Morning at the Mall

Thank you for all the birthday greetings. You helped ease the transition from 62 to 63!

My birthday was Saturday and I spent it with my family, but Friday was a birthday gift to myself: a day out en femme: a morning shopping and an afternoon tea.

Originally, I planned to dress to blend in at the mall wearing leggings and a tunic top, but I reconsidered and dressed up for the tea. I wore my new polka dot dress from Avon, black tights, black bag, and pearl jewelry. I also wore two pairs of shoes: black flats at the mall and black heels at the tea.

The temperature was supposed to be near 40°F, so I wore my black sweater coat, which would be adequate outdoors, but too warm in the mall. My goal at the mall was to shop for a lightweight coat.

I saw a houndstooth coat on the Torrid website that I wanted to check out, so when I arrived at the Meriden Westfield Mall at 10 AM, Torrid was the first store I visited.

At 10 AM, the mall is not busy. Workers are scurrying to their stores to begin the day and senior citizens are shopping or walking for exercise. As I was making my way through the mall to Torrid, a young woman walking faster than I, caught up with me and passed me by. As she passed, she turned back and said, “I love your jacket!”

“Thank-you,” I replied. “Good way to start the day,” I thought.

Entering Torrid, a saleswoman welcomed me and asked if I needed any assistance. When I told her about the houndstooth coat, she gave me a blank look and said that they did not have any houndstooth coats. She showed me a handful of jackets they had for sale, but they did not interest me, so I thanked her and departed.

There was a new store next door called Fashion to Figure that I noticed before I entered Torrid. The clothes on display in their storefront looked attractive and plus-sized, so after leaving Torrid, I entered Fashion to Figure. Turns out Fashion to Figure is in direct competition with Torrid focusing exclusively on clothing and related accessories for women and teenagers sized 12 to 26.

Two saleswomen greeted me as I entered the store and asked if I needed any help. I told them I was looking for a coat and one saleswoman showed me a rack of blue trench coats. I liked the color and style, tried on two sizes, found one that fit and loved how the coat looked on me.

The houndstooth coat on the Torrid website was on sale for $108, so I held my breath when I looked for the price tag of the Fashion to Figure trench coat. I was astonished when I saw that the coat only cost $32.50! Wow! I told the saleswoman that I would take it and would like to wear it out of the store.

Before she would let me go, she insisted that I try on a body shaper that they sold: a Squeem Miracle Vest. I had never heard of that brand before. It turned out to be unlike any body shaper I had ever worn. Read the description for the low-down about the shaper.

It was amazing!It gave me a new figure that was curvier than ever before and I was sold. I don't know why I didn't wear it out of the store like the trench coat, but for some reason, it did not occur to me to do so.

As I was getting ready to pay, I mentioned that it was my birthday and the saleswoman said I qualified for 25% discount during the month of my birthday if I joined their e-mail list. So I joined their list and as I opened my bag to fetch my wallet to pay for the coat and shaper, I noticed a beautiful black and coral peplum mesh dress on display that I had to try on.

I took two sizes to the dressing room and the first one I tried on fit like a glove and looked great. So I added another item to my shopping bag, paid for my purchases, and moved on. By the way, I loved the selection and prices at Fashion to Figure and plan to shop there often.

I had a 25% birthday discount coupon for Payless shoes and there was a store right across the way from Fashion to Figure, so that was my next stop.

I was so happy with the wedges that I bought last spring at Payless that I was looking for another pair. I perused the women's size 11-12-13 racks and found a half-dozen wedges to try on.

Only one pair fit: a mid-heel black pair, which was perfect because I was looking for something dressier than the casual wedges I already own. I paid for my purchase and wore them out of the store.

I walked around the mall, looking here and there, but I did not find anything else to buy. No one paid me much mind except for saleswomen who smiled and greeted me in various stores and a pair of 30- or 40-something guys, who were walking the mall for exercise. The two guys made no attempt to hide the fact that they were checking me out. I appreciated what they were doing, but feigned ignorance about what they were doing.

