The Low-Down on Outreach

Next Thursday, I make my semiannual trip to Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven to do outreach at two Human Sexuality classes. The classes have about 30 students each and typically female students outnumber males about 5 to 1.

What is outreach?

It may mean different things to different people, but in my case, the outreach scenario is as follows:

There is a panel that may include male-to-female, female-to-male, post-op, pre-op, and no-op transgenders. I have been in panels where there were as few as two transgenders and as many as eight transgenders.

We each speak for about five minutes and tell our life stories in a nutshell. Then the students ask us questions.

The goal is educate the Human Sexuality class  about transgenders. My personal goal is to demonstrate to the students that transgenders are people just like them. Hopefully, our mini-biographies and our responses to the questions will help achieve those goals. The reactions of the students indicates that in much of the time, we are successful.

 

A femulator, circa 1970.

 

 

Wearing Andrew Marc.

Inspiration

The 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination is coming up and the media is commemorating the event in many various ways. I was just 12-years-old at the time, but I was very political even then and JFK was my hero. I campaigned for him as best as a kid could and I was thrilled to see him in person both times he visited my hometown of Waterbury. JFK was my hero, but Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy was my idol. During that time, girls and boys with girlish inclinations were fascinated by the Jackie's beauty, style and grace. We all wanted to be just like her. I never wanted to grow up to be President, I wanted to grow up to be First Lady and I femulated her for Halloween one year. Jackie was not only a fashion plate, she was also a style-setter. I recall in 1967 that people were scandalized by a news photo of Jackie wearing a skirt that revealed about six inches of leg above the knee. How could a woman of her stature and a certain age (she was 38) dress like that? What a floozy! But next thing you know, everywhere you looked, fashionable women of a certain age were wearing skirts with hems hovering well above the knees. She was classy and elegant until the very end. What an inspiration!

 

Professional femulator Steven Brinberg as Barbra Streisand.

 

Wearing Yoanna Baraschi.

Nine Out of Ten Men Wear the Wrong Size Bra

BAND MEASUREMENT (the number)

Most men measure their ribcage under their breasts to get their band measurement. Double check this measurement by wrapping a tape measure snugly around your back, under your arms and across the top of your chest above your breasts. Because your ribcage expands and contracts as you breathe, taking both measurements will help you find your most comfortable fit.

CUP MEASUREMENT (the letter)

With your bra on, wrap a measuring tape around your back and across the fullest part of your breast. Don't pull too tight! To find your cup size, subtract your band measurement from this measurement.

If the difference is...

1 inch, you're an A cup
2 inches, a B cup
3 inches, a C cup
4 inches, a D cup
5 inches, a DD cup
6 inches, a DDD cup

So if your cup measurement is 39 inches and your band size is 36 inches, the 3 inch difference makes you a 36C.

If you are not sure about measuring yourself, you can have a professional fitting at an intimate apparel shop or in the lingerie department of a department store.

Your mileage may vary, but I have been fitted for bras in both girl mode and boy mode in both venues and have never been turned away. In fact, the women performing the fittings were very helpful and seemed pleased to have a male join their bra-wearing sorority.

If you are unsure about which bra-selling venue to seek out for a fitting, you can always call ahead and ask. Also, during the holiday season, guys shopping for intimate apparel gifts is common, so walking into a lingerie shop in boy mode is not that unusual this time of year.

May you have a good fitting and buy a bra to die for!

(Sources: thebracoach.wordpress.com, thatslifeladies.wordpress.com, www.maidenform.com)

 

 

 

Actor Gene/Jean Malin femulating in the 1933 film Arizona to Broadway.

 

 

 

Wearing Giorgio Armani.

Halloween Redux

Now that I had some time to think about my Halloween workday en femme, I want to share some thoughts.

I think one of my co-workers may be trans or a tranny chaser. Each time I have shown up at work en femme for Halloween, he has visited me for an inordinate amount of time to take in my costume. Other days, he never visits me except for work-related matters.

Another co-worker who I have known forever always keeps to himself and seldom speaks to me except to say "Hello" and even then, I always have to initiate the greeting and it seems that he has to think about it before he responds. This year, I was very surprised when he came to my cubicle and spoke to me profusely about my costume. Go figure.

