Selfies

Last week, I mentioned that I take a lot of selfies.

I started taking selfies about the same time I started dressing en femme from head to toe. I wanted to see how others would see the female me rather than how I saw myself in that full-length mirror mounted on my mother's closet door.

Self-photography provided the means to do that, but it was expensive because you had to use real film. You had to buy film to take your selfies and then pay to have your selfies processed. You also had to buy flash bulbs to take good selfies indoors.

And then there was the potential for being embarrassed and outed if the person processing the film realized that the girl posing in your selfies was actually you! I wonder how many femulators built darkrooms in their basements to avoid being outed?

I avoided the problem by using a Polaroid SX-70 camera. Polaroid film was more expensive, but I did not have to take the photos of my "girlfriend" anywhere to be processed.

However, the expense did prevent me from taking mass quantities of selfies. Then the Apple QuickTake digital camera entered my life and changed everything.

Quality-wise, the QuickTake was a step backward from the Polaroid, but the film was now "free" and I could take as many selfies as I wanted, at least until the camera's battery ran down.

And I did take a LOT of selfies! Thousands to be inexact.

As digital cameras improved, I graduated from the QuickTake to the Canon PowerShot. And as the Canons improved, I upgraded my PowerShots and currently own my third, a Canon PowerShot SD940 IS. It is full-featured, takes excellent photos, and I thought it was the cat's meow until I started taking photos with my iPhone 5.

Comparing photos taken during the same photoshoot with the Canon and the iPhone, the iPhone does a better job (IMHO). Or should I say, I do a better job taking photos with the iPhone than I do with the Canon. Perhaps if I was a better or more knowledgable photographer, I could do a better job with the Canon, but for now, the iPhone is my go-to camera.

The iPhone does have a couple of drawbacks as a camera.

Whereas the Canon allows me to take timed selfies, iPhone's Camera app does not have that feature. I corrected that problem quickly by obtaining camera apps (Top Camera and Camera+) that do include the self-timer function. Now I can take self-timed selfies.

The other drawback is the inability to use a tripod with the iPhone. Sure, you can take self-timed selfies without a tripod --- I've done it and it is a pain in the dupa. So I fixed that problem too by purchasing a tripod designed for cell phone camera applications: the Case Star Octopus Style Portable and Adjustable Tripod.

So you can count on seeing more and better quality selfies here in the future.

 

European vacation femulating.

 

Wearing DressBarn.

Juxtapose

Juxtapose – isn’t that a great word?

The juxtaposition of today’s Femulator and Femulate Her images below reminds me of a scene in the film Trainspotting.

Sitting in a nightclub checking out the clientele, which seems to include straight, gay, trans, and androgynous folk, the character played by Ewan McGregor muses, “The world is changing. Music is changing. Drugs are changing. Even men and women are changing. One thousand years from now, there won't be any guys and there won't be any girls...”

Although the boy in the Femulator image is wearing items from milady’s closet as well as makeup and a feminine hairdo, he is not really femulating (“Look Ma, no boobs!”). Rather, he is presenting as androgynous.

Similarly, the Femulate Her model is wearing an androgynous outfit that is influenced by menswear. But that is nothing new; girls have been borrowing from the boy’s closet like forever. Well, it seem like forever because girls have been wearing boy’s clothing throughout my lifetime. But boys borrowing girl’s stuff is a relatively recent fashion/social phenomena. And it is a growing trend.

Visit websites like Juan’s The New Male Fashions for the Alternative Man to see what’s going on. Juan not only shows what the fashion designers are hoping boys will wear, but he also shows photos of real life boys actually wearing the new fashions.

And then there is my little corner of the world.

In the recent past, I would see males carrying handbags that could be mistaken for computer bags; you know the kind – big, black, utilitarian and ugly.

Lately, boys’ handbags have gotten more – do I dare say “dainty.” They come a variety of shapes and colors, have thinner straps and handles and are smaller in size. Boys handbags will never be mistaken for computer bags again.

Whereas boys of the recent past quietly wore cosmetics, recently I overheard boys conversing about makeup and moisturizers rather than quarterbacks and grand slams.

At the rate things are going, it will not take one thousand years for there to be no guys nor girls. It’s happening right before our eyes!  

 

Modern male.

 

Wearing Alice + Olivia.

Devil is in the Details

I did not go into details  yesterday in my post about going to Mass en femme. So, here they are.

Actually, it was the second time I went to Mass en femme. The first time was at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, but I was very anonymous there. At my parish church on Sunday, I was much less anonymous. Although I have not been involved in my parish for many years, it was likely that there were parishioners in attendance who knew me from way back when. There was also a chance that neighbors might be in attendance. And then there was the Pastor of the church who I have known most of my life.

I saw no neighbors and no parishioners I knew personally, although I did recognize some faces. And I did have a face-to-face encounter with the Pastor. I don't think he recognized me, but perhaps he did and did not want to embarrass me.

