 14 dress, but that she was size 14 from top to bottom whereas I only needed size 14 for my shoulders and guessed I could get away with a size 8 waist, I corrected her that my waist needed size 10, and we laughed together. She also wanted to duplicate my nails herself. So I gave her my nail polishes so she could do that. What a great start to the day. 

During the day I had great conversations at work.  I was quickly asked did you do your nails? I confessed that in dark colors I go to a professional. Then I was asked if I did my makeup, and I confessed that I did.

During the day I visited the director of HR and she loved my look, we had a great chat. During the day three women mentioned they had dresses just like mine, one said I should wear black more often, one said I looked better as a woman Men and women commented on my 3-inch heels which I wore all day, one guy commented that I looked skilled in the heels. I said “thanks”.

At one point I visited two women who are always stylishly dressed. They loved my dress and encouraged me to wear black more often and to be more stylish all the time (even when not femulating) They then hustled me out for a photo as a threesome of “Women in Black”. 

In the photo I noted that the 3-inch heels plus my 6-foot height make me a tall woman. They also complimented my jewelry and told me the history of each piece. At one point the Executive director saw me, gave me a big smile and a thumbs-up. I received no negative comments all day long.

After work I went to a Halloween party presented by my publisher. The receptionist was awestruck and took my photo. There was another femulator there who was dressed in white as a June Cleaver housewife, looking great. The crew had us stand side by side, black and white for a photo. After the photo we had a good chat. I received an extremely positive reaction from everyone at the party.

It was a fine day for femulation.

Voted

Two words: Barack Obama!!!

Passing vs. Presentable

Blogger’s Note: I am so busy with the election today that I do not have time to post anything new, so I am rerunning the following post from November 2008. Since it is four years old, you may have missed it the first time and despite that I think that the words are still applicable today.

---

“Passing, in regard to gender identity, refers to a person's ability to be accepted or regarded as a member of the sex or gender with which they identify, or with which they physically present.” (from Wikipedia)

I like to think that I pass. Just today, I received an e-mail from a dear friend who wrote, "You pass so well."

But who am I kidding?

I am six feet, two inches tall (or a more dainty five feet, 14 inches tall) and I always wear heels of some height when I am out en femme (OEF). There are not too many women out there who are six-feet-two. (I list the famous ones here.) So, when I am OEF, my height is my biggest giveaway.

I can hear some of you saying to yourself, "Well, Girl, don't wear heels, then you will be shorter."

My response to that is even without heels, my height is still my biggest giveaway and adding three or four inches will not make much difference.

Last Friday at the mall, I passed some of the time.

While I was walking through the mall, I passed a few women walking in the opposite direction, who looked me in the eye and smiled. Of course, I returned the smile. When a woman smiles at another woman, it is a sign of camaraderie, so when a woman smiles at you when you are OEF, it is a good sign that they have accepted you into the club.

On the other hand, I have also passed women in the mall, whose smiles indicate that they have read me as a male. Their smiles (or smirks) indicate that they are mildly amused by my attempt to pass. Go OEF for awhile and you will begin to recognize the difference between smirks and genuine smiles.

At the mall last Friday, there were times when I did not pass.

For example, the saleswoman at Sephora referred to me as "he," then quickly corrected herself and referred to me as "she." I was not offended. When you are up close in another person's face, as when you are dealing with a salesperson, it is more difficult to pass because they are concentrating on you and therefore, are more likely to pick up telltale signs that you are male.

I have gone OEF enough to resign myself to the fact that sometimes I pass and sometimes I do not pass. There is not much I can do about my ability to pass because I believe I have pushed the envelope about as far as I can to emulate a woman without undergoing surgery.

Admittedly, my ultimate goal is to be passable, but since that is not always possible, I always try to make myself look presentable. If I present as the best woman I can be, then I will be less likely to attract attention and will blend in with the real women out there.