Compared to last year, my workday en femme this year was anti-climatic. Some folks who took note of my "costume" last year, took my appearance in stride when they saw me this year. My take is:

• They are no longer surprised by my costume choice or

• They are getting used to seeing me en femme or

• They suspect I am trans, accept that I am trans and don't want to react as if anything was unusual.

Whatever the case, I think if I dropped the other high heel shoe and start working en femme on a regular basis, it would not be an issue at work.

 

 

 

A half dozen femulators dressing in period costumes.

 

 

 

Wearing Wow Couture.

It goes so well with my corset

 

Actor Jorge Enrique Abello femulating in Colombia television’s En los tacones de Eva, 2006.

 

Wearing Nightway.

Legging it out

Wife with husband femulating in the Beaufort Beauties Pageant.

Wearing Daily Look.

Male Beauty Queens

Tokyo’s Komaba High School is an all-boy’s prep school. That little detail did not prevent the school from holding a traditional beauty competition, the Miss Komaba High School Beauty Pageant, in which male students donned female finery to vie for the honor of being recognized as the most beautiful girl on campus.

Read all about it at Rocket News 24 and thank Aunty Marlena for passing the story along to the Femulate news desk.

Also, visit Facebook for more photos of this year’s pageant and last year’s pageant.

 

For Halloween 2013, fashion blogger Bryan Boy femulated as Vogue editor Anna Wintour.

 

Wearing Tahari Arthur S. Levine.

Just Like Me

I am feminine. This is not something I developed over the years --- I have been feminine all my life.

Being feminine came naturally to me. I did not intentionally choose to be feminine; I just acted naturally, but society categorized my natural act as feminine.

I did not have an inkling that I was feminine until an older boy told me I needed to stop acting like a girl and to man up for my own good. I rejected the boy's assessment and continued to act naturally and as a result, suffered the slings and arrows of my peers, who called me such names as sissy, twinkie, fairy, faggot, homo, etc.

And worse, I was so blind to my own femininity that when I saw it in other guys, I assumed that they were gay because that was the stereotype for gay males that I had learned.

As I grew older and wiser, I realized I was feminine and really a girl at heart. I also learned that my stereotype for gay males was wrong. Gay males can be (or appear to be) as masculine as heterosexual males. I also learned that heterosexual males can be feminine... just like me.

And I just came to the realization recently that the feminine male friends and acquaintances that over the years I branded as gay were not necessarily gay, but may have been transgender... just like me.

 

Professional femulator April Carrión.

 

 

 

Wearing Allison Parris.

Elongation

Back when I was studying to be a girl, I learned that to elongate your legs, you should wear shoes that do not break the continuous line of your leg from the hemline of your skirt to the throat of your shoe. Anything that breaks that line ruins the illusion and makes your legs look shorter. As a result, ankle straps and similar adornments should be avoided. So I am confounded by the popularity of some of the shoe styles being worn by women these days. Specifically, I am referring to the styles that cut the legs off at the ankles and have no throat at all. Each to her own, but this girl wants her legs to look long. So I will try to follow this shoe advice, although I do admit having an affection for Mary Janes and cannot resist breaking that rule occasionally.

 

Actors Dennis Marsico, Tom Vazzana, Louie Gravance, David Kelley and John Graham, some femulating, some not on stage in Murder's a Drag 2011.

 

 

 

Wearing Maggy London.

I am not a liar

“I am a woman. For this, I am called a liar.

“I know who I am, what I am. I am a woman, and that’s the truth.

“I don’t want “special treatment,” I just want to be respected as a human being, as deserving of dignity as anyone else. I want to be able to exist in the world without the core of my identity, something that I grappled with for more than a quarter century, being dismissed by someone who couldn’t possibly understand what it’s like. I want to be able to go to work without worrying about being fired for who I am. I want to be able to use the restroom without fear of being beaten or accused of having malicious intentions. Like everyone else, I want the world to see me for me.”

My friend Jan passed along this excellent piece by Parker Molloy titled  I’m A Transgender Woman, And This Is What It’s Like and I am passing it along to you.

 

Male femulating at the Colwyn Bay Astral Concert Party in the early 20th Century.

 

 

 

Wearing Evan Picone.