When I entered the church before Mass, the congregation was facing the front of the church, so I could not see any reactions as I walked down the aisle.

During the "sign of peace" portion of the Mass, everyone around me, both male and female of various ages, offered to shake my hand and say, "Peace be with you" without batting an eye.

As the congregation filed out at the end of the Mass, I noticed a few people looking at me and three different women, a 20-something, a 40-something, and a senior woman my own age smiled at me and said, "Hello." The male companion (I assume husband) of the senior woman also smiled and said, "Hello."

No one I noticed reacted negatively and so it goes.

 

Actors femulating in the 1970 film The Phynx. Warner Brothers Studios thought
the film was so bad that they decided at the last minute not to release it!

 

 

 

Wearing Dolores Promesas.

Mass

I went to Mass en femme yesterday. I have not gone to Mass in years, but I had an overwhelming urge to go on Sunday.

In my youth, people dressed up to go to church. Men wore ties with suits or sports jackets; women wore dresses, heels and hats.

Today, anything goes.

Being a senior citizen, I dressed somewhere in between anything goes mode and the dress, heels and hat mode. I wore black slacks, pink jacket, white camisole, and black booties.

I was in a rush and the photos I took look it. So instead of burdening you with a blurry photo from yesterday, I offer an old photo of me basically wearing the same outfit. The only difference was I wore my pageboy hairdo, a different cami and bag.

I went solo because the other agnostics in the house had no interest in going or they did not want to be seen in public with a tranny (take your pick).

I went to the church I usually attended when I was more religious about attending. I have known the Pastor since high school and over the years, became acquainted with some of the parishioners to one degree or another.

The 10:30 AM Mass is usually packed and yesterday was no exception; the parking lot was full and when I entered the church I had to search for a seat. I found a seat in an empty row about two-thirds down the aisle and laid claim to it.

I recognized a few Parishioners, but no one I knew by name. The Mass was uneventful and over an hour later, we filed out of the church.

The Pastor always stands at the exit to say goodbye to his flock and as I filed by, he said, “Welcome to our church.”

“Thank you, Father,” I replied.

“I hope we will see you again,” he added.

I smiled and said, “Maybe.”

 

Akihiro Miwa, Japanese singer, actor, director, composer and author
being chauffeured on a Tokyo nightclub tour.

 

Wearing Alice + Olivia.

Early September in Connecticut

Weather-wise, early September is my favorite time of year.

The sky is a perfect shade of blue and the angle of the sun makes the clouds look perfect, too. The days are warm, but the humidity of summer is gone. And the nights are cool --- perfect for sleeping soundly the whole night through.

My sister and I were discussing this perfect weather the other day and I remarked that it was a “9/11 kind of day.”

Although the weather is perfect (in my humble opinion), it always brings to my mind September 11, 2001 because this is the way the weather was on that terrible day.

And things will never be the same again.

 

Rena is a Femulate reader who lives fulltime as a woman in Florida.

 

Wearing a jacket from Newport News.

Say Cheese

My spouse was perusing the Avon outlet catalog and when she spotted a necklace that I bought earlier in the year, she remarked, “Didn’t I see you wearing this necklace?” I did not recall the occasion, but knowing I owned the necklace in question, I assumed she saw me wearing it. “I guess so,” was my reply. But I wasn’t so sure. For the past few years, I have gotten into the habit of photographing every outfit I wear or plan to wear. I do this for a couple of reasons: - To see if the outfit makes me look fat. - To post the photo on Femulate (so you can see if the outfit makes me look fat). What I see in the mirror often looks different in a photograph. Photographing my fashion faux pas allows me to make adjustments (e.g., tighten my corset) so I don’t look fat. Anyways, I have hundreds of selfies. (I just checked and I am embarrassed to tell you how many I actually have. Let’s just say that the number is four-digits long). I checked all my photos for the past year and there was nary a one in which I am wearing the necklace. Go figure!

Two female femulators enjoying the last days of summer.

Wearing Alice + Olivia.

Girls Will be Boys and Boys Will be Girls

By Michelle

When my son was 9-years-old, we borrowed a children’s book from the local library. It was one of a series of books written by an internationally known author of best selling children’s stories.

When I was a similar age, I remember avidly reading all the books in this series that I could. I was particularly interested in one of the main characters; here is what Wikipedia says about that character.

“George is an effeminate boy and insists that people call him Georgina. With his long hair and girl's clothes he is often mistaken for a girl, which pleases him enormously. Like his mother, Georgina has a mild temperament. He is gentle and obedient, but very loyal to those he loves. He is compliant to the needs of others and causes no trouble for his mother, nor for his cousins.”

This author has been criticized for being sexist and even using racist language (both of which I think are unfair as she was writing in a different age and therefore, for a different audience). However, as far as I am aware, the character of George was never the cause of similar controversy.