On the other hand, if I go to the mall wearing my highest heels, shortest skirt, largest breasts, biggest hair, and thickest makeup, I am going to attract a lot of attention. Dressed so, more people will check me out and thus increase the chances that people will recognize my birth gender.

So, I try to present myself as a real woman would present herself in a similar situation. Last Friday, I even wore dress slacks instead of a skirt in order to be more presentable and I believe that helped.

While I was at Sephora perched on the makeover seat at the front of the store, I did attract the attention of a lot of passerbys, but none of them gave any indication that they recognized me as a male. All they saw was a woman getting a makeover, so they gave me an interested passing glance and went on their way.

It probably helped that I was seated, so that my height was hidden, but I think more important was the fact that I looked presentable in that situation. I really looked like a woman who had been shopping in the mall and stopped at Sephora for a makeover.

One more thing: if you are presentable, other people are more likely to respect you and treat you like a lady even if they know you are not really a lady. If I dress like a teen queen, I am not going to get much respect, but if I dress like a middle-aged woman (with impeccable taste, by the way), I have found that I get respect because I am trying to be a female clone, not a clown.

So, the bottom line is that, of course, you want to be passable, but before you can be passable, you must be presentable. And once you hone your presentation, you may or may not pass, but at least you know you did your best come what may.

Vote

Two words: Vote Today!

Going Forward

Going forward, I have two outings en femme wrapped around Thanksgiving.

On Saturday, November 17, I will attend One Big Event, a benefit for the Hartford Gay & Lesbian Health Collective. I have attended One Big Event twice in the past and since it is a formal affair, it gives me an opportunity to dress to the nines again.

On Tuesday, November 27, I will do outreach at two Human Sexuality classes at Southern Connecticut State University. I have lost count how many times I have done outreach at this venue, but it is always a good day and I look forward to it.

Wednesday On My Mind

I am still thinking about my wonderful day at work en femme on Wednesday. Some of my co-workers were still talking about it on Friday and I had some requests to share my photos. I gladly shared my photos with my co-workers and I am also sharing another photo with you here today.

One thing I did not mention is that early on Wednesday, I ran one of my thigh highs. I noticed the run when I sat down in my cublicle that morning. It started at the elastic and ran down half way down my calf. I probably started the run when I was getting dressed hurriedly in my closet at home.

I did not have any nail polish with me to stop the run from running, but it seemed to stabilize and did not get any worse as the day progressed.

 I only mention it because the first time I dressed at work en femme, I also ran my hose and was so concerned that I went out during my lunch hour to buy a new pair of pantyhose.

This time, it did not concern me and I did not let it ruin my day. But next time, I will carry extra hosiery in my bag.

Friday Femulations

Yesterday, my co-workers were still abuzz about my appearance en femme on Halloween Wednesday.

I received a few more compliments including one from the fellow who on Wednesday said I missed my calling and should have been a female impersonator. On Thursday, he said, "I prefer how you looked on Wednesday!"

I said, "I do, too."

***

One of the many comments I received on yesterday's post came as a complete surprise. It was from Peter Lappin, who writes Male Pattern Boldness blog.

I have been reading Peter's blog for years and even wrote about it here, but I had no idea he read Femulate!

If you have not read Peter's blog, I highly recommend doing so because I think you will enjoy it.

***

Speaking of Femulate readers, actor and femulator par excellence Christopher Morley had some kind words to say about Femulate here on Facebook.

If you have not visited Christopher's Facebook page, please do; it is full of photos and video clips from his acting career.

***

The World Health Organization still lists transsexualism as a mental disorder. Former Miss Universe contestant Jenna Talackova is fighting back.

Please read all about here and sign her petition.

***

A few days ago, I added a gadget to the blog which lists the most popular posts for the past month. The gadget is located at the very bottom center of Femulate.  hope you find it useful.

And if you have any other suggestions for this blog, please send them to me (stana-stana at sbcglobal.net).