Next stop, the tea room.

 

 

 

Femulator.

 

 

 

Wearing Madeliene.

Yesterday

Photo from yesterday. Words about yesterday coming tomorrow (or the day after tomorrow).

Is she or isn’t she?

My trans radar has been on the fritz lately. Every woman I see looks like a femulator!

For example, referring to the Femulator image that appeared here on Monday, Shukun commented that "After some extensive searching I came across a cast listing from that femulator's play. She's actually a genetic girl."

Who knew! The image came from a stage play at an all-male school. Other images from that school showed males en femme who were obviously males en femme. So I thought that Monday's Femulator was also a male en femme who had cranked it up a notch or two. 

There are so many images on the Internet of purported femulators who turn out not to be femulators that I am always hesitant to proclaim someone a "femulator" when the proof is sketchy.

For example, the image above came from the DragFEST website of North Carolina State University. The person in the photo is named "Claire McKnight" and when I first saw her photo, I thought she was a cisgender female who participated in the DragFEST by emulating a drag queen (a "dragulator").

But other photos on the website that indicate that Claire is using duct tape to create her impressive bust. I have achieved similar results, so I know that it can be done, but is that evidence enough to declare that Claire is a femulator?

Hard to say.

It is a tough job, but someone has to do it. And if I am wrong on occasion, sobeit; I will just try to do better next time.

 

 

 

German femulators, before the Nazis and after the Commies.

 

 

 

Wearing BCBCMAXAZRIA.

Six Three

This weekend, my age finally exceeds my height. And to celebrate that unenviable accomplishment, I am going to a tea room with the girls on the eve of my birthday.
I am not a big tea drinker. I only resort to tea if I have a cold, but going to a tea is something so feminine that it is irresistible to this femulator.

As I wrote here two years ago after attending my first (and only) tea, "It was a very feminine adventure. All of the customers and all of the staff were female and the room was beautifully appointed in a most feminine manner."

You don't wear jeans and a T-shirt to a tea. I have plenty of tea-worthy outfits, but the weather is a big consideration. The weather girl says it will be "mostly sunny" with a "high" temperature of 38°F and that makes me shiver when I think about some of the outfits I'd consider wearing to a tea!

 

 

 

Femulators attending a pet cotillion in Atlanta in 2013.

 

 

 

Wearing Madeleine.

Oscars

I am such a girl. I watch most of the awards shows and never miss the Oscars. I don't care much about who wins what; I watch for the glam to see what the girls and boys are wearing.

This year, I really liked the blue tuxedos that a couple of the guys were wearing (Jason Sudeikis, for example). If I were a guy going to the Oscars, that's what I would wear. As for the girls, I'd wear what Kate Hudson and Charlize Theron wore.

And when are we going to see femulators on the red carpet? You got to believe that some of the guys on the red carpet would prefer to wear evening gowns. I assure you, next time I go to the Oscars, I will attend fully femulated.

Jared Leto won an Oscar for portraying a transwoman in Dallas Buyers Club and some people are up in arms about it because they feel that a transwoman should have played the role.

So when Hollywood gets around to making Femulate: The Movie, I want them to hire me to play myself. Not really; I’m a lousy actress. Actually, I’d prefer they hire Kate Beckinsale to portray me!

 

 

 

The beautiful Miss Britney Smith.

 

 

 

Bedeviled by a Blue Dress

Modern Family is one television show I never miss. It is smart comedy and I much prefer smart comedy to dumb comedy that depends on a laugh-track for laughs.

Anyway, the accompanying image shows beautiful actress Sofia Vergara appearing in the latest episode of the program. I could not take my eyes off the television screen during her brief appearance. I fell in love with the outfit she was wearing. The wrap dress was gorgeous and looked great with her black tights and heels.

Wrap dresses are very flattering on me and I wanted Sofia's wrap dress for myself. But what were the chances of finding it and even if I succeeded, it would probably be a designer dress with a three or four figure price tag.