The author in question is Enid Blyton, who wrote many children’s book series after World War 2 and this character was a major one in The Famous Five series based on an idyllic lifestyle of four children (and their dog) in Southern England in the 1940s.

If you know these stories and I don’t know how popular they were in the USA, you will realize that I have not been entirely honest with you. In the above Wikipedia entry, I changed George/Georgina’s gender 180 degrees and rather than being an “effeminate boy,” she was a “tomboy.” The entry from Wikipedia as it originally appeared is below with the words I changed underlined.

“Georgina is a tomboy and insists that people call her George. With her short hair and boy's clothes she is often mistaken for a boy, which pleases her enormously. Like her father, George has a fiery temper. She is fierce and headstrong, but very loyal to those she loves. She is sometimes extremely stubborn and causes trouble for her mother as well as her cousins.”

Incidentally, I looked up the antonym of tomboy and suggestions included “girly boy” on one website site where “girly girl” was suggested as an alternative. This is not a phrase I have ever heard relating to boys, although I have for young girls.

“Nancy boy” was also a suggested opposite, which I’ve only heard used as a form of insult - much different than tomboy, which is more often than not used as a compliment, implying independence and strong mindedness.

Had George been the character as described in the second paragraph of this article, I am convinced The Famous Five books would not have been the top sellers that they became. Indeed, I would guess that it would have been the subject of attempts to withdraw it from children’s literature circles.

The desire to become more feminine is always embarrassing (is emasculating an appropriate word here?), whilst wanting to indulge in more traditionally boys’ things (play sport, climb trees) is seen as a positive thing.

To include this character may be seen as a courageous move by Blyton, at a time when few women wore trousers and any man seen pushing a pram may well have been ridiculed. Despite these facts, and I know there have been books written for children on similar themes (e.g., UK author/comedian David Walliams’ The Boy in the Dress), I’m not sure in some areas we’ve come much further over 70 years since The Famous Five books were first published.

 

Actor Clay Wilcox femulating in the 1984 film The Philadelphia Experiment.

 

 

 

Wearing Premium Outlets.

A Quick and Painless Out

I was a little surprised by my boss's reaction when I came out to her on Thursday.

She is actually my boss's boss. My actual boss works from his home in Pennsylvamia, whereas my boss's boss works in the same building as I do. As a result, I have more contact with my boss's boss than my boss.

That being said, we got to know each other a little better during our 7 hours on the road to and from Pennsylvania. We talked a lot about business, but we also talked about our home lives and families, so I felt very comfortable coming out to her.

As I wrote here on Saturday, she said she was perfectly fine with my being trans and that I could dress any way I wanted to at work.

I expected her to ask me questions about being trans and I was ready to do a little Trans 101 in response, but she did not ask me anything and that was the end of it.

It does not get much better than that.

Actors Aron Kinkaid, Martin West and Steve Rogers femulating
in the 1965 film The Girls On The Beach.

Wearing Boston Proper.

Back to School

The kids are all back to school and all the femulating students will be looking forward to any opportunity to don their lady apparel and sashay down the hallways for their school’s upcoming gender swaps, womanless beauty pageants, Halloween festivities, womanless fashion shows… any opportunity for a boy to become the girl of his dreams!

Just in time for the first session, Starla has unearthed 139 new images of femulating scholars from various online school yearbooks. A sample of her finds appears above; the remainder are in the Yearbooks collection on flickr and you may view them in two ways:

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 this 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 Sacred Heart High School would be in the Yearbooks S set.

   

Actor Alain Chabat femulating in the 2003 French film Chou-Chou.

Wearing Chanel.

Please Call Me “Big Sister”

Her Girl Friday

Commenting on yesterday's post, Joan Elizabeth wrote, "I'm wondering though, doesn't your boss have an inkling as to your gender variation life style, she must by now with all the stories you've mentioned. I'm surprise the conversation with her hasn't come up. Are you on a close personal level with her? or just a boss worker relationship."

Funny that Joan Elizabeth should ask.

During a break in a meeting at our Pennsylvania office this week, my boss brought up my 2012 appearance at work en femme on Halloween in a joking manner. There was a lot of joking and kidding going on throughout that day-long meeting and my Halloween costume was mentioned in a light manner with no ill will intended. (Knowing my boss, I am 99% sure that that was the case.)

I was surprised by her mentioning it and I cannot even recall the context of the mention. I had no comeback, but wish I had said something like, "Wait 'til you see what I wear next Halloween."

On the way back to Connecticut yesterday, I told my boss about some office gossip that I had heard while in Pennsylvania and that precipitated a long conversation about some recent false gossip that my boss had to squelch.

I asked if she had heard any gossip about me being trans and that if she had, it was true.

She said that she had not heard any gossip about me, that she was perfectly fine with it and that I could dress any way I wanted to at work.

And so it goes.

 

 Brolita (a male femulating as a Lolita).

 

Wearing Boston Proper.