"Dream on, girl," I though to myself.

I prowled the Internet for awhile trying to find the dress without any success until I image-Googled "sofia vergara blue print wrap dress flutter."

The second image that Google displayed was Sofia modeling that very dress! Turns out that the dress is from the Sofia by Sofia Vergara line of women's clothing and it was for sale in my size. I was so happy with my find that I even sprang for the four-figure price tag ($20.24) and I can expect the dress to arrive from Kmart real soon now.

By the way, after I found the dress online, I found two websites that would have simplified my search: Shop Your TV and Worn On TV. Both websites knew where to find Sofia's dress.

Have fun!

 

 

 

This image seems to depict a variation of a womanless wedding. Usually, males play all the parts including the bride, mother of the bride, bridesmaids, flower girl, and female guests. In this variation, the males only play the female parts and females play the male parts. So this would be more appropriately called a “crossdressing wedding” rather than a womanless wedding. My guess is that it occurred in the mid-1950s, but the location is unknown. The initials “VHHC” painted high on the wall in the background offer the only clue.

 

 

 

Wearing Guess.

Like I Said

Blogger Peter Lappin of Male Pattern Boldness fame had a real life experience that affirmed some of what I wrote about in my Thursday Future Dressing post.

Here is the link to the Peter's pertinent post and I urge you to read it, but here are a couple of takeaways from the post which told about his visit to a Comme des Garcons store in the city to research his men's skirt sewing project

"Friends, I couldn't even tell which areas in the store were for men and which were for women..."

"The young male sales assistant who helped me was wearing the skirt posted up top, only with black leggings (not quite tights), colored socks and black shoes."

Admittedly, this occurred in New York City and you will not have the same experience in a clothing store in downtown Podunk (or the Podunk mall). But it's a start!

 

 

 

Student actor femulating in a 2013 stage play at Eaglebrook School in Deerfield, Mass.

 

 

 

Wearing Rag & Bone bag.

Suits Him

Pantyhose Runs in Their Family

Our Gangster in a Dress

Harry Spear and Jean Darling switch genders
in “Crazy House,” a 1928 Our Gang comedy.

When I was a kid, I was a big fan of the Our Gang/Little Rascals comedies. Would you believe that I am so old that I saw my first Our Gang comedy, "Hook and Ladder," in a movie theater as a short inserted between the newsreel, cartoons, coming attractions, second feature and main feature?

Anyway, after my first taste of Spanky and his gang on the big screen, I sought out the series on television and over the years, I probably viewed every episode including the early silent episodes.

One silent episode left a big impression on me. I only saw it two or three times, but I will never forget it. For years, I tried to track it down without much success. Even the Internet was not much help.
Now that a lot of Our Gang episodes are on YouTube, I decided to renew my search and, Eureka! --- I found what I was looking for.

The episode I sought was titled "Crazy House," a silent two-reeler from 1928. Here is the plot description from Matinee Classics:

"In this Our Gang film, Jean Darling is a rich girl who invites the gang to her elegant home for a party. The gang is allowed to go anywhere in the mansion since her parents and servants are not home. Little do they know her father has set traps throughout the mansion for an April Fool’s Day party which scares off the gang. The police end up coming to the house with a surprise at the end of the movie."

That sounds innocuous: just your typical Our Gang plot, but there was a sub-plot that made an impact on my very impressionable pre-teen mind.

The rich girl wants to be a boy. After the gang arrives, she convinces one of the male gang members (Harry Spear) to switch places with her and they crossdress in each other's clothes. After the girl and boy switch clothes, the girl became aggressive and fights with the boy in the dress and tries to start a fight with other gang members to prove her masculinity.

I will always remember seeing the boy in the little girl's short dress and thinking that he looked just like a little girl with short hair. Also, I will always remember how the girl in drag pushed around the boy in drag.

I identified with the boy in drag. As a kid, I was not aggressive and other kids (boys and girls) bullied me and pushed me around. I was a poster child for a sissy and it was inevitable that I would wear a dress.

And so it goes.

("Crazy House" is on YouTube here is in two parts on YouTube. You can view Part 1 here and Part 2 here, but note that the crossdressing scenes only occur in Part 2.)

 

Artist Steven Arnold and beat poet Ruth Weiss switch genders for Halloween in 1965.

Actress Joan Crawford in 1932.

Future Dressing

A modern male and female.*

What will life be like for us girls in 25 years? Here are my predictions for where we will be in the year 2039.

It will be completely acceptable for males to dress however they please. Just as it is acceptable for females to wear male clothing today, it will be acceptable for males to wear female clothing in 2039.

There will be different degrees of how males adopt womenswear. At one end of the spectrum are guys who may on occasion wear a macho skirt, a manly pair of heels and a little foundation, while at the other end of the spectrum will be the "femmen" (you know who you are), who will dress in womenswear all of the time. And nobody will hassle anyone for what they wear except maybe scolding those fellows wearing white frocks after Labor Day.

There will no longer be women's and men's restrooms; there will just be restrooms.

Clothing stores will no longer segregate their wares between women and men or girls and boys. Instead, the stores will have adult, young adult, and children's departments.

Sex reassignment surgery (SRS) will be very common in 20 years because folks will be able to get SRS on demand just like cosmetic surgery can be had on demand today. Folks with and without gender dysphoria will be able to change genders and the results will be more satisfactory because of advances in the surgical procedures.

All health insurance plans will cover gender-related procedures, either as basic coverage or as an option like some plans offer vision and dental coverage as an add-on expense today. For example, if you were contemplating SRS, you could opt for gender coverage and it would not be an expensive add-on because the procedure will be so common in 20 years.

By 2039, you will be able to live in whatever gender role you prefer. When someone asks a child, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" the anticipated answer will be "girl" or "boy" and not a career choice. Females can be as macho as they want to be and males can be as feminine as they want to be.

What a wonderful world it will be!

*   I replaced the original photo that appeared at the top of the post after Glori discovered and commented that the photo depicted two transwomen.

 

 

 

Brigham Morris Young femulating as “Madam Pattirini” circa 1900.

 

 

 

Wearing Madeleine.

Before and After

Before I knew what I was doing and After I learned a thing or two.

European femulators between the World Wars.

My Favorite Angel

Who was your favorite angel?

In my opinion, Farrah Fawcett had more fans than the other two angels combined. She had the hair, she had the poster and she had the most publicity.

Despite Farrah’s popularity, my favorite angel was Jaclyn Smith. In my opinion, Jaclyn was more beautiful and sexier than the other angels. And she was the angel I wanted to be!

Fast-forward about ten years... I was attending my first transgender convention. A Hollywood makeup artist was at the convention doing makeovers for the attendees. After witnessing his demo, in which he transformed an average-looking transgirl into a glamorous queen, I signed up for a makeover (it would be my first makeover ever).

During my makeover, I asked him which Hollywood actresses he had worked with and he rattled off a few names. Then I mentioned that I thought Jaclyn Smith was one of the most beautiful women among the current crop of stars (circa 1985) and he responded that he had done Jaclyn's makeup a few times and that she had lousy skin that required a lot of work!

After bursting my balloon, he patched it up by adding that I had better skin than Jaclyn Smith!

 

 

 

Actor Jeremy Stockwell femulating in the 1970 film Dinah East, which is very interesting from a femulating perspective. According to IMDB, the plot of the film is as follows: A glamorous movie queen of the 1950s is revealed to be a man whose secret led to complicated relationships. As a result, Stockwell is en femme throughout the film and he does an excellent job portraying a female. His good looks, narrow waist and petite frame sells the femulation despite some inexpensive wiggery. The film has been difficult to find, but is now available from Netflix. 

 

 

 

Wearing Madeleine.